John Belton O'Neall (1793–1863) was an American judge who served on the precursor to the
South Carolina Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of South Carolina is the highest court in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The court is composed of a chief justice and four associate justices. . He is remembered for writing the digest ''
The Negro Law of South Carolina''.
Early life and education
O'Neall graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) in December 1812 and began teaching at Newberry Academy.
Legal career
Admitted to the bar in South Carolina in May 1814, he began his legal practice, and soon his political career. He was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1816 from the Newberry, South Carolina area.
He was elected again in 1822, and in 1824, he served as the Speaker of the
South Carolina House of Representatives
The South Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly. It consists of 124 representatives elected to two-year terms at the same time as U.S. congressional elections.
Unlike many legislatures, seatin ...
.
He was first elected as a trial judge in 1828, and in 1830 was elected a judge on the South Carolina Court of Appeals. Following reforms to South Carolina's judicial branch, he was elected to serve as Chief Justice and President of the South Carolina Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state.
In 1848 O'Neall (who was reported by a personal acquaintance to have owned "about 150" slaves and to have been "a most humane master") wrote a digest of the
negro law of South Carolina, which he read to the State Agricultural Society. The Society directed him to submit the document to the governor, with a request that he would lay it before the legislature, at its approaching session in November 1848. His book was extremely controversial due to what was perceived by many slaveholding South Carolinians of the time to be its
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world.
The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...
-influenced advocacy of sharply reducing the number of crimes for which slaves could be put to death under South Carolina laws. The Columbia, S.C. "Telegraph" newspaper reported that the Judiciary Committee of the South Carolina state legislature declared "The Negro Law in South Carolina" to be "an objectionable book"; and the Telegraph's editors appear to have not only denounced the book for promoting "amalgamation" of the races but also to have joined calls for the book to be withdrawn from circulation.
Death
O'Neall died on December 27, 1863.
See also
*
The Negro Law of South Carolina
References
Justices of the South Carolina Supreme Court
Chief justices of the South Carolina Supreme Court
People from South Carolina
1793 births
1863 deaths
19th-century South Carolina state court judges
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