The Rhetoric of Slavery and Freedom in the Antebellum St. Louis Freedom Suits

FAIN: FT-53203-05

Eric Scott Gardner
Saginaw Valley State University (University Center, MI 48710-0001)

The St. Louis Circuit Court Archives has identified close to 300 "freedom suits"--suits by St. Louis slaves seeking their freedom. This rich, un-tapped collection offers not only a new picture of urban slavery in a Western border state, but also of the lives and voices of individual enslaved people heretofore unheard of. This project will use the suits to better understand *how* different individuals talked about slavery and race. Specifically, as the first step toward a book on the rhetoric of slavery and freedom, the stipend will allow the applicant to transcribe representative case files; research biographical, cultural, and other contextual information on cases; articulate a typology for the rhetoric in the suits; and begin to share this work with the public.

Associated Products

“‘Face to Face’: Localizing Lucy Delaney’s From the Darkness Cometh the Light” (Article)
Title: “‘Face to Face’: Localizing Lucy Delaney’s From the Darkness Cometh the Light”
Author: Eric Scott Gardner
Abstract: An examination of the local areas of emphasis in the slave narrative of a freedom suit plaintiff.
Year: 2007
Primary URL: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/216308/summary
Primary URL Description: Project Muse summary of article
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Legacy, A Journal of American Women Writers
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

“‘You have no business to whip me’: The Freedom Suits of Polly Wash and Lucy Ann Delaney” (Article)
Title: “‘You have no business to whip me’: The Freedom Suits of Polly Wash and Lucy Ann Delaney”
Author: Eric Scott Gardner
Abstract: A close study of two St. Louis freedom suits and surrounding biographical and contextual details.
Year: 2007
Primary URL: http://0-www.jstor.org.library.svsu.edu/stable/40033764
Primary URL Description: JSTOR stable link to article
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: African American Review
Publisher: St. Louis University

Gateways and Borders: Black St. Louis in the 1840s and 1850s (Chapter 1) (Book Section)
Title: Gateways and Borders: Black St. Louis in the 1840s and 1850s (Chapter 1)
Author: Eric Scott Gardner
Abstract: The first chapter of my book Unexpected Places focuses on Black St. Louis's engagement with textual and print cultures, and it draws heavily from my research on freedom suits.
Year: 2009
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/472605676
Primary URL Description: WorldCat permalink
Secondary URL: http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1222
Secondary URL Description: University Press of Mississippi webpage for the book
Access Model: university press book
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Book Title: Unexpected Places: Relocating Nineteenth-Century African American Literature
ISBN: 97816047328

Prizes

RSAP Book Prize
Date: 5/28/2010
Organization: Research Society for American Periodicals
Abstract: Prize for the best book on American Periodicals published between 2007 and 2009 awarded to Unexpected Places. (Grant product noted is first chapter of this book.)

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