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Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War
Counterfeit Justice: The Judicial Odyssey of Texas Freedwoman Azeline Hearne
For many of the forty years of her life as a slave, Azeline Hearne cohabitated with her wealthy, unmarried master, Samuel R. Hearne. She bore him four children, only one of whom survived past early childhood. When Sam died shortly after the Civil War ended, he publicly acknowledged his relationship with Azeline and bequeathed his entire estate to their twenty-year-old mulatto son, with the provision that he take care of his mother. When their son died early in 1868, Azeline inherited one of the most profitable cotton plantations in Texas and became one of the wealthiest ex-slaves in the former Confederacy. In Counterfeit Justice, Dale Baum traces Azeline’s remarkable story, detailing her ongoing legal battles to claim and maintain her legacy.
As Baum shows, Azeline’s inheritance quickly made her a target for predatory whites determined to strip her of her land. A familiar figure at the Robertson County District Court from the late 1860s to the early 1880s, Azeline faced numerous lawsuits—including one filed against her by her own lawyer. Samuel Hearne’s family took steps to dispossess her, and other unscrupulous white men challenged the title to her plantation, using claims based on old Spanish land grants. Azeline’s prolonged and courageous defense of her rightful title brought her a certain the first freedwoman to be a party to three separate civil lawsuits appealed all the way to the Texas Supreme Court and the first former slave in Robertson County indicted on criminal charges of perjury. Although repeatedly blocked and frustrated by the convolutions of the legal system, she evolved from a bewildered defendant to a determined plaintiff who, in one extraordinary lawsuit, came tantalizingly close to achieving revenge against those who defrauded her for over a decade.
Due to gaps in the available historical record and the unreliability of secondary accounts based on local Reconstruction folklore, many of the details of Azeline’s story are lost to history. But Baum grounds his speculation about her life in recent scholarship on the Reconstruction era, and he puts his findings in context in the history of Robertson County. Although history has not credited Azeline Hearne with influencing the course of the law, the story of her uniquely difficult position after the Civil War gives an unprecedented view of the era and of one solitary woman’s attempt to negotiate its social and legal complexities in her struggle to find justice.
Baum’s meticulously researched narrative will be of keen interest to legal scholars and to all those interested in the plight of freed slaves during this era.
As Baum shows, Azeline’s inheritance quickly made her a target for predatory whites determined to strip her of her land. A familiar figure at the Robertson County District Court from the late 1860s to the early 1880s, Azeline faced numerous lawsuits—including one filed against her by her own lawyer. Samuel Hearne’s family took steps to dispossess her, and other unscrupulous white men challenged the title to her plantation, using claims based on old Spanish land grants. Azeline’s prolonged and courageous defense of her rightful title brought her a certain the first freedwoman to be a party to three separate civil lawsuits appealed all the way to the Texas Supreme Court and the first former slave in Robertson County indicted on criminal charges of perjury. Although repeatedly blocked and frustrated by the convolutions of the legal system, she evolved from a bewildered defendant to a determined plaintiff who, in one extraordinary lawsuit, came tantalizingly close to achieving revenge against those who defrauded her for over a decade.
Due to gaps in the available historical record and the unreliability of secondary accounts based on local Reconstruction folklore, many of the details of Azeline’s story are lost to history. But Baum grounds his speculation about her life in recent scholarship on the Reconstruction era, and he puts his findings in context in the history of Robertson County. Although history has not credited Azeline Hearne with influencing the course of the law, the story of her uniquely difficult position after the Civil War gives an unprecedented view of the era and of one solitary woman’s attempt to negotiate its social and legal complexities in her struggle to find justice.
Baum’s meticulously researched narrative will be of keen interest to legal scholars and to all those interested in the plight of freed slaves during this era.
- GenresHistory
329 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
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About the author
Dale Baum
6 books1 followerA native of New Jersey and a Vietnam era veteran, Dale Baum is professor emeritus at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on nineteenth-century American political, social, and legal history.
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December 30, 2019
This is a very thorough look at the life of Azeline Hearne. Hearne was a freedwoman in Texas who, during the Reconstruction era endured years of lawsuits contesting the will and estate of her former slave owner, Samuel Hearne. Sam Hearne was not only Azeline's owner but her lover as well. They cohabitated during a time when miscegenation was highly frowned upon. They had several children but only one son lived to adulthood. Sam left his estate to his son Dock Hearne with the stipulation that he would support and care for his mother, Azeline, and should Dock precede Azeline in death, the estate would then be left to her.
That is indeed what happened as Dock died in his 30s from smallpox. In the years following the deaths of both men, Azeline was sued by Hearne's extended family and multiple men who all had designs on the Hearne estate, a prosperous cotton plantation in the Brazos River Valley of Texas. These suits were appealed all the way to the Texas Supreme Court. At one time, there were three suits pending with the higher court. The suits would sometimes end in Azeline's favor often being overturned against her. Her final effort was to sue her own lawyer who failed to make sure she was cared for and who also failed to file proper tax documents throughout the years.
Azeline's story is a sad one but one that shows the gumption that she had to persevere for what was intended to be hers and for the human rights of freedwomen in the Reconstruction era.
That is indeed what happened as Dock died in his 30s from smallpox. In the years following the deaths of both men, Azeline was sued by Hearne's extended family and multiple men who all had designs on the Hearne estate, a prosperous cotton plantation in the Brazos River Valley of Texas. These suits were appealed all the way to the Texas Supreme Court. At one time, there were three suits pending with the higher court. The suits would sometimes end in Azeline's favor often being overturned against her. Her final effort was to sue her own lawyer who failed to make sure she was cared for and who also failed to file proper tax documents throughout the years.
Azeline's story is a sad one but one that shows the gumption that she had to persevere for what was intended to be hers and for the human rights of freedwomen in the Reconstruction era.
Displaying 1 of 1 review