The Slaughter-house Case

The Slaughter-house Case

Newspaper coverage of the United States Supreme Court decision on the Slaughterhouse Cases

In this edition of the New National Era, weekly newspaper owned by and published for African Americans, a concerned African American questions the effects of the Slaughterhouse Cases. The Slaughterhouse Cases have often overshadowed Bradwell v. Illinois since it was decided a day earlier, but both questions ask if the same question: does the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee a person’s ability to choose a form of employment?
The details of the case are outlined in this article, but overall a group of butchers in Louisiana felt that their employment rights had been denied, like Bradwell. Also like Bradwell, the Supreme Court ruled against the butchers, citing that the amendment was not intended to protect employment.
The author of this article worries that if the Court ruled against white men, "will the Constitution protect the black man where it does not the white?" The circled section highlights where the author points to Myra Bradwell’s case to prove how the ruling has already struck down the rights of one minority.
This article shows how not only women, but also African Americans, saw Bradwell’s loss in the Supreme Court as a threat against their own rights.

Samuel R. Scottron

New National Era Newspaper, Vol. IV, no. 24

Library of Congress, Frederick Douglass Newspapers collection- https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026753/1873-06-19/ed-1/?sp=1&r=-0.049,0.044,0.883,0.404,0

June 19, 1873

Library of Congress, Serial and Government Publications Division: The contents of the Frederick Douglass Newspapers collection are in the public domain and are free to use and reuse.

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The "Slaughter-house case"

At least one other case was lost before that adjournment of the court by the same objectionable line of reasoning as to the protection afforded by the amendments to citizens of the United States, that of Myra Bradwell, plaintiff in error vs. The State of Illinois. I believe it will be well for our people in the Southern States to keep a watchful eye on all such schemes, and prevent, if possible, the granting of special and exclusive rights to companies thereby setting a precedent which many be turned to their disadvantage when their enemies are in power.

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