Lucy A. Delaney
About
Lucy A. Delaney, born Lucy Ann Berry, was an African-American woman, who when she was free was a seamstress, slave narrator, and community leader. She was born into slavery and was primarily held by the Major Taylor Berry and Judge Robert Wash families. As a teenager, she was the subject of a freedom lawsuit, because her mother lived in Illinois, a free state, longer than 90 days. According to Illinois state law, slaves that reside in Illinois for more than 90 days should be indentured and freed. The country's rule of partus sequitur ventrem asserts that if the mother was free at the child's birth, the child should be free. After her mother, Polly Berry, filed a lawsuit for herself, she filed a lawsuit on her behalf in 1842. Delaney was locked up for 17 months in a cold, damp, smelly jail while awaiting the trial.
