Death of Jenny the Slave

Johnston County, NC – Court 1780

Trial & Death of Jenny, a slave

Court - Johnston Co., NC 8 Nov 1780 – Trial – Minutes of the Special Court for the Trial of Negroes: At a special court held for the tryal of Negro Jenney the Property of the late Lewis Bryan Dec'd, charged with the Poisoning of Needham Bryan his Father & family at the Court House of the sd County on Wednesday the 8^th day of November AD 1780.

Justices Present: Nathan Williams, James Lockhart, Jesse Tyner, Richard Warren.

Freeholders present: Benj. Williams Jr, Wm Avera, Aaron Vinson, John S. Whitley

Who being legally Summoned to the Tryal of the said qualified & proceeded to the isamenation of Negroes Juno, Patti Beck and Treacey together with the Testimony of Patty Lynch, James Bagget evidences against the said Negro Jenney & after Considering the same & the circumstances belonging - are of the opinion that the said Negro Jenney is Guilty of the poisoning so laid to her charge as aforesaid and do accordingly order & sentence that the said Negro Jenney be carried back to the place of confinement & from there to be taken to the ground of the Court green. On Saturday the eighteenth of this instant (November) between the hours of twelve & one of the clock in the after noon, & there to be burnt to death by a stake & that the Sheriff of this County see that the said sentence be carried into execution.

At the same time the Court taking the value of the said Negro under consideration do value her to Five thousand pounds cur. Certifyed under the hand and seal of the said Justices & Freeholders respectfully this eighth November AD 1780.

 Editor’s note: The Sheriff of Johnston County, NC, in 1780 was Needham Bryan, Jr., the son of the murdered man.

Henry Rains, Esquire, would have been chief justice, but died just before the trial. Henry Rains served under the dead man, Colonel Needham Bryan, in the revolutionary war.