Freedom's Price (20 page)

                  
I was born on the river in the pouring rain,

                  
And wandering is my middle name.

                  
As long as I live, my strength I will give

                  
To the river that's never the same.

Epilogue

J
ANUARY
1850

S
EVEN
M
ONTHS
L
ATER

“Today is the day?” Lizzie asked.

“Today is the day,” Eliza promised.

The Scotts' court date had finally arrived. Their lawyer had promised that the papers were ready, the witnesses were prepared, and, most importantly of all, the judge and jury were there to hear the case.

Much had changed in St. Louis in the past seven months. By November the cholera had left as quickly as it had arrived. The disease had claimed over four thousand lives in the city, but thankfully none of Eliza's loved ones.

“I'm cold,” Lizzie complained.

Eliza pulled off her new coat and draped it around her sister's shoulders. “Now hush, Lizzie. As soon as Mr. Hall arrives, we'll go into the courtroom. It's warmer there.”

Ma and Pa were sitting on a bench on the plaza, holding
hands. Eliza thought they looked like the courting couple they must have been once. Ma's face was worried, as usual, but Pa seemed confident.

“Eliza, your friends are here,” Pa said, tilting his chin toward the far side of the courthouse plaza.

Eliza hurried to meet Wilson and Celia. “You didn't have to come!” She greeted them with wide-open arms.

“We wouldn't miss this,” Wilson assured her. There had been plenty of construction work for Wilson to do after the fire, and he had grown at least two inches in the past half year. His shoulders were bulky with new muscles. At Reverend Meachum's invitation, he was living on the
Freedom School
with a dozen other people displaced by the fire. He teased Eliza that now he'd read even more books than she. He'd just found a job with a new steamboat that would be making the journey between St. Louis and Hannibal weekly. Every Sunday he came to church with the Scotts and had dinner with them in their small house not far from the river. Mr. Hall had finally convinced the court to let the Scotts leave the prison.

Celia grinned. “I wanted to come too,” she said. “Although I'm not exactly sure what's happening.”

“I'll explain,” Eliza promised.

The three friends sat on the low wall at the edge of the plaza. The winter sun was dazzlingly bright. They could easily see all of downtown St. Louis, the river, and beyond. “You can even see the
Freedom School
from here,” Eliza said. Celia had joined their classes and was becoming a fair student.

“The levee is as full of boats as it ever was,” Wilson said. “It's hard to believe that the fire destroyed it all.”

The fire had destroyed fifteen of the city's blocks, including Eliza's favorite music store. But the jail had been spared as well as Reverend Meachum's church. The warehouses and other downtown buildings were being rebuilt with brick or other materials that could withstand a fire.

“Not everything's being rebuilt,” Celia said a bit sourly. Her eyes were resting on the area where the shantytown had been. Even though Celia and her ma lived in a proper house now, she was still bitter that the fire brigades hadn't tried to save the shantytown.

Mr. Hall, wearing a sharp brown suit, approached, taking the steps two at a time. “Dred!” he called out. “It's time.”

“That's our lawyer, Mr. Hall,” Eliza explained. They filed in behind Mr. Hall and Eliza's parents. Lizzie was perched on Pa's hip. A few other people trailed in too. They weren't connected with the Scotts, but they were here to watch the proceedings. Eliza had heard that for murder trials the courtroom was filled with spectators. But the Scotts' little case, no matter how important it was to them, didn't attract much of an audience.

Eliza had been only nine the last time she'd been in the courthouse, but she'd never forgotten the courtroom. There was a raised bench where the judge's chair was. White columns lined the room underneath an arched ceiling with a skylight. “That's where the jury sits,” she said to Celia, pointing to the raised box along the right side of the courtroom. “And the
judge will be there. Ma and Pa will sit with Mr. Hall. We'll sit behind them.”

The bailiff brought in the jury, twelve white men who took their seats with a serious air. Some of them stared at Eliza's family. She stared back. Maybe if they understood that a real family was at stake, they would do the right thing.

“Why would twelve white men ever give you your freedom?” Celia asked suspiciously. “What's in it for them?”

“They aren't giving us anything. They'll follow the law. It's the law that sets us free,” Eliza explained. She crossed her fingers and sent up a little prayer. “Once I have my freedom papers, men like Bartlett can't take me again.”

Eliza still got the shivers when she thought about Bartlett. Mr. Hall had sent the sheriff after Bartlett for kidnapping, but the slave catcher had left town. He was still hunting slaves, but at least he was doing it somewhere else. Eliza took comfort knowing she'd never see him again.

The courtroom doors opened and Miss Charlotte came in. Miss Charlotte had been appalled when she heard what her son had done to Eliza. But Mark and Frank had left for California before anyone could punish them for kidnapping. Eliza had heard that they hadn't found any gold, and their appeals for more money met deaf ears at home.

Miss Charlotte walked up to Pa and shook his hand. “Dred, I wish you good luck.”

“Thank you, Miss Charlotte,” he said. “We appreciate all your help.”

Miss Charlotte nodded and had turned to leave when she
glimpsed Eliza. She beckoned and Eliza came to her.

“How are you, Eliza?” Miss Charlotte asked.

“Very well, thank you,” Eliza answered.

“Aunt Sofia wanted to be here today, but her rheumatism is acting up,” Miss Charlotte told her. “She hounded me until I promised to come and support you.”

“Thank you, ma'am,” Eliza said politely. “I'll be back tomorrow.” Ma wouldn't let Eliza live at the Charlesses' house, but she had agreed to let Eliza keep caring for Miss Sofia. Now that Mark was gone, working there was much better. Eliza was quite happy seeing her family at night but being apart from them by day.

The bailiff entered the courtroom and bellowed, “All rise. The St. Louis Circuit Court is now in session, the Honorable Alexander Hamilton presiding.” Everyone stood. Eliza watched the jury intently. Her fate was in their hands, and she didn't even know their names.

Despite the importance of the day, the proceedings were quite dull. Celia soon fell asleep as the morning dragged on with conversation between the lawyers, the judge, and the witnesses who had known Dr. Emerson when Dred Scott was his slave.

Finally, the judge said it was time for the jury to make a decision. The twelve men filed out of the courtroom.

The Scotts went outside and ate the lunch they had brought. It was cold but the sun was shining. Conversations started and then sputtered away. Each one of them knew that their futures were being decided at that very moment. Eliza's
stomach felt tight from too much hoping and worrying. Even the cake Wilson had brought tasted like ash.

Mr. Hall came to find them. “They have a verdict.”

When the jury filed into the courtroom, they did not look at the Scotts. Eliza wanted to ask Pa if that meant anything, but one glance at him and she held her tongue. Pa was standing tall, his back straight and his head held high. Ma's hand clutched his. Lizzie hid her face in Eliza's skirt.

Wilson whispered in Eliza's ear, “You're going to win.”

Eliza stared straight ahead, wishing harder than she'd ever wished before. She felt her heart racing as though even her blood were impatient too.

“Jury,” asked the judge, “do you have a verdict?”

The man in the front of the jury box stood. “We do, Your Honor.”

“Please hand your determination to the bailiff.”

The bailiff took a folded paper to the judge. He read it and asked the jury, “Do you all agree?” The twelve men nodded.

Eliza couldn't sit still; her foot tapped uncontrollably. She closed her eyes and hummed silently until the judge read aloud from the paper in his hand. Eliza couldn't take in the meaning of the words. But it was clear they'd won from the way Mr. Hall slapped Pa on the back. Ma smiled broadly, tears running down her cheeks.

“We won?” Eliza asked.

“You're free,” Wilson said. He picked up Eliza and twirled her around in a circle.

“We won!” Eliza cried, brushing tears off her cheeks.

“Congratulations!” Celia burst out.

Eliza sank down in her seat. “Free!”

Mr. Hall walked over to the bailiff. He came back with the piece of paper the judge had read. “Here's your verdict,” he said. “Would you like me to read it to you?”

Eliza started to speak, then stopped herself. Ma noticed and squeezed Eliza's hand. “Maybe Eliza can read it to us?”

Startled, Eliza met her ma's gaze.

“No one can stop you now,” Ma whispered to Eliza.

“I'd like that,” Eliza said.

Mr. Hall handed the paper to Eliza with a ceremony that felt right for the occasion. Eliza took it with trembling hands. The words in spiky handwriting represented her whole future. A future that she could choose for herself.

She began to read aloud because she was free to do so.

The Dred Scott family on the cover of
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
in 1857, the year they lost their Supreme Court case

Authors' Note

THE DRED SCOTT DECISION

At the end of
Freedom's Price
, the Scott family finally won their freedom. Unfortunately, they did not keep it for long. Mrs. Emerson appealed the decision in less than a month. The Scotts' legal battle continued for another eight years until they lost in the United States Supreme Court in 1857. Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Virginia slaveholder, declared their suit invalid because no person of African descent could ever be a U.S. citizen. The judge also declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional, which meant that the federal government could no longer prohibit slavery in the territories. The
Dred Scott
decision outraged abolitionists and is viewed as one of the reasons for the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861.

While Mrs. Emerson ultimately won her case, her circumstances had changed over the eleven years it took for the case to be decided. She'd married Dr. Calvin C. Chaffee in 1850.

Dr. Chaffee was a politician with abolitionist views and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1855 to 1859. Once Mrs. Emerson married him, her property became his—so ironically, an abolitionist politician owned the most notorious slave family in the country. After the Supreme Court ruled against the Scotts, Dr. Chaffee immediately freed the Scotts on May 26, 1857.

THE SCOTT FAMILY

We do not know a great deal about the Scott family. Since Harriet and Dred couldn't read or write, they left very few records behind. Dred and Harriet did meet in the Wisconsin Territory and were married there. In St. Louis, Dred worked in Mr. Hall's office. Harriet was a laundress who would have washed her clothes along the banks of the Mississippi. Miss Charlotte's family, the Charlesses, did own Dred at one time before selling him to Dr. Emerson. And they supported the Scotts' lawsuit. The Scott family was forced to live in a jail while their case was being heard. In May 1849 the cholera epidemic caused their case to be postponed yet again. They survived the epidemic and the Great Fire of 1849. Eliza's adventures are fictional, although the terrors she faced were very real threats to a black girl in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1849.