On the morning of the 8th of September, 1842, my mother sued Mr. D. D.
Mitchell for the possession of her child, Lucy Ann Berry. My mother,
accompanied by the sheriff, took me from my hiding-place and conveyed
me to the jail, which was located on Sixth Street, between Chestnut
and Market, where the Laclede Hotel now stands, and there met Mr.
Mitchell, with Mr. H. S. Cox, his brother-in-law.
Judge Bryant Mullanphy read the law to Mr. Mitchell, which stated that
if Mr. Mitchell took me back to his house, he must give bond and
security to the amount of two thousand dollars, and furthermore, I
should not be taken out of the State of Missouri until I had a chance
to prove my freedom. Mr. H. S. Cox became his security and Mr.
Mitchell gave bond accordingly, and then demanded that I should be put
in jail.
"Why do you want to put that poor young girl in jail?" demanded my
lawyer. "Because," he retorted, "her mother or some of her crew might
run her off, just to make me pay the two thousand dollars; and I would
like to see her lawyer, or any other man, in jail, that would take up
a d---- nigger case like that."
"You need not think, Mr. Mitchell," calmly replied Mr. Murdock,
"because my client is colored that she has no rights, and can be
cheated out of her freedom. She is just as free as you are, and the
Court will so decide it, as you will see."
However, I was put in a cell, under lock and key, and there remained
for seventeen long and dreary months, listening to the
"----foreign echoes from the street,
Faint sounds of revel, traffic, conflict keen--
And, thinking that man's reiterated feet
Have gone such ways since e'er the world has been,
I wondered how each oft-used tone and glance
Retains its might and old significance."
My only crime was seeking for that freedom which was my birthright! I
heard Mr. Mitchell tell his wife that he did not believe in slavery,
yet, through his instrumentality, I was shut away from the sunlight,
because he was determined to prove me a slave, and thus keep me in
bondage. Consistency, thou art a jewel!
At the time my mother entered suit for her freedom, she was not
instructed to mention her two children, Nancy and Lucy, so the white
people took advantage of this flaw, and showed a determination to use
every means in their power to prove that I was not her child.
This gave my mother an immense amount of trouble, but she had girded
up her loins for the fight, and, knowing that she was right, was
resolved, by the help of God and a good lawyer, to win my case against
all opposition.
After advice by competent persons, mother went to Judge Edward Bates
and begged him to plead the case, and, after fully considering the
proofs and learning that my mother was a poor woman, he consented to
undertake the case and make his charges only sufficient to cover his
expenses. It would be well here to give a brief sketch of Judge Bates,
as many people wondered that such a distinguished statesman would take
up the case of an obscure negro girl.
Edward Bates was born in Belmont, Goochland county, Va., September,
1793. He was of Quaker descent, and inherited all the virtues of that
peace-loving people. In 1812, he received a midshipman's warrant, and
was only prevented from following the sea by the influence of his
mother, to whom he was greatly attached. Edward emigrated to Missouri
in 1814, and entered upon the practice of law, and, in 1816, was
appointed prosecuting lawyer for the St. Louis Circuit. Toward the
close of the same year, he was appointed Attorney General for the new
State of Missouri, and in 1826, while yet a young man, was elected
representative to congress as an anti-Democrat, and served one term.
For the following twenty-five years, he devoted himself to his
profession, in which he was a shining light. His probity and
uprightness attracted to him a class of people who were in the right
and only sought justice, while he repelled, by his virtues, those who
traffic in the miseries or mistakes of unfortunate people, for they
dared not come to him and seek counsel to aid them in their villainy.
In 1847, Mr. Bates was delegate to the Convention for Internal
Improvement, held in Chicago, and by his action he came prominently
before the whole country. In 1850, President Fillmore offered him the
portfolio of Secretary of War, which he declined. Three years later,
he accepted the office of Judge of St. Louis Land Court.
When the question of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was
agitated, he earnestly opposed it, and thus became identified with the
"free labor" party in Missouri, and united with it, in opposition to
the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. He
afterwards became a prominent anti-slavery man, and in 1859 was
mentioned as a candidate for the presidency. He was warmly supported
by his own State, and for a time it seemed that the opposition to
Governor Seward might concentrate on him. In the National Republican
Convention, 1860, he received forty-eight votes on the first ballot,
but when it became apparent that Abraham Lincoln was the favorite, Mr.
Bates withdrew his name. Mr. Lincoln appointed Judge Bates Attorney
General, and while in the Cabinet he acted a dignified, safe and
faithful part. In 1864, he resigned his office and returned to his
home in St. Louis, where he died in 1869, surrounded by his weeping
family.
"----loved at home, revered abroad.
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
'An honest man's the noblest work of God.'"
On the 7th of February, 1844, the suit for my freedom began. A bright,
sunny day, a day which the happy and care-free would drink in with a
keen sense of enjoyment. But my heart was full of bitterness; I could
see only gloom which seemed to deepen and gather closer to me as I
neared the courtroom. The jailer's sister-in-law, Mrs. Lacy, spoke to
me of submission and patience; but I could not feel anything but
rebellion against my lot. I could not see one gleam of brightness in
my future, as I was hurried on to hear my fate decided.
Among the most important witnesses were Judge Robert Wash and Mr.
Harry Douglas, who had been an overseer on Judge Wash's farm, and also
Mr. MacKeon, who bought my mother from H. S. Cox, just previous to her
running away.
Judge Wash testified that "the defendant, Lucy A. Berry, was a mere
infant when he came in possession of Mrs. Fannie Berry's estate, and
that he often saw the child in the care of its reputed mother, Polly,
and to his best knowledge and belief, he thought Lucy A. Berry was
Polly's own child."
Mr. Douglas and Mr. MacKeon corroborated Judge Wash's statement. After
the evidence from both sides was all in, Mr. Mitchell's lawyer, Thomas
Hutchinson, commenced to plead. For one hour, he talked so bitterly
against me and against my being in possession of my liberty that I was
trembling, as if with ague, for I certainly thought everybody must
believe him; indeed I almost believed the dreadful things he said,
myself, and as I listened I closed my eyes with sickening dread, for I
could just see myself floating down the river, and my heart-throbs
seemed to be the throbs of the mighty engine which propelled me from
my mother and freedom forever!
Oh! what a relief it was to me when he finally finished his harangue
and resumed his seat! As I never heard anyone plead before, I was very
much alarmed, although I knew in my heart that every word he uttered
was a lie! Yet, how was I to make people believe? It seemed a puzzling
question!
Judge Bates arose, and his soulful eloquence and earnest pleading made
such an impression on my sore heart, I listened with renewed hope. I
felt the black storm clouds of doubt and despair were fading away, and
that I was drifting into the safe harbor of the realms of truth. I
felt as if everybody _must_ believe _him_, for he clung to the truth,
and I wondered how Mr. Hutchinson could so lie about a poor
defenseless girl like me.
Judge Bates chained his hearers with the graphic history of my
mother's life, from the time she played on Illinois banks, through her
trials in slavery, her separation from her husband, her efforts to
become free, her voluntary return to slavery for the sake of her
child, Lucy, and her subsequent efforts in securing her own freedom.
All these incidents he lingered over step by step, and concluding, he
said:
"Gentlemen of the jury, I am a slave-holder myself, but,
thanks to the Almighty God, I am above the base principle of
holding anybody a slave that has as good right to her freedom
as this girl has been proven to have; she was free before she
was born; her mother was free, but kidnapped in her youth,
and sacrificed to the greed of negro traders, and no free
woman can give birth to a slave child, as it is in direct
violation of the laws of God and man!"
At this juncture he read the affidavit of Mr. A. Posey, with whom my
mother lived at the time of her abduction; also affidavits of Mr. and
Mrs. Woods, in corroboration of the previous facts duly set forth.
Judge Bates then said:
"Gentlemen of the jury, here I rest this case, as I would
not want any better evidence for one of my own children. The
testimony of Judge Wash is alone sufficient to substantiate
the claim of Polly Crockett Berry to the defendant as being
her own child."
The case was then submitted to the jury, about 8 o'clock in the
evening, and I was returned to the jail and locked in the cell which I
had occupied for seventeen months, filled with the most intense
anguish.