|
Polly Strong
Polly Strong (circa 1796–unknown) was an enslaved woman in the Northwest Territory, in present-day Indiana. She was born after the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery. Slavery was prohibited by the Constitution of Indiana in 1816. Two years later, Strong's mother Jenny and attorney Moses Tabbs asked for a writ of ''habeas corpus'' for Polly and her brother James in 1818. Judge Thomas H. Blake produced indentures, Polly for 12 more years and James for four more years of servitude. The case was dismissed in 1819. In 1819, attorneys John W. Osborn and Amory Kinney, sought to test the legality of slave arrangements made prior to 1816. They sued for Strong's freedom at the Knox County Circuit Court in ''Polly v. Lasselle'' in 1820, but the court ruled that she was to remain enslaved. The case was appealed to the Indiana Supreme Court in ''State v. Lasselle''. Based upon the 1816 Constitution of Indiana, the justices ruled that "slavery can have no existence" in Indiana. Strong wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northwest Territory
The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation through the Northwest Ordinance, it was the nation's first post-colonial organized incorporated territory. At the time of its creation, the territory included all the land west of Pennsylvania, northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River below the Great Lakes, and what later became known as the Boundary Waters. The region was ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris of 1783. Throughout the Revolutionary War, the region was part of the British Province of Quebec. It spanned all or large parts of six eventual U.S. states (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the northeastern part of Minnesota). Reduced to present-day Ohio, eastern Michigan and a sliver of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
