Delaware’s Freedom Suits: Argument as Agency

• Brayden Moore, History Education, University of Delaware

• Dael Norwood, History, University of Delaware

This research comprises an in-depth study of freedom suits filed in Delaware during the era of legalized chattel slavery. Freedom suits were lawsuits filed by enslaved people against their enslavers. Though the Constitution did not officially recognize their citizenship at the time, the collection of freedom suits from Delaware that have survived to the present day indicates that enslaved people nevertheless made use of the judicial system to seek freedom. However, rather than challenge the concept of slavery on a legal or constitutional basis, these suits were filed based on accusations of lawbreaking or cruelty committed by enslavers. Some were filed directly by the enslaved person, others by a relative (who may have been free or enslaved), while others were filed jointly by the enslaved person and a white benefactor. Though certain suits have resulted in famous cases, such as that of Dredd Scott v. Stanford (1857), freedom suits in Delaware have not received much study from scholars. This research analyzes the arguments made in Delaware’s freedom suits and seeks to find patterns that led to success in the struggle for freedom. More importantly, the research seeks to analyze freedom suits as a means of active resistance to slavery in order to help facilitate a more holistic understanding of the agency of people of color during the period of enslavement in Delaware.