My spirit was greatly buoyed today, when reading about a slave mother named Winny, whose "freedom suit" in Missouri established the legal principle of once free, forever free!
Winny 's earlier residence in Illinois proved to be pivotal in the Missouri Supreme Court, which declared in 1824, that as the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, made land north of the Ohio River, and west of the Mississippi River, slave free, her owner, now that she was in Missouri, had previously consented to her freedom. This was because he was presumed to have known the law governing the Illinois Territory when he moved there with Winny and his entire household.
Not only did Winny earn freedom, she also won damages for being held as a slave in Missouri, attorneys' fees and costs on appeal.
"'Winny v. Whitesides' took on a life of its own as a precedent for the freedom by residence rule. It even influenced the Supreme Court in the free state of Illinois , which had been slow to give full effect to the Northwest Ordinance within its own borders.
"Thereafter, slaves bringing suit for their freedom routinely requested $500 as damages. The legislature later revoked the law on damages, but Winny and her family received compensation and her case established the reigning favorable precedent."
P. 65, "Winny and Her Children,"
REDEMPTION SONGS SUING FOR FREEDOM BEFORE DRED SCOTT by Lea Vandervelde (2014)
Monday, September 5, 2016
"WINNY AND HER CHILDREN"
My spirit was greatly buoyed today, when reading about a slave mother named Winny, whose "freedom suit" in Missouri established the legal principle of once free, forever free!
Winny 's earlier residence in Illinois proved to be pivotal in the Missouri Supreme Court, which declared in 1824, that as the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, made land north of the Ohio River, and west of the Mississippi River, slave free, her owner, now that she was in Missouri, had previously consented to her freedom. This was because he was presumed to have known the law governing the Illinois Territory when he moved there with Winny and his entire household.
Not only did Winny earn freedom, she also won damages for being held as a slave in Missouri, attorneys' fees and costs on appeal.
"'Winny v. Whitesides' took on a life of its own as a precedent for the freedom by residence rule. It even influenced the Supreme Court in the free state of Illinois , which had been slow to give full effect to the Northwest Ordinance within its own borders.
"Thereafter, slaves bringing suit for their freedom routinely requested $500 as damages. The legislature later revoked the law on damages, but Winny and her family received compensation and her case established the reigning favorable precedent."
P. 65, "Winny and Her Children,"
REDEMPTION SONGS SUING FOR FREEDOM BEFORE DRED SCOTT by Lea Vandervelde (2014)