Freedom suits
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and its territories before the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, including during the colonial period. Most were filed during the nineteenth century. After the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, most northern states had abolished slavery, and the United States Congress prohibited it in some newly established territories. Slave states and territories had slave laws that created "just subjection." They also had laws that provided for slaves to sue on the basis of "wrongful enslavement."
Free states and territories generally held that slaveholders forfeited their rights to "property" by bringing slaves into the state for extended travel or residency. As people began migrating and traveling more frequently, residency changes provided grounds for some slaves to sue for freedom. Courts in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
freed numerous slaves on the grounds of their having been held illegally in free states. Other grounds were that the person was freeborn and illegally held in slavery, or that the person was illegally held because of having been descended from a freeborn woman in the maternal line. The principle of partus sequitur ventrem, established that children at birth took the status of the mother. It was first incorporated into English colonial slavery law in 1662 in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. Partus was adopted into law by other English colonies, and the states of the United States.
By 1846, several hundred such cases had been tried in state courts across the country. Slaves had gained freedom in 57 percent of the 575 freedom suits decided in state appellate courts. The largest corpus of freedom suits available to researchers today is in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, where 301 files dating from 1814-1860 are among St. Louis Circuit Court Records discovered in the 1990s. Slightly less than half the slaves in these cases gained freedom. The Missouri History Museum
Missouri History Museum
The Missouri History Museum is located in St. Louis, Missouri in Forest Park. The museum is operated by the Missouri Historical Society and was founded in 1866...
's research center maintains an online searchable database of the freedom suits.
The first freedom suit in St. Louis was filed in 1805 by Marguerite Scypion, an African-Natchez
Natchez people
The Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi. They spoke a language isolate that has no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek...
woman. Briefly, she filed based on maternal descent from her Natchez grandmother. As the Spanish had ended Indian slavery in 1769, Scypion held that her mother, Marie-Jean Scypion, should have been freed at the time based on her Natchez ancestry, and that Marguerite herself was illegally held as a slave from birth. Having had an earlier ruling in her favor overturned on appeal, in 1826 Marguerite Scypion renewed her suit for freedom, filing against her current master Jean Pierre Chouteau
Jean Pierre Chouteau
Jean Pierre Chouteau was a French-Canadian fur trader, merchant, politician and slaveholder. An early settler of St. Louis, Missouri, he became one its most prominent citizens. He and his brother Auguste Chouteau, known as the "river barons", negotiated the many political changes as the city...
, who headed one of the most prominent fur trading families in the city. She gained freedom for herself and all her mother's descendants in 1836, in a decision upheld by the US Supreme Court.
As the city was the "Gateway to the West", and Missouri was admitted as a slave state (bordered by free states), the St. Louis courts heard many freedom suits. If the court held there was a basis for the suit, it appointed counsel for slave plaintiffs. Many leading attorneys in St. Louis worked on slave suits. In 1824, the Missouri courts established the precedent known as "once free, always free", freeing slaves in Missouri based on their having been held by their masters illegally in free states or territories. This held for decades until 1852 and the Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford, , also known as the Dred Scott Decision, was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent brought into the United States and held as slaves were not protected by the Constitution and could never be U.S...
decision, which ruled that Scott should have filed for freedom while in a free state.
History
United States slavery case law began during its colonial period. In North America, different laws prevailed in the colonies ruled by the English, Spanish and French. The freedom suits originated at the colonial, county, territorial and state court levels, and several important nineteenth-century cases were appealed to the United States Supreme Court. In part because men could more easily escape from slavery, a relatively high proportion of freedom suits were brought by women, on behalf of themselves and their children. In a paradox noted by the scholar Edlie Wong in her book Neither Fugitive nor Free (2009), slave states had statutes that provided for slaves to sue for "wrongful enslavement", based on slave laws that established "just subjection".With the development in the early nineteenth century of free states and territories, tensions began to grow between them and the slave states. Generally the free jurisdictions passed laws that slaveholders forfeited their rights to "property" by bringing slaves into the state for extended travel or residency. During the period before the Civil War, as thousands of people migrated west, slave law developed based on the challenges of such travel-related conditions. While the following states allowed slavery, the courts of Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
respected the laws of free jurisdictions; and juries freed numerous slaves on the grounds of their having been held illegally in free states.
The St. Louis Circuit Court heard numerous freedom suits; the city's function as the "Gateway to the West" and its connection to major continental rivers meant that it was a center of travel for decades between free and slave territories. Army officers and others settled in Missouri after having held their slaves in free territories; others traveled through the city on their way to free territories. The nearby city of Alton
Alton, Illinois
Alton is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 27,865 at the 2010 census. It is a part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area in Southern Illinois...
in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
became a center of abolitionist activities, and St. Louis developed its own network of people who supported slaves seeking freedom. Prominent attorneys were among those appointed as counsel by the court to argue for slaves' seeking freedom. For instance, Hamilton Gamble, a future governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of the state, and Isaac McGirk, brother of a future State Supreme Court justice, were appointed in 1825 to represent Marguerite
Marguerite (woman of color)
Marguerite Scypion, also known in court files as Marguerite , was an African-Natchez woman, born into slavery in Saint Louis, Missouri Territory. She was held first by Joseph Tayon and later by Jean Pierre Chouteau, one of the most powerful men in the city...
. Slaves also recruited their own help; for instance, Polly Wash
Polly Berry
Polly Berry, also known as Polly Crockett and Polly Wash , was an enslaved African American woman who on October 3, 1839 filed a freedom suit in St. Louis, Missouri, which she won in 1843 based on having been held illegally as a slave for an extended period of time in the free state of Illinois...
(see below) enlisted Edward Bates
Edward Bates
Edward Bates was a U.S. lawyer and statesman. He served as United States Attorney General under Abraham Lincoln from 1861 to 1864...
, a judge and the future Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
in President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's cabinet, to argue in her daughter's freedom suit.
As sectional tensions rose, state court decisions began to go against travel cases, culminating in the Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford, , also known as the Dred Scott Decision, was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent brought into the United States and held as slaves were not protected by the Constitution and could never be U.S...
(1852) case in Missouri. The State Supreme Court ruled against Scott, saying that he should have sued for freedom while held in a free territory. It was the end of the "once free, always free" precedent that the Missouri court had previously applied. Appealed to the US Supreme Court, the case met a more stringent ruling in 1857, with Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
Roger Taney determining that Congress did not have the constitutional power to regulate slavery, as it was protected under the constitution; that the Missouri Compromise
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30'...
, by which Congress established boundaries for slavery, was unconstitutional; and that slaves and free people of color
Free people of color
A free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
had no legal standing in the federal courts, as ethnic Africans were not included in the original conception of citizens of the new United States.
In the 1990s, researchers studying the St. Louis Circuit Court Records found 301 freedom suit files dating from 1814-1860. St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
has the largest extant corpus of freedom suit case files available to researchers in the United States. The Missouri History Museum research center maintains an online searchable database of the freedom suits and other cases from this period, including scanned images of the original documents.
Selected notable cases
- 1656, Elizabeth KeyElizabeth Key GrinsteadElizabeth Key Grinstead was the first woman of African ancestry in the North American colonies to sue for her freedom from slavery and win. Elizabeth Key won her freedom and that of her infant son John Grinstead on July 21, 1656 in the colony of Virginia. She sued based on the fact that her...
of Virginia filed the first freedom suit by a woman of African descent and won as a free woman of colorFree people of colorA free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
. The mixed-race child of an enslaved black mother and the white planter Thomas Key, she sued for her freedom and that of her infant son, John Grinstead, on the basis that her father was a free English subject, she was a baptized ChristianChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, and she had served ten years past the term of her indentureIndentureAn indenture is a legal contract reflecting a debt or purchase obligation, specifically referring to two types of practices: in historical usage, an indentured servant status, and in modern usage, an instrument used for commercial debt or real estate transaction.-Historical usage:An indenture is a...
. In English common lawCommon lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
, children of English subjects took the status of the father(partuus sequitur patrem). But, at this time Africans were not considered English subjects, as they were foreigners. England had no provision for foreigners to become subjects. In the early years of the colony, the law was unsettled about the status of children born to an English subject and a foreigner. Taunya Lovell Banks's analysis of this case suggests it turned more on the issue of "subjecthood" than about citizenship or race.
- To settle the issue, in 1662 Virginia passed a law incorporating the Roman principle of partus sequitur ventrem, referred to as partus, which held that a child inherited the status of its mother, "bond or free". All children of enslaved women were thus born into slavery, regardless of their fathers. The law hardened the racial casteCasteCaste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
of slavery, as most of the "bondswomen" were ethnic Africans and therefore considered foreigners. The principle was adopted by other English colonies, and later incorporated into slavery law in the United States.
- 1781, Brom and Bett v. Ashley, County Court, Great Barrington, MassachusettsGreat Barrington, MassachusettsGreat Barrington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,104 at the 2010 census. Both a summer resort and home to Ski Butternut, Great Barrington includes the villages of Van...
. This case set a state precedent based on the ruling that slavery was irreconcilable with the new state constitution of 1780, which was based on equality of persons, although it did not specifically address slavery. This county court case was cited in the appeal of the more well-known case of Quock WalkerQuock WalkerQuock Walker, also known as Kwaku or Quok Walker , was an American slave who sued for and won his freedom in June 1781 in a case citing language in the new Massachusetts Constitution that declared all men to be born free and equal...
v. Jennison (1783), heard at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which effectively ended slavery in Massachusetts.
- 1805 - 1836, Marguerite Scypion v. Pierre Chouteau, Sr., St. Louis, Missouri. Marguerite, a descendant of Marie Jean Scypion, an enslaved African-NatchezNatchez peopleThe Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi. They spoke a language isolate that has no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek...
woman, sued her first master Joseph Tayon in 1805. Her suit was based on her maternal descent from a Natchez maternal grandmother. She held that her mother was illegally held after Spain abolished Indian slavery in 1769, so her daughters, including Marguerite, should have been considered free at birth and not born into slavery. This was the first freedom suit filed in St. Louis. Although the jury ruled in Scypion's favor, a higher territorial court overturned the decision.
- After passage in 1824 of a state law related to slaves' right to file for freedom, in 1825 Scypion and her two sisters filed new petitions against their masters, then Jean Pierre ChouteauJean Pierre ChouteauJean Pierre Chouteau was a French-Canadian fur trader, merchant, politician and slaveholder. An early settler of St. Louis, Missouri, he became one its most prominent citizens. He and his brother Auguste Chouteau, known as the "river barons", negotiated the many political changes as the city...
and two Tayon daughters. For such suits, the law gave slaves the standing of a free poor person, "with limited rights and privileges." The cases were combined under Marguerite Scypion's name. After their attorney successfully gained two changes of venue away from St. Louis for the trial, a unanimous jury in Jefferson County in 1836 decided in favor of the descendants of Marie Jean Scypion and ended Indian slavery in Missouri. The decision survived appeals to the State Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court in 1838.
- 1824, Winny v. Whitesides (1824), St. Louis, is the first freedom suit taken to the newly established Missouri state supreme court. Winny had lived as a slave with her masters in the free state of Illinois for years; she filed for freedom after they moved to Missouri. The case marked the beginning of the "once free, always free" era in Missouri. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that if a slave had been taken into an area that prohibited slavery, that slave was free – even if returned to a slave state, such as Missouri. Missouri established a precedent of enforcing the laws of neighboring free states and territories related to forfeiture of illegally held slaves. "Courts in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi also upheld the freedom of slaves who had lived in a free state or territory." The precedent prevailed in Missouri until 1852, when the state Supreme Court ruled against it in Dred Scott v. Sanford, against a political background of increasing sectional tensions over slavery.
- 1830, Charlotte DupuyCharlotte DupuyCharlotte Dupuy, also called Lottie Charlotte Dupuy was still living in 1860. She and her husband Aaron were listed by name as free persons in the 1860 Census for Fayette County, Kentucky. They were respectively 70 and 76 years old...
v. Henry Clay, Washington, DC. In 1829 Charlotte Dupuy sued Henry ClayHenry ClayHenry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
, the retiring Secretary of StateSecretary of StateSecretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
, for her freedom and that of her two children based on a promise by a previous master. The case received wide attention in the press. Dupuy gained a court ruling that she remain in the city until her case was heard. She earned wages from Clay's successor, Martin Van BurenMartin Van BurenMartin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
, while living at Decatur HouseDecatur HouseDecatur House is a historic home in Washington, D.C., named after its first owner and occupant Stephen Decatur. The house is located northwest of Lafayette Square, at the southwest corner of Jackson Place and H Street, near the White House...
for 18 months. The case was notable for these circumstances. After the court ruled against Dupuy in 1830, Clay kept her and her daughter enslaved for another decade; he freed her son four years after that. The Decatur House has had exhibits on urban slavery and Dupuy's case. The story of the Dupuy family is also featured at the Isaac Scott HathawayIsaac Scott HathawayIsaac Scott Hathaway was an African American artist who worked in different genres of art, including ceramics and sculpture.Isaac Scott Hathaway was born in 1872, although some resources say 1874, in Lexington, Kentucky. He was born to the Reverend Hathaway and his wife and was the youngest of...
Museum of Lexington, KentuckyLexington, KentuckyLexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
.
- 1834, Rachel v. WalkerRachel V. WalkerRachel v. Walker was a "freedom suit" filed by Rachel, an African-American slave in the St. Louis Circuit Court. She petitioned for her freedom and that of her son James Henry from William Walker , based on having been held illegally as a slave by a previous master, an Army officer, in the free...
, St. Louis, Missouri. Surviving appeal to the State Supreme Court, the ruling held that "if an officer of the United States Army takes a slave to a territory where slavery is prohibited, he forfeits his property." Officers had tried to argue that they could not control their assignments and should not have to forfeit their property. At one time, the US Army paid officers a stipend for servants. No substantive freedom suits based on prior travel or residency in free territories reached the Missouri Supreme Court from 1837–1852, making it appear that the issue was settled in favor of freedom for slaves thus affected.
- 1836, Commonwealth v. AvesLemuel ShawLemuel Shaw was an American jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court...
vi, 18 Pick. 193 Boston, Massachusetts. When New Orleans resident Mary Slater visited her father Thoma Aves in Boston, she brought her slave girl Med. In Boston, Slater fell ill and asked her father to care for Med. The Boston Female Anti-Slavery SocietyBoston Female Anti-Slavery SocietyThe Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist, interracial organization in Boston, Massachusetts, in the mid-19th century. "During its brief history .....
and others sought a writ of habeas corpusHabeas corpusis a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
against Aves, contending that Med became free by Slater's having brought her voluntarily into the free state. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that Med was free, and made her a ward of the court. The Massachusetts decision was considered notable for ruling that a slave whom a master voluntarily brought into a free state became free from the first moment of arrival; freedom did not require the master's establishing residency. The decision angered Southerners.
- 1844 Polly Wash v. David D. Mitchell, St. Louis, Missouri. Polly BerryPolly BerryPolly Berry, also known as Polly Crockett and Polly Wash , was an enslaved African American woman who on October 3, 1839 filed a freedom suit in St. Louis, Missouri, which she won in 1843 based on having been held illegally as a slave for an extended period of time in the free state of Illinois...
(filing as Polly Wash) was the mother of Lucy Ann Berry, and sued for her daughter's freedom in 1842. By 1844 Wash had secured her own freedom, based on having been held illegally as a slave in the free state of Illinois. When her daughter's case was heard later that year, the jury voted in favor of Wash (and Berry), freeing the girl. Nearly 50 years later, the then-married Lucy DelaneyLucy DelaneyLucy Ann Delaney, born Lucy Berry , was an African-American author, former slave, and activist, notable for her 1891 narrative From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom...
published her memoir, the only first-person account of a freedom suit.
- 1852 Scott v. Emerson. The legal scholar Edlie Wong has noted that the case was shaped by Harriet and Dred Scott's desire to achieve freedom and to protect their two young daughters Eliza and Lizzie, who were of salable age and at great risk in slave markets by the time it was settled. By the 1850s, southern juries were less willing to grant freedom to slaves based on their residence in free states. In 1852 the Missouri state supreme court ruled that Scott's residence in a free state did not entitle him to freedom after he returned to Missouri. Its ruling that he should have sued for freedom while in a free state, was a de facto end to the precedent of "once free, always free" in the state.
- 1857 Dred Scott v. SandfordDred Scott v. SandfordDred Scott v. Sandford, , also known as the Dred Scott Decision, was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent brought into the United States and held as slaves were not protected by the Constitution and could never be U.S...
, the US Supreme Court decision was more severe, finding that slaves had no legal status in federal courts as citizens, and that Congress had no constitutional right to prohibit slavery in any state or territory. While the case has been often discussed in terms of Dred Scott's individual rights, the couple were seeking freedom for both of them and especially to protect their two daughters. The scholar Edlie Wong has assessed the case as a "history of litigation profoundly shaped by gender and kinship."
Further reading
- Jeannine Delombard, Slavery On Trial: Law, Abolitionism, and Print Culture, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007
External links
- "Freedom Suits", African-American Life in St. Louis, 1804-1865, from the Records of the St. Louis Courts, Jefferson National Expansion MemorialJefferson National Expansion MemorialThe Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It was designated as a National Memorial by Executive Order 7523, on December 21, 1935, and is maintained by the National Park Service .The park was established to...
, National Park Service