Freedom Suits and the Story of Aspasia Le Comte

As a reparative public historian, Kelly Schmidt works with archives to bring to light the forgotten histories of enslaved people and explore the relationships between slavery and institutions in the St. Louis area. A few years earlier, as a specialist on slavery and the growth of Catholicism in the United States, she drew upon digital records of the Freedom Suits at WashU Libraries to uncover the story of Aspasia LeCompte, a woman enslaved in Missouri who waged a legal battle to claim her freedom, which has inspired changes at a prominent midwestern university.

 In 2022, DePaul University in Chicago renamed a room and a dormitory on their campus after Aspasia LeCompte, which stemmed from Schmidt’s research and writing about her in her article “Slavery and the Shaping of Catholic Missouri.” Aspasia LeCompte paved the way for her mother, sisters, nieces, and nephews to sue for their freedom in St. Louis and St. Charles through a series of eight suits on her part and nine from her family members. Twelve years after Aspasia filed the first suit, all had won their freedom by 1849.

Aspasia LeCompte’s struggle for freedom is entwined with DePaul’s history because it is a Vincentian institution, and the Vincentians were recruited to the United States by St. Louis’s first Catholic bishop. One of the Vincentians recruited was Joseph Rosati, who became St. Louis’s second bishop and one of Aspasia’s enslavers, who she sued in March 1837. The room renamed for Aspasia was previously named for Rosati.

Schmidt had the opportunity to speak at DePaul in January this year about people enslaved by the Vincentian order in Missouri (the predecessors of those who founded DePaul), and she had the chance to see one of the spaces renamed for Aspasia. Brochures available on campus also told the stories of Aspasia and other people enslaved by the Vincentians that stem from Schmidt’s research. WashU Libraries are acknowledged on the brochure and online materials for providing digital access to the freedom suits. While at DePaul, those assembled gave Schmidt a medal in thanks for her contributions to revealing this history.

“It took my breath away to see Aspasia LeCompte’s full name inscribed on the wall and her story being told at DePaul after the years I spent searching for fragments of her name and story buried in archives. Now the space that once honored the man who attempted to deny Aspasia her freedom recognizes this courageous woman who inspired her family and others with whom she was enslaved to persist in pursuing the freedom that was rightfully theirs even as their suits were repeatedly impeded over decades,” said Schmidt.