Sixteen-year-old Archibald Barnes petitions by his next friend, Peter Charleville, claiming that his parents "were at the time of his birth and still are free." He insists "that he was born free: and that by no act of his own, nor by any proceedings of any authoritative tribunal has his right to his freedom been forfeited;" nonetheless, Barnes asserts that he is held in bondage by Berry Meachum, a free person of color, who treats him with "great inhumanity harshness and severity." Barnes therefore prays that the court will "grant unto your petitioner permission to sue for his freedom as a poor person." Fearing that Meachum "will remove him unjustly and unlawfully beyond the limits of the State of Missouri (as he has often made threats of doing) in consequence of this application to your honour," the petitioner also asks the court to require Meachum to give bond that he will obey the court's orders and to issue a warrant to the sheriff to bring him before the court.
Result: Petition granted; plea of trespass filed, granted.
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Repository: Civil Courts Building, St. Louis, Missouri
