MONTGOMERY, Ralph

MONTGOMERY, Ralph. (Unknown-Unknown). In failing to consider the case of Ralph, the United States Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision inflamed those in resistance to slavery in the United States. Ralph, a slave for a Mr. Montgomery in Missouri, took his owner's last name as his own, a common practice in pre-CIVIL WAR America. Ralph's owner had given his slave a unique opportunity by granting him five years outside of Missouri if he wished to raise $550 to buy his freedom. Ralph, hearing of the fortunes to be made in the LEAD mines of Dubuque, moved north.

The kidnapping of Ralph by two white men intent on returning him to his owner in Missouri led, in July 1839, to the first case heard before the new territorial Supreme Court. David Rorer, Ralph's attorney, argued that by living in Iowa when the area was made a territory by Congress established Ralph as a free man. Rorer also used an English case in which it was ruled that a slave having lived in a free country could not be taken to another land that would again lead him into slavery. According to his attorney, the only obligation Ralph owed was to raise the $550 for his former owner in Missouri.

Attorneys for the Missouri man argued that Ralph had not lived up to his part of the arrangement made with their client and therefore he should be returned to Missouri under conditions of the Fugitive Slave Law.

The case, called "In the Matter of Ralph (a colored man)," made history as the first decision of the Iowa Supreme Court. The court ruled that by allowing Ralph to come into a free land, the Missouri owner had granted his slave freedom. On Independence Day 1839 Ralph was declared a free man.

The ruling in the Ralph Case stands in stark comparison to the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Dred Scott, a slave taken into free lands by his owner. Scott was declared to be a slave by the court that ruled that he, being a black, had no right to sue in United States courts. Historians can only guess what decision the court might have reached if the Ralph Case had been better known, and what influence this might have had on events leading up to the Civil War.

It is said that a year later, Judge Wilson found Ralph working in the judge's garden. Ralph informed that judge that he was not working for what the judge had done for Ralph. The former slave just wanted the judge to know that he (Ralph) would never forget.

Ralph's death and burial have long been topics of interest. It is believed that he was buried in the City Cemetery which became in later years JACKSON PARK. When that cemetery was closed, the remains were among those moved to LINWOOD CEMETERY where they were buried in a mass grave now called "Gone But Not Forgotten."

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Source:

Bezanson, Elaine Croyle, The Goldfinch 16: No. 4 (Summer 1995). Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa.

Iowa Judicial Branch, "Early Civil Rights Cases," http://www.iowacourtsonline.org/Public_Information/Iowa_Courts_History/Civil_Rights/