Marguerite (woman of color)
Encyclopedia
Marguerite Scypion, also known in court files as Marguerite (free woman of color), (b. c. 1770s- d. after 1836) 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. In 1805 Marguerite filed the first "freedom suit" in the city's circuit court, 41 years before Dred Scott
and his wife Harriet filed their more well-known case
. In November 1836 Marguerite, her children; her sister and other descendants of Marie Jean Scypion, her mother, finally won their case as free people of color
. The unanimous jury decision in their favor was based on their maternal descent from a Natchez
woman, and decided in Jefferson County
. The decision withstood appeals to the state and the United States Supreme Court in 1838. The case was considered to end Indian slavery
in Missouri.
Throughout their struggle, Marguerite and her two sisters argued that their mother Marie Jean Scypion had been held illegally as a slave after 1769, because, after the Spanish
started ruling the area, the governor abolished Indian slavery
in the Louisiana Territory to make policy consistent with other Spanish colonies. Since her mother was Natchez, Marie Jean Scypion was legally free, and her descendants born after that date were, too, according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem. After a ruling in the territorial supreme court in 1806 that went against the Scypion descendants, they did not give up their desire for freedom.
Following passage of a new law in 1824 protecting slaves' right to sue against illegal enslavement, the women and their children renewed their petitions. In 1826 Marguerite Scypion and her children, and her two sisters filed separate suits against their masters. One of the Scypion sisters and some of their descendants died before the cases were finally decided. The suits were combined by the court under the name of Marguerite (free woman of color) for the final trial, and she and the other descendants of Marie Jean Scypion finally achieved freedom in 1836.
descent, whose mother Marie was Natchez. Marguerite's sisters were Celeste and Catiche. Their father was not identified. The mother and daughters were held by Joseph Tayon and his wife Marie Louise. After the two Tayon daughters married, Marie Louise Tayon assigned Celeste to Helene (Tayon) Chevalier and Catiche to Marie Louise (Tayon) Chauvin.
. For instance, after the Spanish took over in 1763, the territorial governor in 1769 prohibited Indian slavery
in the area, to make it consistent with other Spanish-controlled colonies. Faced with protests by powerful slaveholders, however, the government allowed retention of slaves of Indian descent while the Crown reviewed the issue. It forbade any sales of such slaves. The Tayon family struggled internally over holding its slaves; about 1799 the father Tayon wanted to sell Scypion and her daughters, but his daughters Chevalier and Chauvin tried to protect their servants and reminded him of their status as Indians, which prohibited their sale. The daughters refused to give him custody of the slave women, saying their mother had given the sisters to them. After his wife's death, Tayon accepted the invitation of Jean Pierre Chouteau
, a wealthy merchant and fur trader, to join his household, and took Marie Jean Scypion, Marguerite and her children with him.
By the time of the 1803 annexation of the area into the US by the Louisiana Purchase
, numerous residents of territorial Missouri still held descendants of Indians as slaves. In 1804 the Missouri Territory established slave law, generally following US state and territorial models. Officials struggled to establish the legal basis for who should be considered slaves, especially in relation to preceding law in the area. It classified as mulatto
those persons with one-quarter (equivalent to one grandparent) or more African ancestry. This restricted the rights of those who were free people of color
. The Tayon family continued to struggle; in the spring of 1804, the sisters Chevalier and Chauvin filed legal documents that declared Celeste and Catiche were free women of color, to forestall their father's planned sale of their slaves.
Three years after the death of the matriarch Marie Jean Scypion, in 1805 in the first such case in St. Louis, Marguerite Scypion filed a freedom suit against Francois Tayon, who had inherited her after his father's death. In October 1805 her sisters Celeste and Catiche filed for writs of habeas corpus
in the superior Territorial Court, supported by affidavits from Chevalier and Chauvin saying that the women lived in their households voluntarily as free women of color. The court freed Celeste and Catiche. Tayon opposed Marguerite's suit, but the court ordered him to release her as well.
Scypion's daughters asserted that as their maternal grandmother Marie was a Natchez
, her daughter Marie Jean Scypion was legally free under the 1769 Spanish proclamation. Scypion's status meant that her daughters and their descendants were also legally free people of color
, by the principle of partus sequitur ventrem. Incorporated into slavery case law in the United State since 1662 in the Virginia Colony, the principle of partus held that the children's legal status was determined by that of the mother.
The opposing lawyers argued the women should be classified as simply of African descent (and thus legally enslaved), as they had a black grandfather and were considered mulatto
under Missouri law. This was an application of a hypodescent
rule that disregarded their Native ancestry. Although the Territorial Court initially ruled in the favor of Marguerite and her sisters, the decision was reversed by a higher court. For 30 years, Scypion's descendants were held as slaves and persisted in their suits for freedom.
passed a law providing more latitude for enslaved persons to have the legal standing as "free poor persons" to sue for freedom and protecting them through the process. It provided that when the court agreed there was a basis for the suit, it would assign counsel, who would institute an action for "trespass, assault and battery, and false imprisonment" against the master. The Scypion descendants filed several suits before their cases were settled, but only the chief ones will be covered here.
In 1825 Marguerite Scypion renewed her case and sued as a free woman of color
, with Pierre Barribeau acting as "next friend" for legal standing in the freedom suit. By this time she had been sold to Pierre Chouteau, Sr., and she filed against him in the St. Louis Circuit Court. The court assigned the following attorneys: Farris, Hamilton R. Gamble (future chief justice of the State Supreme Court and governor of the state), and Isaac McGirk. (His brother Mathias McGirk became a justice of the State Supreme Court in the 1830s).
In this suit, Marguerite accused Chouteau of assault and false imprisonment for his continuing to hold her and her children in slavery. She sued for $500 in damages as a free woman of color, based on the illegal enslavement of her mother, who was of Natchez maternal ancestry. Although the judgment and appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court at first went against Marguerite and her sisters, the case was reviewed in 1834 and a new trial was ordered.
Because of the political and economic prominence of the extended Chouteau family in St. Louis, Marguerite's attorneys requested a change of venue, which the court granted. The case of Celeste and her children against the Chevaliers, and that of Catiche's surviving children against the Chauvins, were rolled into the suit so that all were decided at once. The venue was set first for St. Charles County and then moved to Jefferson County
before the case finally came to trial on November 8, 1836. Once the jury heard the case, they decided unanimously in favor of the Scypion descendants, a decision that withstood appeals up to the State Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court in 1838. All the descendants of Marie Jean Scypion were freed by this decision, and the case was considered to officially end Indian slavery in Missouri.
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, born into slavery in Saint Louis, Missouri Territory
Missouri Territory
The Territory of Missouri was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 4, 1812 until August 10, 1821, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Missouri.-History:...
. She was held first by Joseph Tayon and later by 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...
, one of the most powerful men in the city. In 1805 Marguerite filed the first "freedom suit" in the city's circuit court, 41 years before Dred Scott
Dred Scott
Dred Scott , was an African-American slave in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v...
and his wife Harriet filed their more well-known case
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...
. In November 1836 Marguerite, her children; her sister and other descendants of Marie Jean Scypion, her mother, finally won their case as 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...
. The unanimous jury decision in their favor was based on their maternal descent from a 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, and decided in Jefferson County
Jefferson County, Missouri
Jefferson County is a county located in East Central Missouri in the United States. The county was included as the mean center of U.S. population in 1980. It is the sixth most-populous county in Missouri. Census 2010 put the population at 218,733 Its county seat is Hillsboro. The county was...
. The decision withstood appeals to the state and the United States Supreme Court in 1838. The case was considered to end Indian slavery
Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas
Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas took many forms throughout North and South America. Slavery was institution among various Pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the Americas; however, chattel slavery was introduced after European and African contact. Indigenous peoples have...
in Missouri.
Throughout their struggle, Marguerite and her two sisters argued that their mother Marie Jean Scypion had been held illegally as a slave after 1769, because, after the Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
started ruling the area, the governor abolished Indian slavery
Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas
Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas took many forms throughout North and South America. Slavery was institution among various Pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the Americas; however, chattel slavery was introduced after European and African contact. Indigenous peoples have...
in the Louisiana Territory to make policy consistent with other Spanish colonies. Since her mother was Natchez, Marie Jean Scypion was legally free, and her descendants born after that date were, too, according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem. After a ruling in the territorial supreme court in 1806 that went against the Scypion descendants, they did not give up their desire for freedom.
Following passage of a new law in 1824 protecting slaves' right to sue against illegal enslavement, the women and their children renewed their petitions. In 1826 Marguerite Scypion and her children, and her two sisters filed separate suits against their masters. One of the Scypion sisters and some of their descendants died before the cases were finally decided. The suits were combined by the court under the name of Marguerite (free woman of color) for the final trial, and she and the other descendants of Marie Jean Scypion finally achieved freedom in 1836.
Early life
Marguerite was the third daughter born into slavery in St. Louis to Marie Jean Scypion, an enslaved woman of African and NatchezNatchez 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...
descent, whose mother Marie was Natchez. Marguerite's sisters were Celeste and Catiche. Their father was not identified. The mother and daughters were held by Joseph Tayon and his wife Marie Louise. After the two Tayon daughters married, Marie Louise Tayon assigned Celeste to Helene (Tayon) Chevalier and Catiche to Marie Louise (Tayon) Chauvin.
History
The Mississippi Valley area had a complex history under succeeding French and Spanish colonial rules, which affected slavery case law developed by the later United States after the Louisiana PurchaseLouisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
. For instance, after the Spanish took over in 1763, the territorial governor in 1769 prohibited Indian slavery
Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas
Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas took many forms throughout North and South America. Slavery was institution among various Pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the Americas; however, chattel slavery was introduced after European and African contact. Indigenous peoples have...
in the area, to make it consistent with other Spanish-controlled colonies. Faced with protests by powerful slaveholders, however, the government allowed retention of slaves of Indian descent while the Crown reviewed the issue. It forbade any sales of such slaves. The Tayon family struggled internally over holding its slaves; about 1799 the father Tayon wanted to sell Scypion and her daughters, but his daughters Chevalier and Chauvin tried to protect their servants and reminded him of their status as Indians, which prohibited their sale. The daughters refused to give him custody of the slave women, saying their mother had given the sisters to them. After his wife's death, Tayon accepted the invitation of 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...
, a wealthy merchant and fur trader, to join his household, and took Marie Jean Scypion, Marguerite and her children with him.
By the time of the 1803 annexation of the area into the US by the Louisiana Purchase
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
, numerous residents of territorial Missouri still held descendants of Indians as slaves. In 1804 the Missouri Territory established slave law, generally following US state and territorial models. Officials struggled to establish the legal basis for who should be considered slaves, especially in relation to preceding law in the area. It classified as mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
those persons with one-quarter (equivalent to one grandparent) or more African ancestry. This restricted the rights of those who were 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...
. The Tayon family continued to struggle; in the spring of 1804, the sisters Chevalier and Chauvin filed legal documents that declared Celeste and Catiche were free women of color, to forestall their father's planned sale of their slaves.
Three years after the death of the matriarch Marie Jean Scypion, in 1805 in the first such case in St. Louis, Marguerite Scypion filed a freedom suit against Francois Tayon, who had inherited her after his father's death. In October 1805 her sisters Celeste and Catiche filed for writs of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is 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...
in the superior Territorial Court, supported by affidavits from Chevalier and Chauvin saying that the women lived in their households voluntarily as free women of color. The court freed Celeste and Catiche. Tayon opposed Marguerite's suit, but the court ordered him to release her as well.
Scypion's daughters asserted that as their maternal grandmother Marie was a 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...
, her daughter Marie Jean Scypion was legally free under the 1769 Spanish proclamation. Scypion's status meant that her daughters and their descendants were also legally 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...
, by the principle of partus sequitur ventrem. Incorporated into slavery case law in the United State since 1662 in the Virginia Colony, the principle of partus held that the children's legal status was determined by that of the mother.
The opposing lawyers argued the women should be classified as simply of African descent (and thus legally enslaved), as they had a black grandfather and were considered mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
under Missouri law. This was an application of a hypodescent
Hypodescent
In societies that regard some races of people as dominant or superior and others as subordinate or inferior, hypodescent is the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union or mating between members of different socioeconomic groups or ethnic groups to the subordinate group...
rule that disregarded their Native ancestry. Although the Territorial Court initially ruled in the favor of Marguerite and her sisters, the decision was reversed by a higher court. For 30 years, Scypion's descendants were held as slaves and persisted in their suits for freedom.
Descendants
- Marguerite had several children: Antoine, Baptiste, Michael and François. Their father was not identified.
- Celeste's children were Auguste, Paul, Antoine and Sophie. Sophie's children Edward and William were also part of the suits.
- Catiche's children were Helen, Joseph, Julie and Camelite. Camelite's daughter Mary was also covered in the suits after 1825.
Renewal of suits
In December 1824, the Missouri General AssemblyMissouri General Assembly
The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bicameral General Assembly is composed of a 34-member Senate, and a 163-member House of Representatives. Members of both houses of the General Assembly are subject to term limits...
passed a law providing more latitude for enslaved persons to have the legal standing as "free poor persons" to sue for freedom and protecting them through the process. It provided that when the court agreed there was a basis for the suit, it would assign counsel, who would institute an action for "trespass, assault and battery, and false imprisonment" against the master. The Scypion descendants filed several suits before their cases were settled, but only the chief ones will be covered here.
In 1825 Marguerite Scypion renewed her case and sued as a free woman 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...
, with Pierre Barribeau acting as "next friend" for legal standing in the freedom suit. By this time she had been sold to Pierre Chouteau, Sr., and she filed against him in the St. Louis Circuit Court. The court assigned the following attorneys: Farris, Hamilton R. Gamble (future chief justice of the State Supreme Court and governor of the state), and Isaac McGirk. (His brother Mathias McGirk became a justice of the State Supreme Court in the 1830s).
In this suit, Marguerite accused Chouteau of assault and false imprisonment for his continuing to hold her and her children in slavery. She sued for $500 in damages as a free woman of color, based on the illegal enslavement of her mother, who was of Natchez maternal ancestry. Although the judgment and appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court at first went against Marguerite and her sisters, the case was reviewed in 1834 and a new trial was ordered.
Because of the political and economic prominence of the extended Chouteau family in St. Louis, Marguerite's attorneys requested a change of venue, which the court granted. The case of Celeste and her children against the Chevaliers, and that of Catiche's surviving children against the Chauvins, were rolled into the suit so that all were decided at once. The venue was set first for St. Charles County and then moved to Jefferson County
Jefferson County, Missouri
Jefferson County is a county located in East Central Missouri in the United States. The county was included as the mean center of U.S. population in 1980. It is the sixth most-populous county in Missouri. Census 2010 put the population at 218,733 Its county seat is Hillsboro. The county was...
before the case finally came to trial on November 8, 1836. Once the jury heard the case, they decided unanimously in favor of the Scypion descendants, a decision that withstood appeals up to the State Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court in 1838. All the descendants of Marie Jean Scypion were freed by this decision, and the case was considered to officially end Indian slavery in Missouri.
Legacy
- The Scypion daughters' persistence won their families' freedom and ended Indian slavery in Missouri.
External links
- "Freedom Suits", St. Louis Circuit Court Records, Missouri Historical Society (St. Louis, MO) [1/11/2011, searchable database of cases; includes scanned images of original case documents
- "Freedom Suits", African-American Life in St. Louis, 1804-1865, from the Records of the St. Louis Courts, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, National Park Service, see links for "List of Plaintiffs in Freedom Suits"