This case is about slaves or slavery.
| Year: | 1861 |
| Citation: | 17 Md. 183 |
| Jurisdiction: | Maryland |
| People: | |
| Short Summary: | Charging the plaintiff with adultery (a pecuniary fine) but not sufficient to maintain an action. Note that the words for which the charge follows accuse the plaintiff of having unlawful sexual intercorse with a black woman who gave him a sexually transmitted disease. The actual statement uses a racial slur for the woman. Holding that an action of slander cannot be sustained for an accusation in which the punishment is merely precuniary as the primary punishment even if imprisonment is prescribed by statute |
| Law type: | |
| Full name: | Jacob Wagaman vs. George R. Byers |
| Court: | Court of Appeals of Maryland |