Полли Берри: Азаттық үшін күрес және сот ісі

Plaintiff in St. Louis freedom suits

Polly Berry (c.1803–1805 – after 1865) was an African American woman notable for winning two freedom suits in St. Louis, one for herself, which she won in 1843, and one for her daughter Lucy, which she won in 1844. Having acquired the surnames of her slaveholders, she was also known as Polly Crockett and Polly Wash, the latter of which was the name used in her freedom suit. Polly was born into slavery in Kentucky, first held by the Beatty family. She was separated from her mother when she was seven or eight years of age, when she was sold to Joseph Crockett. In October 1817, the Crocketts moved to Illinois, taking Polly with them. While in Illinois, she worked in exchange for lodging for the Crockett family, corn for their livestock, and $2 a day in wages. According to state law, enslaved people were freed after residing in the state for more than 90 days. In April 1818, Crockett had Polly taken to Missouri, where she was sold. She was with different owners over a five year period, and then sold to Major Taylor Berry. After his death, she was owned by Taylor's wife, Fannie, and upon her death she was held as an enslaved woman by Judge Robert Wash. She was with the Berry and Wash families for 12 or 13 years. During that time, she was married to one of the Berry's enslaved men. They had two daughters, Nancy and Lucy. Robert Wash sold her husband to someone in the Deep South, separating Polly and her husband for the rest of their lives. Polly sought freedom for herself and her daughters. Her daughter Nancy escaped to Canada. She sued for her own freedom based on having been held illegally as a child slave in the free state of Illinois. In 1842, Polly sued for the freedom of her daughter Lucy Ann Berry, as the girl had legally been born to a free woman. That case was argued by Edward Bates, the future United States Attorney General under President Abraham Lincoln. Wash was declared a free woman of color and received a freedom bond on September 26, 1843 and was allowed to reside in the state of Missouri. In a separate, but related suit, Lucy was freed. The mother and daughter worked together as seamstresses and lived together with Lucy's husband of 42 years. Polly's life is known through the records of her freedom suit and her daughter Lucy Delaney's memoir, From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom (1891), which give different accounts of Polly's life before Lucy was born.

Polly Wash was born a slave of the Beatty family of Wayne County, Kentucky around 1803 or 1805. She was with her mother until she was seven or eight, when she was sold to Joseph Crockett of the same county. efn|Joseph Crockett was the nephew of Davy Crockett. In October 1817, when she was about fourteen, Crockett moved Polly and his family about four miles from Edwardsville, Illinois. By June 3, 1826, his widow, Frances (Fannie) Christy Berry married Robert Wash, one of three Supreme Court of Missouri justices. Polly was enslaved by the Berry and Wash families for 12 or 13 years. While Polly was with Robert Wash, he had hired Polly out in Illinois, up the Illinois River, for five weeks or more. Wash received $15 a month for her wages. and Nancy was taken with them on their honeymoon trip, with a stop in Niagara Falls, New York. Nancy, instructed by Polly to escape into Canada (where slavery was abolished), received guidance from a servant at their hotel and made it safely across the border and into Canada. Polly was owned by the Coxes. She worked on the riverboat The Banner along the Mississippi River, during which there were stops in Illinois and Missouri.

Polly filed a freedom suit in the St. Louis Circuit Court on October 3, 1839, on the basis that, as a child, she had been illegally held as a slave in the free state of Illinois (Polly Wash v. Joseph M. Magehan). Her attorney was Harris Sprout. On June 6, 1843, Polly Wash was declared a free woman by an all white jury, on the basis of witnesses who testified she had been held as a slave in Illinois for months. This precedent of "once free, always free" had been set in the 1824 Missouri case of Winny v. Whitesides. With the case settled by the principle of "once free, always free," Bates was able to convince the jury that her daughter Lucy should be freed. She left the jail the day the verdict was made. Once free, Lucy would have had to register with the city of St. Louis and find someone to post bond in support of her registration. They worked together as seamstresses. They made a comfortable living and were able to travel to Canada to visit Nancy. Polly visited her daughter Nancy and grandchildren in Toronto in 1845, and the younger woman offered to settle her there. Berry chose to return to Lucy Ann and her familiar St. Louis roots. without seeing her husband again. Lucy located her father near Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Lucy, Nancy, and their father reunited for a visit in St. Louis. More than 45 years after attaining her freedom, after a life of civic activism, in 1891, Lucy published her memoir From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom. It was the only first person account of a freedom suit.