Preview
Identifier
PS 2449 .M27 T8 1884
Creation Date
1884
Description
Munford, George Wythe. The Two Parsons, Cupid’s Sports, The Dream, and The Jewels of Virginia. Richmond: J.D.K. Sleight, 1884.
In 1806, George Wythe Swinney (sometimes spelled Sweeney), was arrested on suspicion of poisoning both his great-uncle, George Wythe, Chancellor of Virginia, and Michael Brown, a young, free Black in the Wythe household. Philip Norborne Nicholas, Attorney General of Virginia, represented the prosecution, with renowned Richmond attorneys Edmund Randolph (the former U.S. Attorney General) and William Wirt in Swinney’s defense. Presiding over the infamous trial were Judges Joseph Prentis and John Tyler, Sr. With first-hand testimony from Black witnesses not permitted by law, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty, and the indictment in the murder of Michael Brown was quashed without trial.