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 In
1847, General Robert Matson, a slave owner and landowner from Kentucky,
once again brought some of his slaves to the free state of Illinois to
help harvest the crops on his farmland north of Oakland. On this occasion,
however, the Bryant family, fearing they were about to be separated, fled
from the farm.
After sneaking away in the night, Anthony and Jane Bryant and their children were taken in by Gideon Ashmore and Dr. Hiram Rutherford. Matson sued the men for detaining his slaves; Ashmore and Rutherford countered that the slaves could not legally be kept in a free state. Rutherford attempted to secure his friend Abraham Lincoln to be his attorney in the case, but Lincoln had already been retained by Matson. Through the years, scholars have discussed at length the interesting position of Lincoln representing a slave owner. "This case is the most interesting case of Coles County history because the substance and the characters made for a stellar trial," according to the Coles County Legal History Project. "In the end, this case represents debates about property, slavery, and character as no other has in the history of the county." The book On the Illinois
Frontier: Dr. Hiram Rutherford, 1840-1848 contains much more detail
on the groundbreaking case and on Rutherford's prominent place in it. Please
click here for information on purchasing the book.
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