Andrew petitions by his grandmother and next friend, a woman of color named Judy. He informs the court that the said Judy was born in Virginia about 1786 and was brought to Kentucky, where Robert Bunton purchased the ten-year-old enslaved girl. After this purchase, Bunton took Judy to Vincennes in the Northwestern Territory, where he kept her for more than two years; he later sent her to Kaskaskia and sold her to William Lecompte. Lecompte then removed her to his residence in St. Louis. Andrew, now owned by John B. Sarpy, maintains that he should be free according to "an ordinance passed by the congress of the United States on 13th day of July 1787." The petitioner prays that he be permitted to sue as a poor person and that counsel be assigned to him in order to prove his "right to freedom."
Result: Petition granted; plea of trespass filed, granted.
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Repository: Civil Courts Building, St. Louis, Missouri
