"In Consequence of Such Escape": Jailbreaks, Criminality, and Unfreedom on the Eve of Civil War

Abstract

* * * In the middle of a late January night in 1858, a young, enslaved woman named Jane heard a series of shots fired, followed by the sound of someone scuffling outside the window of her Henry County jail cell. Imprisoned on the charge of fatally poisoning a neighboring mistress, Jane had languished in jail for over a month awaiting trial. Believing the man outside to be the enslaver’s widowed husband, George House Porter, she called out to him, not knowing that it was in fact the jailor, who intended to trick her into admitting to the murder. Deceived by false promises of a pardon from local authorities, Jane allegedly confessed. Following her initial conviction in the Henry County Circuit Court, Jane appealed three different times to the Kentucky Court of Appeals and became the first enslaved defendant to present a case before the state’s highest court. After two reversals and remands, the court ultimately upheld her final conviction from the Owen County Circuit Court. Governor Beriah Magoffin issued a warrant of execution to the Owen Country sheriff in 1860 yet received a letter from the jailor in response. Days before her scheduled hanging, Jane broke