To the Honorable William C Carr Judge of the Circuit Court for the 3rd Judicial Circuit in the State of Missouri now sitting for the County of St. Louis
Your petitioner Dolly a colored woman about 40 years of age resident of St. Louis humbly Avers[?] to your Honour that she is now held in slavery by a certain John Young & your petitioner humbly conceiving that she is entitled to her right to freedom prays that she may be permitted to institute a suit as a poor person for the purpose of obtaining the same and that counsel may be assigned her: your petitioner states that the ground upon which she claims her freedom is there the said John Young conveyed her to the Feever River mines in the northwestern Territory & kept and detained her there six months contrary to the law usages & custom of the Country and your petitioner or in duly bound will pray &c
Dolly by Strother & Evans her attys
