Alice Clifton was an enslaved African-American woman owned 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 in order 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. At the time of the trial, Clifton was between fifteen and sixteen years old. 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 involves 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 herself was never able to defend her actions. 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. A significant number of those questioned were medically trained, thus giving the trial a heavy focus on the medical evidence of the crime as well as the alleged perpetrator. Alice Clifton, in speaking with the doctors, originally tried to defend herself by claiming that the baby had been born dead. However, once the medical examiners made the observation 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. At the conclusion of 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 despite the fact that many juries ruled for less devastating sentences. Clifton's status as a slave woman combined with her infanticide charges being regarded as the harm of someone else's property left Clifton vulnerable to the death sentence. Those observing the case, however, opposed this punishment so passionately that they rioted in order to spare Clifton's life. As a result of this mob, Clifton was not put to death despite her sentencing. It is unknown as to what happened to Alice Clifton following the events of this trial. The