Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court of New-Jersey; relative to the Manumission of Negroes and others holden in bondage
[page 18]

September Term, 1787.

([Minutes,] p. 36,--39.)

The STATE against JOHN B. OLIVER and his Wife

On Habeas Corpus of Negro Kate.

The Court after hearing the Arguments of Counsel, are of Opinion, that the said John B. Oliver enter into Recognizance in Five Hundred Pounds, conditioned that he do not send or suffer to be sent, the Negro Kate mentioned in the said Habeas Corpus, out of this State, till the Court shall take further Order therein at the next Term. Recognizance entered into accordingly by the said John B. Oliver.

The Attorney General and Elisha Boudinot for State.

Elias Boudinot and Aaron Ogden for Defendants.

Note, The Counsel for the Defendants in this Case, contended that they ought not be compelled to answer the Allegation of Abuse, because, as the Habeas Corpus, was in common form to bring the Body, and no Cause in particular alledged, they could not be presumed to come prepared to answer any thing but the illegal Detainer of the Negro as a Slave, and insisted that they ought not to be compelled to answer this until a sufficient Prosecutor should be indorsed on the Habeas Corpus, and Security given for the Costs. All this the Court over ruled. The Counsel for the Defendants undertook that the Negro should not be ill-treated, and the dispute was afterwards settled and the Court heard nothing further of the Affair.