Polly Berry
Polly Berry, also known as Polly Crockett and Polly Wash (b. ca. 1818 – d. ca. 1870–1880), was an enslaved African-American woman who on October 3, 1839 filed a freedom suit in St. Louis, Missouri, which she won in 1843 based on having been held illegally as a slave for an extended period of time in the free state of Illinois. In 1842 Berry sued for the freedom of her daughter Lucy Ann Berry, based on partus sequitur ventrem (the child is born into the status of the mother), which she won in 1844 in a case argued by Edward Bates, the future U.S. Attorney General under President Abraham Lincoln.
Polly Berry's life is primarily known through her daughter's memoir, From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom, the only first-person account of a freedom suit. The daughter published her slave narrative in 1891 under her married name of Lucy Delaney.
In the 1990s, the case files of these two suits were among more than 300 freedom suits discovered among nineteenth-century Circuit Court records in St. Louis. They provide some facts different from Delaney's account. The Missouri State Archives and Washington University have created a searchable online database of the freedom suit files containing images of the complete case files held by the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis and the Missouri Historical Society.
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by Billy Bauer
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by Billy Bauer
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by Billy Bauer
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by Billy Bauer
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by Billy Bauer
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by Billy Bauer
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by Billy Bauer
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by Billy Bauer
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by Paula Perry
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by Paula Perry
You Never Know
by: Billy BauerGood memories of time gone by
Sweet friendships that never die
Will always be there when you grow tired
Don't swim against the currect
Because your arms will grow tired
Just float there and let the water pass the time
Cus' you never know what life throws at you
So don't tell me that you know the secret
Cus' you don't know me and I don't know you
Yeah, I'll tell you when I get there
And if I knew, I'd be lying too
Well preachers preach and liars lie
Burglars steal and smokers get high
They're not better or worse than you or I
Ya don't swim against the current
Because your arms will grow tired
Just float there and let the water pass the time
Cus' you never know what life throws at you
So don't tell me that you know the secret
Cus' you don't know me and I don't know you
Yeah, I'll tell you when I get there
And if I knew, well I'd be lying too
And don't give up on anything
Cus' I need you around here for a while
And don't give in to anything
Just forget about it out and smile
It's been two years since he's gone
I write these words
I sing this song
Some preacher says he knows what's going on
Cus' you never know what life throws at you
Yea don't tell me that you know some secret
Cus' you don't know me and I don't know you
Yeah, I'll tell you when I get there
Well if I knew, I'd be lying too
I'd be lying too
I'd be lying too