Marguerite Scypion’s lawsuit was a significant legal case in early 19th-century Missouri that challenged slavery. She was a woman of African and American Indian descent who sued for her freedom based on her Native ancestry. Her case, Scypion v. Delaurier, was one of the earliest freedom suits in U.S. history.
Perhaps the Attorney started out like this :
Opening Statement on Behalf of Marguerite Scypion -
Before the Honorable Court of Missouri
Your Honors,
We stand here today to demand what is just, what is lawful, and what is undeniably right: the freedom of Marguerite Scypion and her family. This is not simply a plea for mercy; it is a demand for justice under the very laws that govern this land.
The facts before this court are clear. Marguerite Scypion is a descendant of Marie Jean Scypion, a woman of Natchez ancestry. It is a well-established legal precedent—first under Spanish rule, and now inherited by the legal traditions of this court—that no person of American Indian lineage can be held in bondage. The law of 1769, enforced by the Spanish Crown, unequivocally prohibited the enslavement of Indigenous peoples. That law was in effect when Marguerite Scypion’s ancestors were unlawfully enslaved, and it remains binding precedent today.
Yet for decades, Marguerite and her family have been subjected to an existence that the law itself condemns. They have been denied the most fundamental right known to any free people—the right to control their own bodies, to determine their own fates, to live as free citizens rather than as property. This is not only an affront to law but an assault on the principles upon which justice stands.
The opposing side may claim that the passage of time has erased her rightful claim to freedom. But I ask this court: Does injustice, prolonged over years, make it lawful? Does the denial of rights over decades transform oppression into legality? If a law stands, then it must be enforced. And if this court is to remain true to its duty, it must recognize that the law grants freedom to Marguerite Scypion and those who share her blood.
Your Honors, this case is not only about one woman or one family. It is about whether this court will uphold the law as it was written and as it was intended, or whether it will allow injustice to continue unchallenged. Today, we ask you to affirm that no person should live in chains when the law itself demands their release. We ask this court to recognize Marguerite Scypion for what she is—a free woman.
May the rule of law prevail over the weight of oppression.
Thank you.
Background of the Case
Marguerite Scypion was born into slavery but was of maternal American Indian ancestry. Missouri law at the time recognized that American Indians and their descendants could not be enslaved. She and her family sued for their freedom on these grounds, arguing that they were illegally held as slaves.
Legal Proceedings and Outcome
The lawsuit was filed in 1805, and after years of legal battles, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in her favor in 1836. This decision not only granted freedom to Marguerite and her family but also set an important legal precedent for other freedom suits.
Impact and Legacy
Her case predated the more famous Dred Scott v. Sandford and was part of a broader movement of enslaved individuals using legal means to fight for their freedom. The ruling reinforced the idea that certain racial and ancestral statuses could challenge the institution of slavery, making it an important moment in the history of slavery law in the U.S.
1. Background of the Case
Who Was Marguerite Scypion?
Marguerite Scypion was born into slavery in Spanish Louisiana in the late 18th century. Her mother, Marie Jean Scypion, was of possible African and Natchez (an American Indian tribe) descent. Under Spanish rule, American Indians were generally considered free, and laws prohibited their enslavement. However, despite this legal protection, many American Indians and those of mixed ancestry were still enslaved, particularly after the United States took control of the Louisiana Territory in 1803. Legal Basis for the Lawsuit
Marguerite and her family argued that they should be free under a Spanish colonial law from 1769, known as the Code Noir, which prohibited the enslavement of Native Americans. The Scypion family’s claim rested on the argument that their maternal Indigenous ancestry made their enslavement illegal. This law had been reaffirmed under Spanish rule and was still considered applicable in Missouri after it became part of the U.S.2. The Lawsuit Begins
Initial Filing (1805)
Marguerite Scypion and her family filed their lawsuit in 1805 in the territorial court of St. Louis, suing their enslaver, Jean Pierre Delaurier. The case was among the first freedom suits filed in Missouri.
Early Legal Challenges
The Missouri courts, at the time, were influenced by both Spanish legal traditions and American territorial laws.
Delaurier and others who enslaved the Scypion family argued that they were legally enslaved and that the Spanish law against American Indian slavery no longer applied.
The case was initially dismissed in 1810, but Marguerite and her family persisted.
3. Legal Proceedings and Delays (1810–1836) Refiling the Case
After Missouri became a state in 1821, the case was revisited. The Scypion family filed new lawsuits against multiple enslavers who claimed ownership over different family members.
The legal battle lasted decades, partly due to resistance from pro-slavery judges and Missouri's shifting legal landscape.
Court Rulings
Lower Court Rulings: In several trials, Missouri courts delivered mixed rulings—sometimes in favor of the Scypion’s and sometimes against them.
Missouri Supreme Court Ruling (1836): After years of appeals, the Missouri Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of Marguerite Scypion and her family, declaring them legally free. 4. Impact of the Ruling
Legal Precedent for Freedom Suits
The case set an important precedent for other enslaved individuals who sought their freedom through lawsuits.
It reinforced the idea that prior colonial laws could still influence U.S. courts when determining the status of enslaved people.
Effect on Missouri’s Slave Laws
While the decision freed Marguerite Scypion and her family, it did not end slavery in Missouri.
However, the ruling was one of several cases that challenged the legal framework of slavery in the state.
Connection to Dred Scott v. Sandford
The Scypion case was an early example of enslaved people using legal arguments to claim their freedom.
Later, in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Scott, reinforcing pro-slavery laws and overturning earlier legal victories like Scypion v. Delaurier. 5. Legacy of the Case
Scypion v. Delaurier remains a significant legal milestone in the fight against slavery.
The case highlights the role of enslaved individuals in shaping legal arguments against slavery before the Civil War.
It also illustrates the complexities of racial classification in early American law and the persistence of enslaved people in seeking justice.
Marguerite Scypion’s lawsuit was a powerful example of how enslaved individuals used legal avenues to resist their oppression. The case took decades to resolve, but the ultimate victory reinforced the idea that legal precedent could be used to challenge slavery. While slavery persisted in Missouri and throughout the U.S. for several more decades, Scypion v. Delaurier was an early step in the long legal struggle that would eventually lead to abolition.
Marguerite Scypion WON HER COURT CASE
Neither Fugitive nor Free
Atlantic Slavery, Freedom Suits, and the Legal Culture of Travel Edlie L. Wong
Page 180
The successful freedom suit that Marguerite first brought against (Jean) Pierre Chouteau, Sr., a descendant of another “founding family,” in 1825 undoubtedly influenced Clamorgan’s reconstructed genealogical history of early settlement.210 Marguerite, daughter of Afro-Indian Marie Jean Scypion, based her right to freedom on her maternal grandmother, whom she claimed to be an “Indian woman” of the Natchez nation. “To show descent from this race,” Marguerite’s counsel contended, “is to show right to freedom” since “Indians were around and among the settlements of white men, in the full enjoyment of their personal liberty,” unlike “Negroes,” whose “ancestors . . . [were] imported to the continent as slaves.”211 Like Las Casas’s “strange benevolence,”
the suspension of Indian slavery under Spanish rule in 1769, once sanctioned during the French regime in the Mississippi Valley, provoked a number of legal uncertainties over the status of slaves, particularly Afro-Indian slaves such as Marguerite, when the United States annexed Louisiana Territory.212 Indeed, James Thomas recalls that among the “free people” of St. Louis, “there were many who were Indians, Spaniards, French, whose chocolate brown mothers had lived under the three flags.”
https://uplopen.com/books/1719/files/4d575845-3bc8-400c-a460-ec517208c80a.pdf
“1825 July Case Number 16 – Marguerite,
a free woman of color v. Chouteau, Pierre, Sr.” Courtesy of the St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project.
In 1805, the children of Marie-Jean Scypion, a slave with Natchez Indian ancestry, first filed suit for freedom on the basis of their mother’s American Indian ancestry. Thirty years later, Marie’s daughter, Marguerite renewed her claim, suing for freedom against her owner Pierre Chouteau, Sr. Although Scypion initially lost her suit, she later won her emancipation when her case went to the Missouri Supreme Court in 1836.
“1821 April Case Number 105 – Marie,
a free mulatoo girl v. Chouteau, Auguste." Courtesy of the St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project.
This sketch is believed to be of Auguste Chouteau. It was drawn on the back of a petition filed in the Freedom Suit of Marie against Chouteau in the St. Louis Circuit Court. Marie won her case and freedom in 1821.
BONUS LINK
Missouri Historical Review, Volume 079 Issue 1, October 1984
" Very Wooly hair like that of a negress " - Natchez Indian Description page 17
FIGHT AGAINST MISCLASSIFICATION https://www.change.org/p/remedy-for-the-misclassified-people-of-north-america Remedy for the Misclassified People of North America! FIRST TRIBE
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