Case Summary

On August 17 1829, Maria Whitten, the plaintiff, filed a freedom petition and on August 20 the petitioner’s lawyer, George Strothers, filed for a writ of habeas corpus for the bodies of Whitten and her son, Patrick Henry. It is unclear what the role the defendant, Garland Rucker, had in this, but what is clear from the transcriptions of the depositions included in this case file is that efforts were made to examine how exactly Whitten arrived in St. Louis from her stated birth place of Virginia. In these depositions, figures from Equality County, Illinois, and Bedford County, Virginia, testified as to the situation that Whitten was in, having seemingly escaped from a slave market where she was bought and sold by her enslavers, Abraham Patrick Powell and Abel B. Nichols, respectively, in Virginia to Jesse (John) Whitten’s home and then fleeing with him to Kentucky and on from there to Illinois where he ultimately passed away. The petition came about as a result of Rucker allegedly assaulting and trespassing against Whitten, but is unclear what the final verdict on the plea was.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Interpersonal

Petition subtype(s)

• Wrongful enslavement

Outcome

Unknown

Fate of bound party

Unknown

Related petitions

• Patrick Henry vs. Garland Rucker

State

• Missouri

Tag(s)

• Escape
• Slavery

People

• Whitten, Maria (petitioner)
• Whitten, Maria (bound party)
• Rucker, Garland (respondent)
• Rucker, Garland (responding party)
• Rucker, Garland (holding party)
• Carr, William C. (judge)
• Strother, George French (petitioner attorney)
• Newman, John (petitioner attorney)
• Gamble, Hamilton Rowan (respondent attorney)

• Additional parties

  Gamble, Archibald (Clerk)

  Simpson, R. (Sheriff)

  Gamble, Hamilton R. (Counsel)

  Taylor, Giles Y (Witness)

  Crenshaw, John (Witness)

  Crenshaw, Alexander (Former enslaver)

  Gehon, Francis (Justice of the Peace)

  Caldwell, James (Justice of the Peace)

  Fizor, Jacob (Witness)

  Whitten, William (Witness)

  Gley, A (Justice of the Peace)

  Mitchell, Robert C. (Clerk)