St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project

These case files consist of over 300 legal petitions for freedom by people of color originally filed in St. Louis courts between 1814 and 1860. They make up the largest corpus of freedom suits currently available to researchers in the United States.

The St. Louis freedom suits, and other records like them, are a resource that will shed new light on the complex institution of slavery. Included in many of the cases are depositions, rare “oral histories,” which document family, travel, work, and interaction with both masters and advocates of their freedom. 

See Finding Aid for this series