Fifteen-year-old Brunetta Barnes asked and received permission from the court in July 1840 to sue for her freedom against Berry Meachum, a free man of color, and she initiated her suit. Barnes now petitions by her next friend, Peter Charleville, charging that the said Meachum sends her "to sell and deliver milk on board the several steamboats lying at St Louis wharf." She further reveals that she visits the ships "before it is fully light" and has received "insults of the grossest character from various members of the crew of different vessels." Barnes confides that she has asked Meachum not to send her on this errand, where she is "exposed to wanton insult," but Meachum "has declared his determination to pay no regard to her request." Averring that he "could easily spare her without any loss to himself," the petitioner prays that "your honor may make an order to the effect that the said Meachum shall discontinue sending her on board the steamboats aforesaid for the purposes aforesaid or upon any other pretext whatsoever."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Civil Courts Building, St. Louis, Missouri
