Colonial Cases
R. v. Allen and another [1790]
slave court
Slave Court, Jamaica
8 July 1790
Source: Public Advertiser (London, England), 7 September 1790, issue 17525, from the British Library's site, 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers
Saint Jago de la Vega, July 8....
Immediately after the Quarter Sessions, a Slave-Court was formed, when John Allen, a mulatto, was arraigned for the murder of Geo. Sedmore, a seaman belonging to the ship Clarendon. A declaration of his freedom raising doubts in the Court, he was remanded to gaol.
Kingston.
Monday [5 August] a Slave Court, composed of three magistrates and nine jurors, was held for the trial of the Sambo slave, indicted for the murder of a negro apprentice. After a trial of considerable length, the Jury found the culprit guilty of Manslaughter, and he was sentenced to be kept to hard labour during life.