State Vs Mann

Today in class we talked about the supreme court case, State vs Mann. The case was over a sum of 10 dollars that John Mann was sentenced to pay over a rented slave he shot. The case is very interesting because since slaves were considered property, you could do with them what you please. But this slave was rented so that is why it gets tricky. Both sides made an interesting argument. The defendants brought up a previous trial about a man who beat his slave to death for which he received the death penalty. The defendant also brought up an interesting point about how Jesus believed in slavery but religion will not get you that far in a supreme court case because the State was taking a very legal approach to the case. The case itself was an important one given that it involved punishment for someone harming a slave, which at the time was a very common practice. The case is especially controversial since the slave was trying to runaway. If any slave owner had a runaway slave they would most likely beat them. I have trouble choosing a side in this case because of my morale compass but overall it was very interesting.