57 Years: A History of the Freedom Suits in the Missouri Courts

Covering the period from the Louisiana Purchase to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, 57 Years is the collective story of the people who worked to legally undo the mandates of the slave laws through the 'freedom suits'. From Jean Marie Scypion to Dred Scott, the book depicts legal battles fought against the rich, powerful, and entrenched. Author Anthony Sestric relays the story of lawyers and judges, their clients, and the people who financed the effort to end slavery and to keep Missouri in the Union. Their campaigns raged from Missouri to Washington, D.C., and were followed by Horace Greely and his New York Times. The cost to some was their lives, while others disappeared, never to be heard from again.