Holmes v. Ford (1853)

February 12, 2007

Mary Jane Holmes Shipley Drake

Courtesy Benton County Historical Society (1994-038.0808)

The lawsuit filed by Robin and Polly Holmes against Nathaniel Ford in 1852 is often cited as the legal event that ended slavery in Oregon. This is not accurate. Legally, Oregon was anti-slavery throughout the antebellum period. The provisional government prohibited slavery in 1843; the territorial government did so in 1848. Finally, Oregonians included an anti-slavery article in the 1857 statehood constitution. The Holmes v. Ford case represented one battlefield in a long simmering conflict over slavery in Oregon.

Nathaniel Ford had acquired the Holmes family as slaves while sheriff of Howard County, Missouri in 1841. According to Holmes’s court filing, Ford promised to grant freedom to the family if they helped him open a farm in Oregon in 1844. Ford’s counter filing denied such an agreement. Once in Oregon, Ford continued to hold the family until 1849.

According to Ford, Holmes agreed to work for Ford’s son in the California gold fields in 1849 and upon his return was set free with his wife Polly and infant son. Ford further claimed that Holmes agreed to leave his other three children with Ford as “wards” to compensate for his support of the family in previous years. Holmes denied any such agreement and claimed Ford illegally held his children, Mary Jane, Roxanna, and a third, child, James, as slaves and planned to sell them in Missouri under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. James died soon after being separated from his parents and Robin and Polly Holmes blamed Ford for his death. Ironically, publication in 1930 of a Ford letter confirmed his intention to keep the Holmes children as slaves and eventually sell them.

Chief Justice George Williams of the Oregon Territorial Supreme Court heard the case on July 13, 1853 and shortly thereafter awarded the surviving children, Mary Jane,and Roxanna, to their parents. His ruling never mentioned slavery. Oregon’s anti-slavery prohibitions should not be misconstrued as sympathy for blacks. There was a simultaneous effort to legally exclude all blacks, slave or free, from the area and to create a free soil white homeland in Oregon.

About the Author

Author Profile

Darrell Millner

Born in Columbus, Ohio, raised in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, Darrell Millner graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, with a degree in English. He taught English and Literature classes at Cal Poly until the summer of 1970 when he moved to Eugene, Oregon. Five years later he graduated from the University of Oregon with a doctorate in Education. Hired to teach Afro-American Literature and History at the Black Studies Department at Portland State University in 1975, Dr. Millner served as the Department Chair between 1984 and 1995. Currently he is a Full Professor and serves on numerous local, regional and national boards.

Dr. Millner is an expert on the history of African-Americans in the western movement with a special focus on York, the black slave of William Clark, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; the Oregon and California trail experiences; early Oregon and California Black history; and the history of the Black Buffalo Soldiers in the Indians Wars. He is also an expert on Black cinema history and the development and perpetuation of negative racial stereotypes.

Millner has served as the Director of Multi-cultural education for the Portland Public Schools and has an extensive background in teacher training and curriculum development for inner city schools and disadvantaged youth.

Categories:
African American History Events in African American History

Tags:
19th Century (1800-1899) United States - Missouri United States - Oregon

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CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Millner, D. (2007, February 12). Holmes v. Ford (1853). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/holmes-v-ford-1853/

Source of the Author's Information:

Scott McArthur, “The Polk County Slave Case,” Historically Speaking A Periodic Publication of the Polk County, Oregon, Historical Society Volume II (August, 1970): 1-10; Fred Lockley, “The Case of Robin Holmes vs. Nathaniel Ford,” Oregon Historical Quarterly Volume XXIII (March 1922 – December 1922): 111-137.