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Winter Closure

Multiple Danforth campus libraries will be closed and inaccessible to patrons from December 21 until January 2. Read on for more details. 

A summons in false imprisonment from the St. Louis Circuit Court circa 1846, Dred Scott VS Irene Emerson.
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John M. Olin Library, Lobby

The Freedom Suits

The Freedom Suits exhibition tells the extraordinary history of people who sued for freedom from enslavement in the 19th century. The exhibition highlights the over 300 suits filed in St. Louis and more than twenty suits from other parts of Missouri. View original, rarely-seen court pleadings of three different types of claims made by enslaved people seeking their freedom.

The Missouri State Archives-St. Louis curated the exhibition. The Freedom Suits was organized for the WashU Libraries by Reparative Public Historian Kelly L. Schmidt.