The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
BRANCH · UNDERGROUND RAILROAD & ANTEBELLUM YEARS · Cass County, Michigan seizure, 27 September 1849 · South Bend hearings, 28 September – 1 October 1849 · Told from court record only
Lead: The one fugitive case for this county that reaches a full court record is the South Bend Fugitive Slave Case — the seizure of Lucy Powell and her sons Lewis, George and James — and its whole course survives because the enslaver's own damages suit put the courtroom events into the printed charge of a federal judge.
The family first. John Norris, a citizen of Boone County, Kentucky, held David Powell, his wife Lucy, and their children. On the night of 9 October 1847 (the federal charge gives the Sunday night in October 1847 without the day; the county retelling gives 9 October) the family absconded. Norris pursued for more than a month, found their property near Clarksburg, Indiana, lost the trail, and gave up. David was not retaken with the others; Samuel, another son, was also away from the house on the night of the seizure. Nearly two years later Norris learned the family was living in Cass County, Michigan.
The seizure. On the night of 27 September 1849 Norris's party reached Cassopolis, entered the house where the Powells were found, posted a guard at the door, and took Lucy and the three boys — Lewis's arms tied — south in a wagon through the night, passing through South Bend early on 28 September. One to two miles south of the village they stopped for refreshment. Edwin B. Crocker, the sheriff and others rode up; within minutes the company around them had grown to, in the charge's words, one hundred and forty or upward, some armed, others with bricks, stones or clubs. Crocker told Norris the sheriff held a writ of habeas corpus and offered a fair hearing in the village. Norris consented and returned to South Bend.
The first discharge. A first writ, naming Lucy and “Richard” because the boys' names were not yet known, was abandoned; a second writ naming all four was issued that Friday forenoon. Norris returned that the four were held as his slaves under Kentucky law, had absconded in October 1847, and had been arrested by him in Michigan as fugitives from labor. Counsel for the Powells moved for discharge for insufficiency of the return; the courthouse was crowded, with armed men inside and many more outside. Fearing discharge, Norris — on his counsel's advice — obtained a state warrant to arrest the four as fugitives under an Indiana statute; Crocker, acting as counsel for the Powells, warned the issuing officer that the Indiana Supreme Court, following Prigg v. Pennsylvania, had declared that statute unconstitutional and void. The warrant issued anyway and Norris held it in reserve. The state judge, supposing the proceeding lay under the federal Act of 1793 and holding that a master could seize a fugitive only to bring him before a judicial officer — not to carry him out of the state — discharged the four from Norris's custody.
The re-arrest, the jail, and the second discharge. As the judge pronounced, Norris, warrant in hand, touched each of the four and re-arrested them; his party drew revolvers and knives. Crocker cried out three times that the negroes were discharged, that they were free. At the sheriff's instance the four were put in jail for safekeeping. That evening and the next day warrants issued against members of Norris's party for riot and breaches of the peace — one man was fined by a justice — and civil process claiming large damages issued against Norris in the name of one or more of the Powells; bail was required in both. On Saturday South Bend's streets filled, the greater part of the crowd Black — witnesses estimated 150 to 400 Black people, many come from Cass County, Michigan, in companies, some with firearms and almost all with clubs. On Monday the state circuit court met; the grand jury found no bills against Norris's party and they were discharged from their recognizances. A further writ of habeas corpus, directed to the sheriff, was then allowed; notice was given Norris, who declined any further attempt, saying his rights had been violated and he would claim compensation. The judge discharged the four, and, surrounded by a great number of Black people, they were conveyed off by wagon — back, the county retellings agree, to their Cass County home.
Township bearing, stated plainly: no part of this course is placed by the court record in Olive Township or at New Carlisle. The seizure was in Michigan, the hearings at the county seat, and the road south ran through South Bend. The township's share in the documented case is nil on this record — which is itself a finding, and it is why the station claims for this ground are tested separately, below.
Sources:
- Norris v. Newton et al., Case No. 10,307, 18 F. Cas. 322 (5 McLean 92), Circuit Court, District of Indiana, May Term 1850 — Judge McLean's charge to the jury, printing the seizure, both writs, the discharge, the re-arrest, the jail night, the Monday writ and the second discharge (law.resource.org / static.case.law full text, read in full).
- South Bend Area Genealogical Society / Allen County summary of the South Bend Fugitive Slave Case (acgsi.org) — family composition, the 9 October 1847 flight, and the return to Michigan; used only where it does not conflict with the charge.
- Edwin B. Crocker, The South Bend Fugitive Slave Case (published by the St. Joseph County Register; held in Michiana Memory, St. Joseph County Public Library) — the participant account behind the county retellings; noted here as a party's account, not as the record relied on above.