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Commonwealth v. Aves

Commonwealth v. Aves
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Decided1836
Cases citedSomerset v Stewart[1]
Case history
Prior actionDecision in favor of plaintiffs.
Subsequent actionMed Slater placed in the custody of a state-appointed guardian
Holding
A citizen of any one of the United States where negro slavery is established by law, who comes into this State for any temporary purpose of business or pleasure, bringing a slave with him as a personal attendant, and stays some time, but does not acquire a domicil here, cannot restrain the slave of his liberty during his continuance here, and carry him out of this State against his consent.
Court membership
Chief judgeLemuel Shaw
Case opinions
Decision byLemuel Shaw
Events leading to the American Civil War
  1. Northwest Ordinance
  2. Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
  3. End of Atlantic slave trade
  4. Missouri Compromise
  5. Tariff of 1828
  6. Nat Turner's Rebellion
  7. Nullification crisis
  8. End of slavery in British colonies
  9. Texas Revolution
  10. United States v. Crandall
  11. Gag rule
  12. Commonwealth v. Aves
  13. Murder of Elijah Lovejoy
  14. Burning of Pennsylvania Hall
  15. American Slavery As It Is
  16. United States v. The Amistad
  17. Prigg v. Pennsylvania
  18. Texas annexation
  19. Mexican–American War
  20. Wilmot Proviso
  21. Nashville Convention
  22. Compromise of 1850
  23. Uncle Tom's Cabin
  24. Recapture of Anthony Burns
  25. Kansas–Nebraska Act
  26. Ostend Manifesto
  27. Bleeding Kansas
  28. Caning of Charles Sumner
  29. Dred Scott v. Sandford
  30. The Impending Crisis of the South
  31. Panic of 1857
  32. Lincoln–Douglas debates
  33. Oberlin–Wellington Rescue
  34. John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
  35. Virginia v. John Brown
  36. 1860 presidential election
  37. Crittenden Compromise
  38. Secession of Southern states
  39. Peace Conference of 1861
  40. Corwin Amendment
  41. Battle of Fort Sumter

Commonwealth v. Aves, 35 Mass. 193 (1836), was a case in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the subject of transportation of slaves to free states. In August 1836, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that slaves brought to Massachusetts "for any temporary purpose of business or pleasure" were entitled to freedom. The case was the most important legal victory for abolitionists in the 1830s and set a major precedent throughout the North.[2]

  1. ^ Knapp (1836), p. 48.
  2. ^ Finkelman (2015), p. 85.

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