When Missouri officials changed the laws in 1824 to grant freedom to any enslaved person brought into any free territory, it gave many people of African descent in St. Louis a new lease on life.
It also meant that many African Americans had a legal basis to challenge the legality of their bondage. Over a 60-year period, over 300 civil suits were filed in St. Louis courts seeking freedom from slaveholders.
The legal battle initiated by the daring women of the Scypion family was one of the most well-known as a result of this change in the law. They were the first to challenge their captivity in court, upsetting the status quo established by some powerful white families in St. Louis.
Marie Scypion and her sisters were considered enslaved during the French occupation of St. Louis. According to St. Louis America, when power was transferred to the Spanish, enslaved Africans had the ability to keep their families without being sold by slaveholders.
Even when Marie’s owner, Joseph Tayon, tried to sell her daughters, she defended them under the new laws. When the United States purchased Missouri, Tayon saw it as another opportunity to sell Marie’s daughters.
Tayon had assumed that because Marie had died, he would face no difficulty profiting from the sale of Marie’s daughters. Celeste and Catiche, Marie’s children, dragged Tayon to court by filing a joint freedom suit.
Tayon’s own daughters, who believed their father was wrong, backed them up. Marguerite, Marie’s other daughter, later filed her own suit in pursuit of her freedom.