Constance Bique Perrine, a free woman of color, presents to the court that the City of New Orleans, represented by its mayor H. M. Summers, its jailer Edward Blanchard, and the firm of J. Llado and D. Poincy, sureties on the jailer's performance bond, are indebted to her in the sum of $2,000 for damages. Constance claims that she was "unjustifiably" arrested by Blanchard on the 14th of July for "alleged disturbance of the peace." Blanchard then ordered her to be whipped without "any probable cause or provocation" and in spite of her repeated assertions that she was "a free born native" of the city. Constance describes how she was stretched on a platform and given ten lashes of a heavy whip, which resulted in "lacerations and contusions" on her "naked body" already weakened by her state of pregnancy, and which left her "prostrated on a bed of sickness." Constance prays that Summers, Blanchard, and the firm of J. Llado and D. Poincy be condemned to pay her $2,000 with interest and costs to compensate her for "the outrage and infamy inflicted upon her" and for medical treatment [Original in English and French; French version incomplete].
Result: Partially granted; appealed; partially reversed.
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Repository: University of New Orleans
