State courts adjudicated liability disputes over leased slave property like any other asset

Evidence

In one case, for example, decided in Georgia in 1853, a man named Latimer owned a slave whose services he did not need. He auctioned off the right to use the slave for a year. A certain Dr. Thompson, who ran a hotel in Atlanta, was the winning bidder; he paid $91 to get the slave for a year, and put him to work as a waiter in his hotel. One of the guests came down with smallpox; the slave was ordered to take care of the guest, and the slave came down with smallpox himself. A doctor was called in; he treated the slave and presented a bill, as doctors tend to do. But who was liable for the doctor’s bill? Was it the original owner, because it was his slave? Or was it Dr. Thompson, who had acquired a year’s worth of labor, to use in his hotel? Who should bear the risk and costs of illness? In the end, the Georgia Supreme Court put the burden on Dr. Thompson. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 237

Categorization

• CANDY: A vivid, self-contained anecdote about who pays a doctor’s bill for a leased slave — light enough for retelling in conversation.
• XREF: connects to: A judge conceded property law was authored by slaveholders with biased interests — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard…, 1328; Enslaved people were legally treated as disposable inventory property — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard…, 372; Reported appellate decisions vastly overstate how courts actually handled slave cases — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1358 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Enslaved people were legally treated as disposable inventory property #corroborates (0.82) — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 372
• A judge conceded property law was authored by slaveholders with biased interests #complicates (0.80) — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1328
• Reported appellate decisions vastly overstate how courts actually handled slave cases #contradicts (0.80) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1358
• A court held enslavement exploitation creates a duty of care triggering NIED claims #expands (0.72) — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1311