Nance Legins-Costley
Nance Legins-Costley (c. 1813–1892), born Nance Legins Cox, an African American, was the first slave legally manumitted (freed) by attorney Abraham Lincoln, in 1841, twenty years before the start of the American Civil War.[1][2]
Early life
Nance Legins Cox was born in 1813 in Kaskaskia into the household of Colonel Thomas Cox, which at that time was hosting the Illinois Territorial General Assembly. Ironically, Nance was born a slave in the capital of a supposed free territory.
Legal battle
Nance was an African-American female slave who managed to have her case appealed to the
In her previous court attempts to gain "my personal liberty" in Nance v. Howard, 1828, the verdict read, “A servant is a possession and CAN BE SOLD". The verdict was challenged in appeal by abolitionist Maj. David Bailey in Bailey v. Cromwell,1841. Bailey's wife, Sarah Brown-Bailey, had family connections to the
- 3rd. It is a presumption of law, in the State of Illinois, that every person is free, without regard to color. [And therefore]
- *4th. The sale of a free person is illegal.
The appeal process was one of the longest in mid-19th century courts, lasting five years, from 1836 to 1841. During that time, Nance Legins Cromwell had married a free Black, Benjamin Costley, on 15 Oct. 1840, just after Lincoln agreed to take the case. The emancipation of Nance by the court took place on July 23, 1841; by that time Nance had three children, Amanda, Elisa Jane, and William, who were forever freed from indentured servitude. Nance and her children became the first four of what eventually became four million slaves freed by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Free life
Nance had eight children. In 1863 Nance watched her first-born son William H. Costley march off to the Civil War with the First Regiment Illinois Colored Volunteers (
Biography
Nance Legins Costley and the trials that eventually freed her are the subject of a book Nance: Trials of the First Slave Freed by Abraham Lincoln: A True Story of Mrs. Nance Legins-Costley.
Notes
- ^ "Nance Legins-Costley, 1st Slave Freed By Abraham Lincoln - 20 Years Before The Civil War". May 29, 2020.
- ^ Luciano, Phil (February 6, 2021). "She was the first Black person freed by Lincoln, long before his presidency. Her grave was paved over and her story hardly known". USA Today. Peoria Journal. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
- ^ "Where is Nance Legins-Costley's final resting place? (Redux)". June 28, 2019.
References
- William E. Baringer; Lincoln Day by Day 1809-1848; V. #1 (Washington D.C.; Lincoln Commission; 1960), 117.
- William H. Bates; Historical Souvenir: Dedication New Tazewell County Courthouse, (Pekin: Bates Press; 1916), 11.
- Sydney Breese; Reports ... Supreme Court of the State of Illinois; V.1. (Kaskaskia: Robert K. Fleming, 1831) 183.
- N. Dwight Harris; History of Negro Servitude in Illinois (Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1904), 100.
- Luciano, Phil (2021-02-06). "She was the first black person freed by Lincoln, long before his presidency. Her grave was paved over and her story hardly known". USA Today. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
- J. Young Scammon; Illinois Supreme Court Reports; V. #4; July term 1841, 70