The petitioner is Rebecca Lunsford, a twenty-eight-year old woman claiming that, although a free person, she is being held in slavery "injustly and illegally" by L. Coquillon. She presents to the court that she "acquired her liberty" by virtue of residing in the free state of Ohio, "at Cincinnati," in the household of one James Riddle. She asks the court to issue a "writ of sequestration" to put her in the custody of the sheriff for hiring out until termination of the suit. She also asks the court to cite L. Coquillon to answer her petition and condemn him to pay her $15 per month for the time she has been with him, plus costs of suit. Above all she asks the court that it "may be ordered adjudged & decreed" that she is a free person and "entitled to her liberty” [Original in English and French].
Result: Granted; appealed; upheld.
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Repository: University of New Orleans
