As soon as he arrived in Charleston, Robert made it his first task to talk to his client in prison. Thankfully, his client was still alive, which had been by no means a certainty. He walked from the wharf where the ship docked to the nearby prison where he saw his client alone. The door was unlocked, and there was no one inside except for his client, chained as he was, and obviously not going anywhere. Robert took a look around him, and thought that for a prison this place was not as grim as it could have been, but also that there seemed not to be a high priority in keeping his client alive. This is something that would have to change.

“I am Robert Woods, Esquire, your defense counsel,” Robert said to the brown-skinned young man he judged to be in his early-to-mid twenties.

“I am Harrison Dupont,” the young man replied.

“DuPont, that’s a French name,” Robert mused to himself.

“I was named after my father, and former master,” Harrison replied.

“Would you mind telling me a bit about your story? When I was brought here from Saint Augustine, all I was told was that you were being tried for capital murder, and had claimed that the dead man was your father and that you were seeking to make a claim of self-defense,” Robert stated.

“That is what I said,” Harrison said simply.

“From what I understand not a single attorney here was willing to defend you in such a fashion,” Robert answered.

“You heard correct, I reckon,” Harrison replied straightforwardly.

“If you are telling me the honest truth, I am willing to defend you on such terms, but we are going to need more than your word for it,” Robert said.

“What are you going to need?” Harrison asked. “Most people consider my case to be hopeless. What do I need to do to have a chance?”

“Do you have any witnesses to the argument that you had with your father? Is there any record, like a will, or some formal emancipation filing at the local courthouse, that would establish your claim that you were indeed the son of the late Mr. DuPont? Do you have the record of any locals of you being an upstanding person, not the sort of who would be violent or aggressive and generally of good character?” Robert rattled off.

“I can’t read too good,” Harrison said. “I was told by my mother that my sister and I had been born free, but I haven’t seen any papers to that effect. We just always acted free and no one questioned us.”

“That might be a good enough standard in England, where anyone setting foot on that soil has been free since Somerset,” Robert mused. “But I don’t think that’s going to be good enough for South Carolina.”

“Where are you from?” Harrison asked.

“That’s a complicated question. I was born in Yorkshire, in the area of Market _________, to a father who was the second son of the Viscount Lipton. When I was ten or so, my father and mother and I moved to East Florida to be of service to the British crown, and I have made my permanent residence there ever since then, though my service to the crown has taken me to plenty of other areas over the past twenty years with my father, and then after his death, by myself,” Robert replied.

“What did your father die of?” Harrison queried.

Robert felt a bit uncomfortable. “He died of apoplexy. It runs in the family.”

“That is how my old man died too,” Harrison replied. “Only he died while arguing with me, so they want to hang me as a murderer.”

There was a brief pause. “It does seem like they do,” Robert agreed.

“What are you going to do about it?” Harrison asked.

“I’m goin to defend you as well as I can, but I’m going to need it to be based on more than your word. You aren’t even going to be allowed to speak in your own defense. I’m going to need some sort of witness that they are going to be willing to accept,” Robert replied.

“I can’t imagine too many people here are going to speak up in defense of a black man,” Harrison said.

“But if we can get people to talk about what they saw and what they knew, we might have something to work with,” Robert said. “Tell me what happened when you and your father argued.”

“I had just come back from helping British troops navigate in the area, which I have been known to do. Pap was not happy about it. He would yell at me that there wasn’t no future in helping out the British, that they would leave and he would be stuck with a damned Tory that he felt necessary to protect. I said there wasn’t any future in helping out a bunch of rebels that viewed me as nothing better than property, regardless of my freedom, and wouldn’t never look me in the eye. We said things like that, and then pushed at each other a bit, and then all of a sudden Pap’s face got red and he just fell over on the ground and stopped breathing. I didn’t know what to do, so I ran to the doctor to see if someone could help him.”

Robert had been nodding along with the story and perked up at this detail. “You ran to get the doctor. Was he in?”

“Yeah, he was in, but it wasn’t no use,” Harrison replied. “He came and tried to press on Pap’s chest but he was dead, and there wasn’t nothing that could be done for him.”

“How soon after that were you arrested?” Robert asked.

“It happened pretty quick. I was still shook up while they dragged me here, and I’ve been here ever since then, except when they took me to the courthouse to ask me to make some initial pleas,” Harrison said.

Robert mused out loud. “Well, I’ll be. You tried to get a doctor to help your father out. There’s one witness we are going to call, at least.”

Harrison said,” Why do you think that’s going to help?”

“It proves your state of mind,” Robert replied. “You didn’t run to try to flee justice, you ran to get a doctor. That shows that you did not have a criminal mind, but were rather seeking to save your father’s life, if you could, by getting him help immediately. It gives you a defense.”

“Of course I went to get a doctor. My pap could get a little angry sometimes, but he was my father. I didn’t want him to die,” Harrison said.

“That’s exactly what an innocent person would think and say in such a situation,” Robert replied. “A murderer, though, would be seeking to conceal the act, by hiding the body so that it was not discovered and fleeing so that he would escape justice. You did none of those things. You wasted no time in concealment and even brought the attention of someone to what had been going on. To be sure, engaging in an altercation with a white man, even your father, seems a bit dangerous, but your going to get a doctor shows an absence of malice aforethought, which means that you should not be tried with murder, at least.”

“D’ya think anyone will believe me?” Harrison asked.

“I don’t know. It’s certainly possible, though, that at least one person could be persuaded under the right circumstances that you meant no harm to your father and indeed sincerely went to get help for him and thus you were not a murderer, no matter how bad it looks for a black man to be seen as responsible for a white man’s death. If we can convince one man, then it would be a hung jury, and that would be enough to save your life,” Robert replied.

“Is there a chance that I could live?” Harrison said, not sure if he could hope.

“It’s not certain, maybe not even likely, if you get an unfriendly jury, but there is a chance that with the right twelve men that at least someone could be persuaded of your innocence and, if he is the right sort of man, he might be strong enough to withstand any efforts to convince him that you were guilty of capital murder. At that point, he could hold out for manslaughter or even innocence, and you would be set free with a hung jury. I think that’s probably the best case scenario we’re looking at here,” Robert said.

“I reckon you’re right,” Harrison replied. “Wese folks ain’t too popular here.”

“Nor my sort of people, I must admit,” Robert replied. They both shared a slight laugh.

“I never thought I would be able to laugh again after being put here. I thought they would keel me fo sure,” Harrison said.

“You aren’t out of the woods yet,” Robert answered. “I’m just saying there’s a possible chance, and I will do what I can to help you get there.”

“I reckon I’m glad to hear you’re willing to try. Not too many folks are willing to stand up for someone like me,” Harrison said. “I’ve seen enough of this world to know that.”

“I think you’re right about that,” Robert said. “I will talk to you later, but first I am going to see what I can do about helping you feel a bit more safe and sound. It’s not good for a man under threat of execution to be alone. There is safety in jailers and prison guards sometimes, not least when it comes to the anger of a self-righteous mob.”

“You ever seen a mob?” Harrison asked.

“I have indeed,” Robert said. “I don’t know you, but I’ve been in this land for almost twenty years. I’ve certainly seen my fair share of mobs intoxicated on their belief in their own sense of justice, and they’re almost never just.”

“No siree, a man can be just on his own, but in a mob, he’s just a pure creature of violence and hate,” Harrison said wisely. Robert nodded his agreement.

“I’ll see you soon,” Robert said. “In the meantime, you stay out of any more trouble, you hear?” He said it with a hint of laughter, to let Harrison know he wasn’t being entirely serious, and Harrison understood and nodded his agreement as well. With that, Robert left the prison to attend to other business.