Elsa Hicks, a mulatto woman, has a freedom suit pending against Patrick McSherry. She now contends that Lewis Burrell "assisted by other persons ... actually seized upon her at the place she was employed and gagged her and hurried her and her child off." She claims that her abductors then placed her and her child on the steamboat Algoma "for the purpose of carrying them off to the Southern Country." She and her child were, however, able to escape "by the interposition of a friend." Hicks asks the court to bring her before them and to compel Burrell to give security ensuring that he will not remove her from the court's jurisdiction. In his defense, Lewis Burrell laments "the universal Hue & cry of abolitionists," alleging that Hicks and McSherry have conspired to cheat his sister's children out of their property. He also traces the transfer of Elsa's ownership within the Burrell/Mitchell families. An undated court order authorizes that Elsa and her child be received "into the establishment known as the 'County farm,' until the determination of the suit," where Elsa's labor, in the meantime, shall be applied towards her support.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Civil Courts Building, St. Louis, Missouri
