SAM (DICKSON)

In Larry Shuck's Greenbrier County Court Records on page 295 there is an account of the trial of SAM which took place around 10/1/1832 in Lewisburg, Greenbrier County. Sam was enslaved by Robert Dixon. Sam was charged with arson. Ten enslaved individuals and a free man named Arch Taylor were called as witnesses. Sam was found guilty and he was sentenced to be hanged on the 23rd day of November. His value was assessed at $450. In Helen Stinson's Greenbrier County court records she gives the same account but she lists the owner as Robert Dickinson. She states that it was ordered that Sam be "hanged by the neck until dead". James B. Bowlen was allowed $45. for defending the prisoner (Sam).