Diana Cephas was the plaintiff in a

freedom suit Freedom suits were lawsuits in the Thirteen Colonies and the United States filed by slaves against slaveholders to assert claims to freedom, often based on descent from a free maternal ancestor, or time held as a resident in a free state or ter ...

filed in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in 1840. She won her case after it went to trial in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County in 1843. Born into slavery in Maryland, she and her young son Josiah had been taken to the free state of Illinois in 1839, where she was hired out by her slaveholder over several months. She was then taken to Missouri, a slave state, but won her freedom with the help of freedom suit attorney Francis B. Murdoch, despite the efforts of lawyers Myron Leslie and Roswell M. Field to discredit her.

Background

Both Diana and her son Josiah had been born into slavery in the state of Maryland. Josiah was born in April 1838. In 1839, Diana and Josiah were taken to the free state of Illinois by slaveholder Mark Delahay and his wife. Delahay settled in

Naples, Illinois Naples is an incorporated town in Scott County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 130 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Jacksonville Micropolitan Statistical Area. History The Potawatomi Trail of Death passed through here i ...

in July 1839 and hired Diana out to Ross Hughes for months at a time, collecting her wages. In August 1839, Mrs. Delahay died. Six months later, Delahay went south, leaving Diana and Josiah behind in Illinois. In February 1840, they were taken captive by Murray McConnell, who claimed to own them. Diana stated that McConnell took her "forcibly and against her will" by steamboat to St. Louis, and held her there in slavery together with her son. Mark Delahay later claimed that he had in fact sold his slaves to McConnell in St. Louis for $1,100.

Freedom suit

On October 22, 1840, attorney Francis B. Murdoch submitted two petitions in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County on behalf of Diana Cephas and two-year-old Josiah. They were promptly granted permission to sue by Judge Luke E. Lawless. A second set of lawsuits was submitted on behalf of Diana Cephas in 1841, but her case did not come to trial until September 18, 1843. Sadly, Josiah died on July 19, 1842, one year prior to the trial. Only Diana's case moved forward. McConnell's lawyers Myron Leslie and Roswell M. Field brought forward witnesses claiming that Diana was a runaway slave. By claiming that Diana had run away to Illinois, Leslie and Field could argue that she had to be returned to her rightful owner under the Federal Fugitive Slave Law. Nevertheless, Diana ultimately prevailed and won her freedom, based on the

legal precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

of "once free, always free" which had been established by ''

Winny v. Whitesides ''Winny v. Whitesides alias Prewitt'' (1 Mo. 472, 1824 WL 1839 824 was the first freedom suit heard by the Supreme Court of Missouri. The case established the state's judicial criteria for an enslaved person's right to freedom. The court deter ...

'' in the

Missouri Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Missouri is the highest court in the state of Missouri. It was established in 1820 and is located at 207 West High Street in Jefferson City, Missouri. Missouri voters have approved changes in the state's constitution to give ...

in 1824. The rule of freedom by residence meant that an enslaved person who was taken to a free territory to live or work with the consent of their enslaver could sue for their freedom, even if they had been taken back to a territory allowing slavery. Diana Cephas's victory in court came soon after the Polly Wash and Lucy Berry won their freedom suits, also in St. Louis. Roswell Field, lawyer for the slaveowner in his very first slave case, went on to represent several enslaved plaintiffs in freedom suits before agreeing to represent

Dred Scott Dred Scott (c. 1799 – September 17, 1858) was an enslaved African American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for freedom for themselves and their two daughters in the '' Dred Scott v. Sandford'' case of 1857, popula ...

in the

United States Circuit Court The United States circuit courts were the original intermediate level courts of the United States federal court system. They were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789. They had trial court jurisdiction over civil suits of diversity jurisdic ...

for the District of Missouri.

References

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External links

Josiah Cephas and Diana Cephas v. James Scott and Murray McConnell (text)
19th-century American slaves 19th-century African-American women Freedom suits in the United States