Polly Berry (c.1803–1805 – after 1865) was an African American woman notable for winning two freedom suits in St. Louis, one for herself, which she won in 1843, and one for her daughter Lucy, which she won in 1844. Having acquired the surnames of her slaveholders, she was also known as Polly Crockett and Polly Wash, the latter of which was the name used in her freedom suit.
Polly was born into slavery in Kentucky, first held by the Beatty family. She was separated from her mother when she was seven or eight years of age, when she was sold to Joseph Crockett. In October 1817, the Crockets moved to Illinois, taking Polly with them. While in Illinois, she worked in exchange for lodging for the Crocket family, corn for their livestock, and $2 a day in wages. According to state law, enslaved people were freed after residing in the state for more than 90 days. In April 1818, Crocket had Polly taken to Missouri, where she was sold. She was with different owners over a five-year period, and then sold to Major Taylor Berry. After his death, she was owned by Taylor's wife, Fannie, and upon her death she was held as an enslaved woman by Judge Robert Wash. She was with the Berry and Wash families for 12 or 13 years. During that time, she was married to one of the Berry's enslaved men. They had two daughters, Nancy and Lucy. Robert Wash sold her husband to someone in the Deep South, separating Polly and her husband for the rest of their lives.
Polly sought freedom for herself and her daughters. Her daughter Nancy escaped to Canada. She sued for her own freedom based on having been held illegally as a child slave in the free state of Illinois. In 1842, Polly sued for the freedom of her daughter Lucy Ann Berry, as the girl had legally been born to a free woman. That case was argued by Edward Bates, the future United States Attorney General under President Abraham Lincoln.
Wash was declared a free woman of color and received a freedom bond on September 26, 1843 and was allowed to reside in the state of Missouri. In a separate, but related suit, Lucy was freed. The mother and daughter worked together as seamstresses and lived together with Lucy's husband of 42 years.
Polly's life is known through the records of her freedom suit and her daughter Lucy Delaney's memoir, From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom (1891), which give different accounts of Polly's life before Lucy was born.
Early life
Polly Wash was born a slave of the Beatty family of Wayne County, Kentucky around 1803 or 1805. She was with her mother until she was seven or eight, when she was sold to Joseph Crockett of the same county. Crocket's son-in-law was David Beatty, who may have been Polly's slaveholder. Shortly after her purchase, the Crocketts settled in an area near the Kentucky and Tennessee border, where Crockett ran grist and saw mills and was a farmer.
In October 1817, when she was about fourteen, Crockett moved Polly and his family about four miles from Edwardsville, Illinois. The Crocketts lived in a cabin near two other families, the John Woods and the Andrew Poseys, who all knew each other in Kentucky. Polly lived with the Poseys. Known at that time as Polly Crockett, she was hired out as a domestic worker and spinner to their neighbors for $2 per week and in exchange for corn to feed their livestock and the use of a cabin for the Crocketts.
Illinois, a free state, held that slaveholders who brought slaves into the state for extended periods forfeited their rights to their "property." After 90 days in the state, slaveholders were required to register their slaves as indentured servants, which legally made them free. Concerned that Polly might be entitled to her freedom, Crockett's son, William, pressed him to continue on his journey to Missouri. At his father-in-law's request, David Beatty accompanied William on the trip to sell Polly in Little Dixie of central Missouri in April 1818. She was taken up the Missouri River and lived there, within the slave state of Missouri, from 1818 to around 1823. During the five-year period, Polly was purchased by a farmer, Thomas Botts, with whom she stayed for a year. In debt, he sold all of his property, including his slaves.
The Berry and Wash households
Around 1823, Polly was sold to a Major Taylor Berry in St. Louis, Missouri and was then known as Polly Berry. She worked as a domestic servant, laundress, seamstress, and nursemaid.