Biography
James Brice was prosecuted in Blount County, Tennessee, for stealing an enslaved person. In May 1814 Tennessee’s highest court rejected his appeal in Brice v. State, holding that a colonial-era North Carolina law making the offense capital remained in force in Tennessee. Brice was hanged on July 20, 1814. The reported decision documents the prosecution and the legal rule but does not identify the enslaved person or establish that Brice acted from an abolitionist motive.
