Given the fireworks of the previous day at court, there was not a seat left unoccupied in the courtroom the next morning when the court again assembled to hear the closing arguments and perhaps even see a verdict in the DuPont case that had filled the newspapers and the conversations around the town over the past few days. Few expected today to match the surprise of the previous day, where DuPont’s heir seemed to distance himself from his father’s concern and show an unwillingness to act according to his last will and testament, and where it was found that Harrison DuPont and his attractive and bright sister were free Negros and not slaves at all as had been previously assumed to be the case by many within the city. Nothing, though, could top the scandal of the late Mr. DuPont admitting openly his shameful carrying on with the elder Sadie DuPont, and in accepting his place as the father of her children, rather than denying it as was the general case of the higher orders of society within South Carolina and Charleston in particular.

The bailiff called the court to order, and so it was that the prosecutor was called to make his remarks. Looking a bit less confident than he had yesterday, when he thought that even without witnesses he would be able to paint the accused as a violent slave and thus unworthy of even a legal case, he now had to admit to himself, at least, that the case admitted to him at least reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Harrison DuPont. This doubt, though, he had no interest in allowing to proliferate, if possible, to the jury.

He arose to speak. “Gentlemen of the jury, it is to be greatly lamented, for the well-being and security of the good people of this city, that there cannot be found anyone who can witness as to the exact events that led to the death of the late and lamented Mr. _________ DuPont. What we do know is that he and his apparent son–” at this there was loud whispering within the courtroom–“got into a loud argument and at the end of that argument, the elder man was dead. He may indeed have died, as a witness affirmed yesterday, that it was a matter of apoplexy and not of injury, but it is nevertheless clear that the stress of the altercation brought on whatever natural condition felled Mr. DuPont, who certainly had some sort of constitutional weakness of the heart that made him vulnerable to the arguments that he was unfortunately drawn to. The question that comes now before the court’s attention is whether we wish to encourage our local blacks, free and enslaved, to be bold enough to speak their own mind and to defend themselves against their betters. Do we wish to encourage this sort of disputatiousness and uppity spirit among those who should hang their head and look down and not dare to raise up a voice against the natural and proper rulers of society? I leave that to the court to decide, whatever the particulars of this particular case here.” The prosecutor sat down, having expressed the general feeling of the vast majority of those within the courtroom, however defective it may be as a statement of the rule of law. The rule of law, as everyone knew, was merely the legal outgrowth of the order that existed within society.

At this point, Mr. Wood was asked to speak, and he spoke, choosing his words carefully. “Before I give my closing remarks, I would like to make a request for summary judgment.” At this, the judge looked seriously at him and asked him what he meant by it. Robert replied, “According to the case at hand, as I argued in my opening, there are no elements of the crime of capital murder to be found here. By law and treatment Harrison Barnes was a free man, and is therefore subject to the protections of the law. The court has heard no evidence that the accused even laid hands upon his father, which is the essential criminal act of any verdict of capital murder. Nor did Harrison, the accused, act with a guilty mind, feeling from justice as blacks are assumed to do as a matter of course, their instincts of flight taking over their rational senses. He acted, indeed, as any of us would act if we saw our father in trouble, even a father we often disagreed with or argued with, in immediately running not to escape the law and the noose, but rather to seek medical attention for his father. Unfortunately for him, and for us, he was unsuccessful in his efforts to help his father to remain alive. In none of this is there any hint of either a criminal act or a criminal mind that is worthy of imprisonment, much less of death. There being no case of murder to lay before the jury, I ask for summary judgment to be made in favor of Harrison DuPont, so that we may not establish a precedent where a death in the course of any argument, without any fault being present on the part of anyone involved, may lead to the threat of judicial murder being committed against unpopular residents and despised classes within society.”

The judge paused a bit to absorb this. “Do you think that putting Harrison Barnes to death would be judicial murder?”

“I do indeed,” Robert replied. “There may have been some argument for lesser charges that would not have involved the death or imprisonment of the accused that may have answered for the concern about the stability of the social order, but there is no cause in this case, no facts or law, that would indicate that there should even be the possibility of the death penalty for my client in this case. Nor did the prosecutor see it fit to include lesser charges as an option for the jury to consider. The charge was capital murder or nothing, and capital murder cannot be sustained by the facts or law at hand here.”

The courtroom was silent. No one in this room had dared to think that an attorney with respect for the law, as was clearly the case for Mr. Woods, would ever seek to use that law to defend the well-being of a black man. The thought that the law could defend such people, who many of the audience were not entirely sure were in fact people, even if they were often descendants of the most elite families of the community, or connected by marriages that were not recognized by the laws or practices of those who supposed themselves to be their owners, had never entered the thoughts or imaginations of those who now heard the case. Such a thing may have been possible in Massachusetts, or perhaps Pennsylvania, they considered within themselves, but to hear it said in Charleston was not something that they could have seen in their worst nightmares. Now, it is to be supposed, they may have such nightmares in the future of blacks defending their dignity and honor against whites, and other white people who thought and felt differently from them seeking to defend–heaven forbid–such people by use of the law, rather than in seeking to use the law as a means of control and domination.

The judge thought within himself, letting the pregnant silence within the courtroom linger for a while. Finally, after what seemed like ages but were only seconds, he spoke. “I am going to need time to think about this matter. I am not prepared to judge on this at this instant. I am therefore going to adjourn this court until tomorrow, when I will decide on this request for summary judgment, and then one way or another we will end this case tomorrow.” With that, court was adjourned.

As the crowd filed out of the room and a guard looked over at Harrison, ready to bring him in chains to the jail for another day, Harrison spoke to his attorney, “Do you really think that the law was made for people like me?”

Robert thought to himself. “There are, of course, different views of the law. According to some people, the law is merely the will and expression of whatever spirit dominates society, and reflects the will of those in authority, and has no independent existence to challenge or rebuke or correct the lawmaker, who can selectively apply it as he wishes without any concern for consistency. According to others, though, the law reflects, or ought to reflect, the ultimate realities of the universe and the Creator of it, and all of us stand accountable to it, whether slave or free, to be judged by the same standard. And it is that second view of the law that I hold.”

“So you believe that you and I stand as equals in the eyes of the law?” Harrison asked.

“Indeed I do. Perhaps that is not true of the law of South Carolina, but I believe it to be true of the laws of God,” Robert said.

“Where can we live under such a view of law?” Harrison asked.

“I know of no country, at least not yet, that fully holds to that view,” Robert said. “Perhaps such a country may be created in time.”

“I hope you and I may both live to see it,” Harrison said.

“I hope so too, but it is hard for people to be just,” Robert said.

“Lord knows,” Harrison said.

With this, Robert could only nod his assent. As the guard came to return Harrison to the custody of the jail, all because the judge could not think on his feet enough to have made him a free man, Robert pondered within himself the difficulties of justice. How was it that people thought that the law could only be a protection to them? How could someone be subject to the penalty of law without receiving any protection from it? How could someone think the law merely an extension of his own power and not a reflection of doing unto others as one would have others do to him? The people of this community and many others had cheered on the abstract defense of natural rights, but abstract rights of life, liberty, and property were often in conflict with the realities of our existence. Some men saw slaves as their own property, while others saw property as belonging to all as a result of the labor of one’s hands or one’s mind. Some foolish and dangerous men saw all people and land and resources as the property of rulers, or as not deserving to exist at all, but Robert did not long let himself dwell on such horrors. The current day had horrors enough for him to contemplate.