John W. Williams papers, 1835 June-July

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Source Collection

This digital collection comprises selected materials from the following archival collection at David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library:

John W. Williams papers 1835 May-July

Collection #RL.01389 | 1 folders (27 items)

ABSTRACT
John Worthington Williams (1803-1837) was a white attorney and magazine editor of Philadephia, Pennsylvania. This collection consists of legal documents, correspondence, case argument outlines, notes on the testimony of witnesses, and other documents compiled by Williams during his representation of Robert Aitken before the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas against Mary Gilmore (1817?-1856) in June-July 1835. Aitken alleged that Gilmore, a young woman living in Philadelphia with her adoptive father, was Emily Winder, a multiracial person enslaved by Aitken who disappeared from his home in Baltimore at the age of 8 or 9 in 1825. The judge decided the case in Gilmore's favor.

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