Fantasy & Science Fiction Mar-Apr 2013 Read Online Free PDF

evidence, no—"
    "Counsel for the defense, do you require a recess?" Justice Hall inquired. Taney was scowling in disapproval.
    "Thomas, there's a time and a place for everything. Now let me do my job." Wales straightened up. "I'll resume my statement straightaway, your Honor."
    Thomas sat helplessly as Wales concluded his speech. He did not expect the jury to confer for long, and they did not. As the courtroom settled to hear the verdict, Thomas felt a sense of dread. He listened as Hall reviewed the salient points in the case, searching for any hint as to how the judges saw Adam's status—machine or man, slave or free? But Hall kept only to the testimony presented, and Taney's expression was unreadable.
    In the end, did it matter in whose favor these men decided? Would Adam be less dead in either case?
    After Hall concluded, Taney glanced down at his notes and began. "This court was unable, given the facts presented, to determine if the entity referred to as the automaton is entirely a mechanical device or whether it, by the moiety which might be considered a human soul, has a valid claim to consideration as a person. Furthermore, we have been unable to determine whether that person, if any such exists, is to be considered a slave or a free citizen. Therefore, we have attempted to ascertain whether, at the time the Constitution was ratified, federal law would have recognized this entity as a citizen, and we have determined that it would not. A device created for the sole purpose of servitude, regardless of any hypothetical human component, must therefore be regarded under law as property."
    The jury found in favor of the plaintiff, the fine being calculated at the cost of the automaton, its repairs, and the loss of its use. Some of the onlookers gasped at the amount, far more than the value of a slave.
    After the court adjourned, Turner went up to the jury and attempted to shake their hands; some accepted, but others turned away, clearly uncomfortable.
    Only a few of the onlookers left the courtroom, and most of those had been standing at the back. Thomas got to his feet and the murmurs died. Turner, in the midst of thanking one of the jurors, stepped back.
    Thomas faced the bench. "Judge, I have not always acted according to my conscience, at times out of fear of losing what little I possess. Now that burden has been removed from me, so I say to thee, to Durham Turner, and to all in this courtroom, that if anyone knows a fugitive—slave or automaton—who needs shelter, send him to me that I might befriend him!"
    Taney glowered at Thomas, but Thomas did not flinch. Words poured from his mouth as if he were not their originator, but only the voice of the spirit that moved through him. He sensed the close attention with which his arguments were received.
    "My friends, are we not called to regard all mankind as our brethren? Was the soul placed in the automaton once a man? And must he then be our brother, for whom we ought to have the most tender care?"
    His voice swelled as he exhorted the audience to, "Quench not the spirit, but live in love and unity one with another! The same expression of God's love dwells in all of us, male and female, black and white, slave and free— and sheathed in metal ! It is as vile a practice, and as contrary to the laws of God, to keep a metal person in bondage as it is to enslave another man, for both are living souls!"
    At moments, there was such a profound silence, he might have been in Meeting. Now and again, a member of the audience hung his head or someone else hissed their displeasure.
    "Consider, friends, that a black man may escape to a free state and thereby become free. Consider that he may purchase his freedom and that of his family. But what of the automaton? We have heard testimony in this court that the boundaries of the states and their laws regarding slavery are of no account in this case. This automaton was pursued and then seized in Pennsylvania, in what ought to have been