The petition of CelestineCelestine , a woman of
color, aged about thirty sixrespectfully represents
that she is now held in slavery in the County
aforesaid by madam JuliaJulia Dumont DumontJulia Dumont That
petitioner believes that she is justly entitled
to freedom, and she prays the said Court, to allow
her to sue as a poor person, the said madam JuliaJulia Dumont
DumontJulia Dumont in order to establish her right to freedom.
The petition states as the grounds on which her claim
to freedom is founded - that the mother of Petitioner
named SallySally was born in KaskaskiaKaskaskia in the State ofIllinois
IllinoisIllinois subsequent to the passage of the ordinance
of for the government of the territories North West
of the OhioOhio River RiverOhio River in the year seventeen hundred and eighty seven, by which slavery was abolished in said territory, and
that her said mother being thus entitled to freedom
that her children, your petitioner being one, were also
by law free. Petitioner states that she was born
in St. LouisSt Louis in the State of MissouriMissouri, and when about
the age of nine years, she was taken from St LouisSt Louis
aforesaid, to CahokiaCahokia in the State ofIllinois IllinoisIllinois, by one
madam Deroine, who then claimed petitioner as her
slave, and there kept her to labor & service from the
month of June until the month of October of the
same year, and there remained in St LouisSt Louis aforesaid about
a month, when her said mistress last named again
returned to CahokiaCahokia in IllinoisIllinois aforesaid and took
petitioner with her and there kept her as aforesaid
to labor & service - that the petitioner was so held
in the said State ofIllinois IllinoisIllinois by her said mistress for

a period of about two years - Petitioner state that
by she became the supposed property
of JuliaJulia Burson, who afterward married Charles
Dumont, who is now dead, and that she is still
claimed and held as a slave by his widow the
said Julia.