Roger B. Taney

“ Slavery is the property which one man has in the labour of another, and the right to the custody and such limited use of the person of that other, as the particular laws allow. The power of the master is subordinate to the law of the land, and in some cases he is allowed by that law to give freedom in Maryland in presenti or in futuro. If the master once exercises this authority, it is irrevocable, the subject of it can never be reduced again to the condition of a slave, unless by legislative provision. ”

“ Considered merely as personal property, they are subject to all the laws regulating that species of property; they may be the subject of contract, pass by gift or will, descend, or be taken in execution. Their gains belong to their owner; they can make no contract with third parties, without the owner's assent, and none with their owner, and the issue of the woman is part of the use, the property of the person to whom the mother belongs, for the time being. ”

“ A devise of personal estate in general terms, without words of limitation, vests in the legatee the absolute property in the thing bequeathed. If a testator says, 'I give all my personal estate to A. B.,' without other words, A. B. will take the absolute estate in all the personal property of which the testator may die possessed.
The language of the will, in the case before the court, is as general, comprehensive, and effective, for the purpose of passing the whole estate, as language can be; and gives to the legatee the whole estate, subject only to the restriction of the right of alienation. ”

“ The intent is to govern. Every intent is to be effected if possible. The primary intent is to prevail. The particular intent was to give the nephew a qualified estate. The primary intent was to afford protection and security to the slaves. The restraint upon the nephew does not take away all power of alienation. The execution of every intent does not contravene any settled principle of law. The event to determine the estate of the first taker is not too remote. ”

“ It is emphatically a subject of peculiar regulation. But wherever we do find the right to manumit, we find this cardinal point, that suits for freedom are to be favoured, pervading and controlling the judicial decisions. ”

“ The effect must be to give rise, in case of a devise over to the new estate, if there be one devised, or the property must revert. It cannot be that the tenant of the particular estate shall have the power to defeat the other and usurp the whole property to himself. ”

“ The law of common carriers does not apply to them. Boyce v. Anderson, 2 Peters, 155. Humanity forbids the separation of mothers from infant children, and the court will not sanction it. Fitzhugh and wife v. Foote and others, 3 Call. 13.
If, then, the character of the bequest over be different from that given to Gerard-superior to property-not to be valued deserving the favour of the courts, of a wholly different nature; and the intent of the testatrix in regard to this bequest over be clear, shall that intent be defeated by rules adopted solely for the regulation of property? ”

“ It appeared on the trial, that the petitioner was the property of Mary Ann T. Greenfield, of Prince George's county, in the state of Maryland, who died in 1824, having first duly made her last will and testament, whereby among other things she bequeathed the petitioner, with sundry other slaves, to her nephew, Gerard T. Greenfield, with a proviso in the following words: 'Provided he shall not carry them out of the state of Maryland, or sell them to any one; in either of which events I will and devise the said negroes to be free for life,' and she appointed her said nephew her executor. ”