Kidnapping free negroes.
--Wm. K
Ellett,
Ro. F. Cotton, and
L. B. Boynton, were before the
Mayor yesterday to answer the charge of kidnapping
Wm. Henry Harris, William.
Wallace, and
Elisha Wallace, three free negro boys, residents of
James City county.
The evidence elicited the following facts: On the 4th instant
Wm. K. Ellett called at
Wm. E. Wade's, on Brook Avenue, and asked accommodation for three negroes for the night.
Wade promised to receive the negroes, and about 9 o'clock that night
Ellett arrived in a carriage with the three negro boys named above.
After depositing them
Ellett showed
Wade a bill of sale for the three, remarking that they belonged to a friend, and that he would call for them the next morning.
The bill of sale was made to
L. B. Boynton for the three boys, in consideration of the payment of $6,000, was dated Dec. 4, 1863, and signed
John Holt.
That night the negro boys were taken into custody by order of the
Mayor, and the next morning
officer Perrin arrested
Ellett, and found in his possession the bill of sale already noticed.
Ellett told the officer that the negroes belonged to a friend, and wrote a note to
Boynton to see him at the
Court House.
The officer next arrested
Boynton, and that afternoon, when Cotton called at the station-house to see
Boynton, he too was looked up. Cotton denied knowing anything about the negroes, but passes found in
Ellett's possession showed that the two were connected in their operations.
The three prisoners are from
Texas, and their connection appears to be thus:
Ellett is a speculator of limited means, and Cotton is an excellent soldier, and a scout on the
Peninsula.
As they were well known to
Dr. Boynton, who is a moneyed man, they obtained money of him to trade on, and, as he believed, were buying and selling negroes.--During the examination nothing was elicited to show that he had any knowledge of the negroes; and but for the fact that
Ellett had a bill of sale with his name on it, he could not have been held under the charge made against the other two.
The Commonwealth established, by the evidence of several citizens of
James City county, that the three negroes were born free, and that another negro,
Washington Simpson, who was left at
E. H. Stokes's jail on the 10th of July as the slave of
Dr. Chas. M. Herbert, by Cotton and an unknown man, was also free.
The witnesses also proved that there was no such man in
James City as
John Holt; that in
Charles City there was a Justice of the Peace named
John Holt; but that the bill of sale presented was not in his hand-writing.
The
Mayor, in order to secure the attendance of other witnesses, adjourned the investigation for one week, and admitted
Dr. Boynton to bail in $3,000 for his appearance.
Whatever the facts may hereafter prove, it is evident that some parties are endeavoring to reopen the African trade by taking free negroes from Yankee lines and making them useful slaves; and it is equally clear that the
Mayor does not intend to encourage this contraband trade.
