Alice Clifton


Alice Clifton was an African-American woman enslaved by John Bartholomew in Philadelphia. She was brought to trial on April 18, 1787, for the murder of her infant daughter, found guilty, and sentenced to death. Following the sentence, a mob formed to prevent her execution out of protest for unjust circumstances because she was coerced into killing her baby by the father of the child, Jack Shaffer. Clifton was between fifteen and sixteen years old at the time of the trial. Clifton was mentioned in only one primary source known to date, the court record for her case.

Trial

In 1787, Alice Clifton was brought to trial for slitting her child's throat with a razor. The trial itself involved Alice Clifton very little, if at all. In fact, according to the court documentation, Alice Clifton was never called to testify. Many individuals were questioned in the trial, yet Clifton was barred from testifying in her defense. Individuals such as the Coroner, Mr. Bartholomew, and multiple doctors who examined the baby's and Clifton's bodies were brought for examination before the court. Many of those questioned were medically trained, thus giving the trial a heavy focus on the medical evidence of the crime and the alleged perpetrator. Alice Clifton, in speaking with the doctors, initially tried to defend herself by claiming that the baby had been born dead. However, once the medical examiners observed that the baby was too old to have been that recently born and had bled too much from the throat wound for a newborn infant, that possibility was eliminated.
After the hearing, the jury found Alice Clifton guilty of infanticide, and the following Saturday, she was brought into court to receive a death sentence. Up until the year of Clifton's trial, infanticide was considered a capital crime even though many juries ruled for less severe sentences. Clifton's status as an enslaved woman, combined with her infanticide charges being regarded as the harm of someone else's property, contributed to her death sentence. However, those observing the case opposed this punishment so passionately that they rioted to spare Clifton's life. As a result of this mob, Clifton was not executed. What happened to Alice Clifton following the events of this trial is unknown.
In the court record, the baby's father is found to be Jack Shaffer. Doctor Foulke, one of the doctors questioned in the court record, testified that Clifton confessed to him many incidences of forced sex by Jack Shaffer, resulting in the birth of her daughter. She also claimed that Shaffer had persuaded her to murder the baby. In exchange, he would purchase her freedom, put her up in his house, and make her his lady if she were to commit the murder.

Analysis

Throughout early America, enslaved girls and women were valued for their childbearing and labor capabilities. Many enslavers would enslave girls and women specifically to bear children so that they could increase the number of people they enslaved. Consequently, birth rates among enslaved African girls and women were significantly higher than those of white women both in North America and in Europe. In Alice Clifton's case, as well as others involving slave infanticide, the murdered child was considered to be destroyed the property of the enslaver, adding a legal dimension to the situation. Many African American women used abortifacients in an attempt to control their birth rates, which could have been done for many reasons, including not wanting to bear a child into slavery or claiming agency over their own body by being the ones to determine if and when they had children. The fact that Clifton's child may also have been fathered through instances of sexual violence also most likely had a significant effect on Alice's decision to take her daughter's life. Following Clifton's trial, Jack Shaffer was put on trial for these assaults against Clifton. However, Shaffer, known to the town as "The Fat Shaffer" and generally disliked, was not charged with rape, but rather the equivalence of damaging property and was not found guilty for even this crime. Clifton's identity as an enslaved girl, like many in early America, probably contributed to this lack of guilty verdict due to the low status she held in society and the general belief that her body was not something she had ownership over.