Rachel V. Walker - History

History

While slaves had no legal standing as citizens, under an 1824 Missouri state law, they were entitled to file as "poor persons" to sue for freedom. If the court believed that the case had substantive grounds, it would assign counsel to represent the slave. The law further provided that the slaveholder must allow the slave time to consult with counsel, and prohibited taking the slave from the jurisdiction of the court until the case was heard.

In this case, the court assigned Josiah Spalding as counsel to represent Rachel in her case. She had been held by the army lieutenant Thomas Stockton at Fort Snelling (present-day Minnesota), and her son had been born in 1834 at Fort Crawford, present-day Michigan, both free territories. Stockton had returned with Rachel and James Henry to St. Louis, where he sold them. The second owner resold them to the slave trader William Walker, who planned to take them "downriver" for likely sale in New Orleans. Rachel sued for freedom based on having been illegally held as a slave during lengthy residence in free territories. Although the lower court ruled against Rachel, Spalding appealed the case to the Missouri Supreme Court. In 1836 it ruled in favor of Rachel in one of the decisions establishing "its tendency to enforce the laws of the neighboring free states," that a slaveholder forfeited rights to a slave by taking the person into free territory.

By the time the case reached the State Supreme Court, it involved only Rachel. After her victory, she had to file a separate suit to free her son James Henry, but was successful. The court continued with the precedent of Winny v. Whitesides (1824), in which the state supreme court held that a slave was free after having been held illegally in a free state, and "once free always free." Specifically, the State Supreme Court held that "if an officer of the United States Army takes a slave to a territory where slavery is prohibited, he forfeits his property."

Following is a transcript of Rachel's petition for freedom:

To the Judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court

The petition of Rachel, a mulatto woman aged about twenty years of age represents that about five years ago she was claimed and possessed as a slave by one Stockton, who then took your petitioner to the territory of Michigan, where he resided at Prairie du Chien, on the east side of the Mississippi River for about two years, holding your petitioner a slave during that time at that place arranging her to work for & serve himself & family at that place. At which place her child James Henry was born he being held by this Stockton during that time as a slave. That afterwards he brought your petitioner to St. Louis where he sold her and the child to one Joseph Klunk who has recently sold her and said child to one William Walker, who is a dealer in slaves & is about to take your petitioner and the child down the Mississippi River, probably to New Orleans for sale. That said Walker now holds your petitioner and child in slavery, claiming her as his slave, and your petitioner prays that your petitioner and said child may be allowed to sue as a poor person in the St. Louis Circuit Court for freedom & that the said Walker may be restrained from carrying her & said child out of the jurisdiction of the St. Louis Circuit Court till the termination of said suit. November 4th, 1834

Rachel (her mark) for her self and child James Henry (p. 1 of 24)