Celestine, a woman of color, represents "that she is now held in slavery ... by Madame Julia Dumont." The petitioner recounts that her mother Sally was born in Kaskaskia, Illinois, "subsequent to the passage of the Ordinance of Congress for the government of the territories North West of the Ohio river" in 1787. She thus claims "that her said mother being thus entitled to freedom that her children, your petitioner being one, were also by law free." Citing that she was born in St. Louis, Celestine recounts that one Madame Deroine took her, at the age of nine, to Cohokia, Illinois, where the said Deroine held her as a slave. The petitioner reveals that she was later purchased by Julia Benson, who married Charles Dumont. Believing "that she is justly entitled to freedom," the petitioner "prays the said Court, to allow her to sue as a poor person ... in order to establish her right to freedom."
Result: Petition granted; plea of trespass filed.
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Repository: Civil Courts Building, St. Louis, Missouri
