This person’s grand-nephew, George Sweeney, was tried for his murder via arsenic poisoning, but the dismissal of his Black female housekeeper’s testimony against a White man meant that he was acquitted. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this early American politician, lawyer, and mentor to Thomas Jefferson. He was the addressee of John Adams’s “Thoughts on Government,” served as a Virginia Delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and outlined the Model Treaty.
ANSWER: George Wythe
[10m] Wythe served as attorney general for Virginia when a politician with this last name was visiting England to appeal Governor Robert Dinwiddie charging fees for land patents. A politician with this last name, who defended George Sweeney during his trial, previously served as the first Attorney General of the United States.
ANSWER: Randolph [accept Edmund Randolph or Peyton Randolph]
[10e] Like many other early American politicians, Wythe opposed this British act that required many paper materials to be printed on taxed paper.
ANSWER: Stamp Act of 1765
<AD, American History>