Chesley Evans, the next friend of three-year-old Musa Ben Abel Gazen, asserts that Felix Walker took Musa and his mother Vica to Illinois in 1841, where they lived approximately seven months. Benjamin Dill, Walker's son-in-law, then brought Vica and her children to St. Louis and placed them with John Sparr. Sparr, "pretending to hold and to be entitled" to them, sold them to Lyman Shaw, who sold them to George Charles and Samuel Hobart; George Melody now has custody of the child. Evans charges that Charles has tried to take possession of the child, "to separate him from his mother" and to remove him from the court's jurisdiction. Evans believes that the child "is free and entitled to his freedom." He therefore requests that the infant petitioner be permitted "to sue for his freedom as a poor person." The petition reveals that "the said Vica, is the daughter of a mulatto woman by an Indian man, and that the father of your petitioner is a white man-- so that the proportion of African blood in your petitioner is about one eighth." A related petition also notes that Chesley Evans is “a relation of” Vica.
Result: Petition granted; plea of trespass filed, dismissed.
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Repository: Civil Courts Building, St. Louis, Missouri
