Biography
Joseph Weir was convicted in North Carolina in a scheme to carry away several enslaved people. The state’s supreme court record says an accomplice testified that preparations were made at Weir’s house and that Weir supplied a model for forged bills of sale, later returning the papers with a false seller’s signature. The court allowed the accomplice testimony and forged documents to support the verdict. Weir was hanged on June 20, 1828. The record describes a planned theft supported by false sale papers rather than documenting abolitionist activity.
