People
Meet the many people who argued for and against carceral, institutional, and interpersonal confinement in the petitions filed in County and District Courts throughout the American West over the long nineteenth century. Browse or search people by name, demographic characteristics, case role, and/or relationships described in each petition. Our encoding practice for people features data pulled from the available case files and in some instances additional data from supplemental sources is also included. Only people with case roles are indexed here, while all persons named in a case are listed on the case page. The Glossary defines the attributes used to structure data from the habeas petitions. The Code Book explains the relational structure of the data and functionality of the database website.
Featured story: Lucía Martínez: Yaqui Arizona, 1854-1900
Basic Search
Simply enter the word you wish to find and the search engine will search for every instance of the word in the journals. For example: Fight. All instances of the use of the word fight will show up on the results page.
Wildcard Searches
Using an asterisk (*) will increase the odds of finding the results you are seeking. For example: Fight*. The search results will display every instance of fight, fights, fighting, etc. More than one wildcard may be used. For example: *ricar*. This search will return most references to the Aricara tribe, including Ricara, Ricares, Aricaris, Ricaries, Ricaree, Ricareis, and Ricarra. Using a question mark (?) instead of an asterisk (*) will allow you to search for a single character. For example, r?n will find all instances of ran and run, but will not find rain or ruin.
Capitalization
Searches are not case sensitive. For example: george will come up with the same results as George.
Phrase Search
Searching for a specific phrase may help narrow down the results. Rather long phrases are no problem. For example: "This white pudding we all esteem".
Subsequent Searches
Because of the creative spellings used by the journalists, it may be necessary to try your search multiple times. For example: P?ro*. This search brings up numerous variant spellings of the French word pirogue, "a large dugout canoe or open boat." Searching for P?*r*og?* will bring up other variant spellings. Searching for canoe or boat also may be helpful.
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Age Category
- Adult 4
- Unindicated 3
- Minor 1
- Unclear 1
Cases
- Maria Whitten vs. Garland Rucker 11
- Patrick Henry vs. Garland Rucker 8
- Anson, a boy of color v. Henry G. Mitchel and Henry C. Russel 2
- By the Habeas Corpus Act, State Missouri vs. John Young 2
- Carey, a man of color vs. Benjamin Wilder 2
- Matilda By the Habeas Corpus act 2
- Michael, a boy of color vs. Henry G. Mitchel and Henry C. Russel 2
- Anson and Michael, persons of color, by and through their next friend, William Clark v. Elijah Mitchel 1
- Aspasia Petition for Habeas Corpus 1
- John Singleton vs. Alexander Scott, Robert Lewis 1
- John vs. William Campbell 1
- Leah, a woman of color v. Arthur Mitchel 1
- Mahala, a free woman of color v. Martin Mitchell 1
- Malinda and Nelly, people of color, by and through their next friend, Beriah Cleland v. Robert Wilburn 1
- Marianne, a person of color vs. Elijah Mitchel, Alexander J. Fields 1
- Nathan Cole, a person of color v. Elijah Mitchel 1
- Peter, a free man of color vs. James Walton, George Walton 1
- Vincent Duncan vs. James Duncan 1
11 results
Download JSON Download CSVCarr, William C.
- Birth date: April 15, 1783
- Birth place: Virginia, United States
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: White
- Case role(s): Judge, authority ordering detention
Gamble, Hamilton Rowan
- Birth date: November 29, 1798
- Birth place: Virginia
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: White
- Case role(s): Respondent attorney
Henry, Patrick
- Birth date: N.D.
- Birth place: Virginia
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Colored
- Case role(s): Petitioner, bound party
Newman, John
- Birth date: N.D.
- Birth place: Unknown
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Unknown
- Case role(s): Petitioner attorney
Nichols, Abel B.
- Birth date: N.D.
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Unknown
Patrick, Abraham Powell
- Birth date: N.D.
- Birth place: Unknown
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Unknown
Rucker, Garland
- Birth date: N.D.
- Birth place: Unknown
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Unclear
- Case role(s): Respondent, responding party, holding party
Strother, George French
- Birth date: N.D.
- Birth place: Unknown
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Unknown
- Case role(s): Petitioner attorney, respondent attorney
Whitten, John (Jesse)
- Birth date: N.D.
- Birth place: Unknown
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: White
Whitten, Maria
- Birth date: N.D.
- Birth place: Virginia
- Sex: Female
- Race or ethnicity: Black
- Case role(s): Petitioner, bound party
Whitten, William
- Birth date: N.D.
- Birth place: Unknown
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Unknown
