Echoes of Dred Scott Case in Uniontown, Pennsylvania

Partial boundary between Pennsylvania and (West) Virginia
Map showing Uniontown, PA and nearby Morgantown, VA in the 1850's  LOC

        For several decades prior to organizing the 85th Pennsylvania regiment, Colonel Joshua B. Howell had been a prominent attorney in Uniontown, PA. In 1853, he took part in a court case that closely resembled one of the most controversial cases in U.S. history, the notorious Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court in 1857. 
        To quickly review, Scott, a slave, had been taken from Missouri, a slave state, to several free northern states for extended periods of time by his then-owner, John Emerson. Scott, through his attorneys, had tried in vain for several years to gain his freedom for having lived in free states where slavery was outlawed. 
          In 1853, Scott, now owned by Emerson’s brother-in-law, John Sanford, sued in federal court to be declared a free man. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that Scott should remain a slave. The court further declared that, as a slave, Scott was property and had no rights as an American citizen 

Colonel Joshus B. Howell
From Dickey's History of the 85th PA Regiment

          In the same year that Scott sued Sanford, a case involving fugitive slaves was heard in a Uniontown court. Alexander Green, an African-American slave, and had gotten married in Morgantown, then part of the slave state of Virginia [see map] Together he and his wife had seven children, all born into slavery. Green had at some point bought his own freedom as well as the freedom of his wife, Evalina. Eventually four of their children also gained their freedom. Three others, Willis, Charlotte and Liz remained slaves in Morgantown to three different owners. These three children were occasionally granted vacations to spend with their parents in Uniontown, 27 miles away. On one of these visits, they declined to return to Morgantown. Their owners sued for their return. Joshua Howell was one of the two attorneys who represented the slaveowners. 
           The U.S. Commissioner, Robert P. Flenniken, ruled that the three Green children had to return to Morgantown as slaves. This decision did not sit well with the African-American community of Uniontown, who attended the court proceedings in large numbers. Following the return of the Green children to Morgantown, a group of African-Americans from Uniontown organized a rescue mission with the intent of seizing the three Green children and transporting them to safety in Canada. They acquired a horse-drawn cart and set off for Morgantown. But upon reaching the Cheat River, a ferryman was not available to help them get across. The group also worried that their appearance at the state border might tip off authorities, so they called off the mission and returned to Uniontown.    
         The three Green children eventually gained their freedom after the Civil War. Two of their free brothers, Jerry and George, died serving the Union cause in the Civil War. 
         Finally, several ironies are associated with the Green case. Flenniken, the commissioner who ruled against setting the Green children free, moved to the territory of Kansas the next year and promoted an anti-slavery statehood platform. Meanwhile, as West Virginia moved towards statehood a decade later, James Evans, who owned Willis Green, started the 7th West Virginia infantry that fought for the Union.