Charlotte Dupuy, also called Lottie (born ca. 1787-1790 - d. after 1866), was an enslaved African-American woman who filed a freedom suit in 1829 against her master, Henry Clay, then Secretary of State. This case went to court seventeen years before Dred Scott filed his more famous legal challenge to slavery. Then living in Washington, DC, Dupuy sued for her freedom and that of her two children, based on a promise by her previous owner. This was an example of the many freedom suits filed by slaves in the decades before the Civil War.
Although the Circuit Court's ruling in 1830 went against Dupuy, she had worked for wages for 18 months and lived in the household of Martin Van Buren, the succeeding Secretary of State, while it was decided. Clay had returned to his home in Kentucky in 1829. After the ruling, Clay had Dupuy transported to the home of his daughter and son-in-law in New Orleans, and she remained enslaved for another decade. Finally in 1840, Henry Clay freed Dupuy and her daughter Mary Ann. Four years later he freed her son Charles Dupuy. By 1860 her husband Aaron Dupuy was listed on the census as a free man living with her at Ashland.
Read more about Charlotte Dupuy: Early Life, Petition For Freedom, Case, Aftermath, Legacy, See Also
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