Case Summary

Mary Charlotte filed for her and her four children's freedom in St. Louis on May 1, 1843, claiming that she had been born to Rose, a Black woman in Montreal, Canada who had been wrongly traded into slavery and that therefore she herself should be free. This extremely long case file narrates Mary Charlotte's transnational and intergenerational claim to freedom with documents and testimony dating back to the 1780s and spanning French and British Canada as well as the Northwest Territory and Missouri Territory in the U.S. This case blurs the line between freedom suits and habeas petitions in Missouri Courts, so the file references habeas but does not contain a labeled petition. The case went to Missouri's Supreme Court in 1859, which upheld the lower court ruling in favor of Mary Charlotte's freedom. The case file includes disputed jury instructions regarding juror interpretation of slavery law in Canada and in the Northwestern Territory.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Interpersonal

Petition subtype(s)

• Wrongful enslavement

Outcome

Writ allowed

Fate of bound party

Released from custody

State

• Missouri

Point(s) of law cited

1787 Northwest Ordinance

People

• , Mary Charlotte (petitioner)
• , Antoine (bound party)
• , Augusta (bound party)
• , Victorine (bound party)
• , Euphania (bound party)