Susan, a fourteen-year-old girl of color, attests that she was born in Kaskaskia, Illinois around 1818 to Dunkey [Dunky], "a native Africa" owned by William Morrison [Morreson]. She explains that Morrison gave Susan to his daughter when she married Andrew Hay and that Hay later sold her to Lemon Parker in Galena, Illinois. The petitioner points out that Parker then brought her to St. Louis, where he holds her as a slave "well knowing her to be free." Susan asks the court's permission "to sue as a poor person, to establish her right to freedom."
Result: Petition granted; plea of trespass filed.
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Repository: Civil Courts Building, St. Louis, Missouri