Note 35 — Chapter II · The Legal Status of the Slave in Tennessee
Reading edition
Judge Green held that “A slave is not in the condition of a horse or an ox. His liberty is restrained, it is true, and his owner controls his actions and claims his services. But he is made of the image of the Creator. He has mental capacities, and an immortal principle in his nature, that constitutes him equal to his owner but for the accidental position in which fortune has placed him. The owner has acquired conventional rights to him, but the laws under which he is held as a slave have not and can not extinguish his high-born nature nor deprive him of many rights which are inherent in man. Thus while he is a slave, he can make a contract for his freedom, and by the same will he can take personal or real estate.” Ford v. Ford, 7 Humphrey, 95-96 (1846). Cf. Miller v. Miller, 5 Heiskell, 734 (1871).