In class, we also did a moot court case on the topic of State v. Mann. The two sides argued were obviously one defending John Mann and the other defending a slave named Lydia. The situation at hand was that Lydia tried to escape a whipping from her master; thus, prompting Mann to shoot and wound her. This led to a jury finding him guilty of battery and setting a five dollar fine for Mann. Then, the North Carolina Supreme Court overruled the previous decision and set the law that claimed all slaves were property and could be treated as such.

As for class today, there were two sides of the argument obviously, with five people arguing each side. On the side defending Mann, the major claim and most obvious is the one that was ruled by the North Carolina Supreme Court, which stated that slaves are property to their owners. There were also arguments made that if she had just obeyed her masters orders, then she not be in the position to get whipped or run away. Finally, the last argument was that it was a better option for Mann to wound her than let her escape because it would have broken his contract with the woman he had leased Lydia from.

On the side defending Lydia, the strongest argument made was that Mann was attempting murder. Next, there was an argument made that Mann did not own Lydia because she was leased from another slave owner. This was a key point because there was a lot to debate about whether Mann had enough invested into the slave to wound her this badly. Their final argument was about the bible and how it speaks against slavery and owning other humans.

Ultimately, the side defending Mr. Mann won the moot case. The reason behind this is because at the time this actually happened it was completely legal to treat slaves like property and that's all Mr. Mann did. Also, after the real case ended, this was the "black and white" policy, meaning that the ruling gave slave owners a lot more power when dealing with their slaves.