1 Blackf. 122 | Ind. | 1821
In obedience to a writ of habeas corpus, issued, by the Knox Circuit Court, G. W. Johnston brought before that Court the body of Mary Clark, (a woman of colour,) said to be illegally detained by him; and assigned as the cause of her detention, that she was his servant by indenture, executed at Vincennes in this state, on the 24th of October, 1816: which indenture is set out in the return, regularly executed and acknow
This application of Mary Clark to be discharged from her state of servitude, clearly evinces that the service she renders to the obligee is involuntary; and the constitution, having determined that there shall be no involuntary servitude in this state, seems at the first view to settle this case in favour of the appellant. But a question still remains, whether her service, although involuntary in fact, shall not be considered voluntary by operation of law, being performed under an indenture voluntarilyexecuted. This indenture isa writing obligatory. The clause in the 7th section of the 11th article of the constitution that provides, that no indenture hereafter executed by any hegro or mulatto without the bounds of this state, shall be of any validity within this state, has no bearing on it; An indenture executed by a negro or mulatto out of this state, is, by virtue of this provision, absolutely void; and can be set up neither as a demand for the services therein specified, nor as a remuneration in damages for a non-performance. But the constitution, having confirmed the liberty of all our citizens, has considered them as possessing equal right and ability to contract, and, without any reference to the colour of the .contracting parties, has given equal validity to all their contracts when executed within the state. We shall, therefore, discard all distinctions that might be drawn from the colour of the appellant; and consider, this indenture as a writing obligatory; and test it, in all its bear? ings,by the principles that are applicable to all cases of as similar nature. It is a covenant for personal service; and the obligee requires a specific performance. It may be laicLdown as a general rule, that neither the common law nor the.statutes in force in this state, recognize the coercion of a specific performance of contracts. The principal if not the only exceptions to this general rule are statutory provisions; few if any. of which-are applicable to this state; and none of them has any bearing on this case. Apprentices are compellable to a specific performance of the articles of apprenticeship; but their case rests on principles of a different nature. They are not considered as performing a contract .of their own y but acting in conformity-
There are some covenants that may be specifically enforced in equity; but they are of a very different nature from the contract before us. They are mostly covenants for the conveyance of real estate, and in no case have any relation to the person. But if the law were silent, the policy of enforcing a specific performance of a covenant of this nature, would settle this question, Whenever contracting parties disagree about the performance of their contract, and a Court of justice of necessity interposes to settle their different rights, their feelings become irritated against each other; and the losing party feels mortified and degraded in being compelled to perform for the other what he had previously refused, and the more especially if that performance will place him frequently in the presence or under the direction of his adversary. But this state of degradation, this irritation of feeling, could be in no other case so manifestly experienced, as in the case of a common servant, where the master would have a continual right of command, and the servant be compelled to a continual obedience, Many covenants, the breaches of which are only remunerated in damages, might be specifically performed, either by a third person at a distance from the adversary, or in a short space of time.. But a covenant for service, if performed at all, must be personally performed under the eye of the master; and might, as in ¡the case before us, require a number of years, Such a perform-, anee, if enforced by law, would produce a state pf servitude as degrading and demoralizing in its consequences, as a state of absolute slavery; and if enforced under a government like ours, which acknowledges a personal equality, it would be productive of a state of feeling niore discordant and irritating than
The judgment is reversed, with costs; and the-woman discharged.