Trial of Samuel Williams

    Source citation
    "Trial of Samuel Williams," Rochester (NY) Frederick Douglass' Paper, January 22, 1852.
    Original source
    Philadelphia (PA) Freeman
    Newspaper: Publication
    Rochester (NY) Frederick Douglass' Paper
    Newspaper: Headline
    Trial of Samuel Williams
    Type
    Newspaper
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Transcriber
    Michael Blake
    Transcription date
    The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
    TRIAL OF SAMUEL WILLIAMS. - On Monday, Samuel Williams, a colored man, was put upon trial in the U.S. District Court, Judge Kane presiding, charged under the Fugitive Law with obstructing the process of the United States, in giving information to certain persons at Christiana that Mr. Gorsuch and certain officers were going up to that place from this city in search of runaway slaves claimed by Mr. Gorsuch. It is alleged that the information given by the defendant was the cause of the defeat of the officers in their attempts to arrest the fugitives, and also of the sanguinary tragedy which followed.

    Williams pleaded not guilty. R.P. Kane, Wm. S. Pierce, and David Paul Brown appeared as his counsel. The counsel for the government are J.W. Ashmead, G.L. Ashmead, and J.R. Ludlow.

    A jury having been empannelled without much difficulty, G.L. Ashmead opened the case.

    H.H. Kline was the first witness. He repeated the story he told on the trial of Hannaway, and on Tuesday was subjected to a rigid cross-examination by D.P. Brown.

    Next week we shall doubtless be able to give the result of the trial with all necessary particulars. - Pa. Freeman.
    How to Cite This Page: "Trial of Samuel Williams," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/1818.