Lucy Delaney
Lucy Ann Delaney, born Lucy Berry (c. 1830 – after 1891), was an African American author, former slave, and activist, notable for her 1891 narrative From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom. This is the only first-person account of a "freedom suit" and one of the few post-Emancipation published slave narratives.
The memoir recounts her mother Polly Berry's legal battles in St. Louis, Missouri for her own and her daughter's freedom from slavery. For her daughter's case, Berry attracted the support of Edward Bates, a prominent Whig politician and judge, and the future US Attorney General under President Abraham Lincoln. He argued the case of Lucy Ann Berry in court and won in February 1844. Their cases were two of 301 freedom suits filed in St. Louis from 1814-1860. Discovered in the late 20th century, the case files are held by the Missouri Historical Society and searchable in an online database.
Read more about Lucy Delaney: Early Life, Trial and Freedom, Marriage and Family, Later Life, Memoir, Publication History, Work
Famous quotes containing the word lucy:
“She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and oh,
The difference to me!”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)