Mary Ann Speaks, a twenty-three-year-old woman of color, asks for a writ of habeas corpus and for the recognition and granting of her freedom. Speaks reports that she was born in "Alexandria in the District of Columbia" and was apprenticed to Susan Blunt "to learn the art & mistery of a housewife." She later moved with Blunt to Missouri with the understanding that two years would be deducted from her ten-year contract. Speaks alleges that she is currently being held by James Quissenbury, the administrator of the estate of the late Susan Blunt, and John M. Jameson, the "keeper of the prison." The petitioner charges that the said men admit "that she was born free of free parents and is of right free," yet they maintain that she has not completed her term of indenture. The petitioner represents that "she is entitled to her own earnings because of the terms of her coming to this state with said Blunt ... and having served out full the term of eight years, she has performed her part of said contract."
Result: Plea of trespass filed.
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Repository: Civil Courts Building, St. Louis, Missouri
