new story of Black culture in history

 

Enslaved, Indentured, Free: Five Black Women on the Upper Mississippi, 1800-1850

Mary Elise Antoine

US History

Wisconsin Historical Society Press

October 5, 2022, 240 pp,

Ebook $11.99; paper $24.95

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About the Book

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 made slavery illegal in the territory that would later become Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. However, many Black individuals’ rights were denied by white enslavers who continued to hold them captive in the territory well into the nineteenth century. Enslaved, Indentured, Free shines a light on five extraordinary Black women—Marianne, Mariah, Patsey, Rachel, and Courtney—whose lives intersected in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, during these seminal years.

Focusing on these five women, Mary Elise Antoine explores the history of slavery in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, relying on legal documents, military records, court transcripts, and personal correspondence. Whether through perseverance, self-purchase, or freedom suits—including one suit that was used as precedent in Dred and Harriet Scott’s freedom suits years later—each of these women ultimately secured her freedom, thanks in part to the bonds they forged with one another.

My Review

Using public records available, Mary Elise Antoine weaves together a story of early settlement on the upper Mississippi, focused on Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Beginning with Marianne, a freeborn black woman who remained free, the author researched and shares about the lives of four other women whose lives touched.

Marianne was born in the country along the southern Mississippi in the mid eighteenth century, and married three times to French traders. Her second husband relocated to Prairie du Chien. She was a unique figure who owned land, farmed, bore thirteen children and practiced healing ways. The author notes that Prairie du Chien was already diverse with mixed cultures. “In the early nineteenth century, race did not automatically exclude people of color from various institutions on the prairie. However, when white American men brought people of African heritage with them to the prairie, they also brought racial inequality,” she writes.

The second subject, Mariah, was brought to Prairie du Chien in 1816, one of 200 enslaved, indentured, or hired working people brought to the area between 1816 and 1845, almost all by members of the US Army. Because slavery was illegal in Illinois Territory, Mariah’s owner changed the sixteen-year-old’s legal status to indentured. Mariah later married a young soldier, though was “rented” by her owner to others. When her owner left the area before her servitude was concluded, he forced her to pay the rest of her contract in order to claim her freedom. She and her husband divorced in 1839; she subsequently remarried and moved to a home on land owned by Marianne.

A third woman, Patsey, was brought to the area by the Indian agent in 1829. Again, the agent forced Patsey into indentured servitude to get around the law; the indentured work-around was apparently a common ruse, legally recorded wherever the family moved, as well as moving their slaves in an out of territory where slavery was illegal, or calling them variably servant or slave. Patsey had children who were also indentured.

Courtney was brought to Prairie du Chien as a servant for an army captain who was allowed to claim her as an expense to his account, asking a few dollars a month compensation, her clothing and one ration of food per day. He also provided a description: five foot-four, black skin, eyes and hair. This girl was eventually sold several times and moved to different locations in the area, even leaving her son in slavery to one family. She finally was moved to St. Louis.

Rachel had been purchased in St. Louis for a soldier with a young family stationed in Prairie du Chien. When no longer needed, she was returned to St. Louis and sold again, but this time Rachel took advantage of a Missouri law that allowed enslaved persons to sue for their freedom based on prior residence in a free territory. she filed suit in 1834 which was rejected for a word choice, being called a servant by the soldier. With the help of her attorney, she appealed. During the time, the attorney also filed a petition for Courtney, both of which were successful in 1836. Courtney and her son returned to Prairie du Chien where she married and went to live on land owned by Marianne.

The text is somewhat dry and filled with much speculation as well as factual information derived from public records as there are little or no personal records from these women. The diligent research was excellent. Events of the time were overlaid to provide some color. Laid out in seven chapters, five for the women portrayed and two others describing circumstances and life at the time, the book is a lively portrayal of life on the new frontier. Images of noted individuals, places, and records and notes accompanying the text provide a nice variation.

About the Author

Mary Elise Antoine is president of the Prairie du Chien Historical Society and former curator at Villa Louis. She is the author of the War of 1812 in Wisconsin and coeditor, with Lucy Eldersveld Murphy, of Frenchtown Chronicles of Prairie du Chien.