Mock Trial State v. Mann

    When discussing the case of State v. Mann, ethics are an essential topic of discussion concerning the case. To start it off, the term utilitarianism comes into play here, as it is defined as the doctrine that actions are right if they benefit the majority. Immediately, slavery has a deep connection to utilitarianism as it is an institution that benefits the majority of the American economy, white rich slave owners. As these slave owners prosper from the work of their "property," the slaves who work tirelessly day and night are rewarded with harsh living and working conditions and are treated like they are nothing. In my eyes, the human spirit is the human spirit, whether you are deemed property or a citizen of our nation. Regarding State v. Mann, Lydia was a humble slave who was owned by Josiah Small, who lent her to John Mann as a rental. She had lived a poor life, as slaves stated before, working in the fields of a plantation for countless hours each day with no repayment for her grueling work. One day, Lydia had enough of her poor lifestyle and attempted to escape from Mann's plantation. Upon finding her attempting to run away, Mann fired his gun at Lydia and shot her in the back. 

    Mann's decision to fire a slave who was not under his ownership is where ethics come into play again in this case. Slaves had attempted to escape for years until this point and had been shot, branded, and among other forms of punishment for their actions. However, these past slaves were punished by their rightful owners, who had the jurisdiction to act however they pleased on their property. John Mann endangered the life of not just a fellow human, but one that was not his to be punished the horrendous way Lydia was. The only person who was entitled to punishing Lydia was her rightful owner, Josiah Small, not John Mann. 

    

Apart from the treatment of slaves, especially Lydia, there is another ethical side to the story. Slavery as a whole is an extremely popular way to farm crops here in the United States. However, there are several economic downsides to the use of a human to farm mass amounts of crops. There is the excess of time it takes for a human to farm crops and do the job meant for an animal or the invention of a machine to do so. We have wasted years of technological innovation by relying on slaves to do this work. Along with that, with mass farming, plantation owners have fewer crops to grow and sell due to over-farming and the destruction of the soil used to grow the crops. In turn, this has hurt the economy as slavery is seen as a positive to the American economy with crops being sold in a short-term way rather than a long-term way. 

    With over-farming damaging the economy, the rich white slave owners are only benefiting as they are selling crops with no tax or potential loss of profit from the free labor being exercised. With slavery growing in popularity in America, more and more slaves are being shipped to the mainland from foreign countries, growing the lower class. Simultaneously, the upper class grows in strength with all the money of slavery going to the rich, there is no buildup of the middle class in society. In a sense, the rich get richer and the poor get even more poor. This is a recipe for disaster for our nation, and it all stems from the ethics of slavery, especially the ethics of the case of State v. Mann. A change needs to be made here in our bleeding nation—an ethical change to save society from failure.