Gobu v. Gobu: a judge says people of color may be "descended from Indians in both lines" (Wilmington District, NC, 1802)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1802 · Places: Carolinas
SUMMARYGobu v. Gobu: a judge says people of color may be "descended from Indians in both lines" (Wilmington District, NC, 1802) [Connections: Carolinas, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDA baby "apparently about eight days old" was found in a barn, and a girl "of about twelve years of age" claimed him as her slave. He was "of an olive color, between black and yellow." The judge accepted "the presumption of every black person being a slave," but refused to apply it to people of mixed blood: "Such persons may have descended from Indians in both lines, or at least in the maternal." Gobu v. Gobu, 1 N.C. 188 (1802)
PATTERNEven a slave-state court admitted that brown-skinned people it would otherwise call slaves could be Indian by descent, and that an Indian mother made the child free
LENS (WW9)The court said it on the record: the "colored" child in the barn could be Aboriginal on both sides
OPENThe full opinion sits behind a sign-in; the quotes come from the judge's charge to the jury (addendum). Follow how later NC courts cited Gobu
SOURCEGobu v. Gobu (CounselStack). Primary: 1 N.C. 188 (N.C. Super. Ct., Wilmington Dist., May Term 1802).