Servitude and Emancipation Rec of Ill 1720-1965
St Clair County
Name Name other Sex Race Doc type Date
Patience Isham Reavis F N Indenture Nov 1809
Lucy ditto " " ditto ditto
Ginger " M N " "
Thomas " " " " Dec 1810
Will of Isham Reavis d/16 August 1824 died 1829 Prob Saline Co Mo
"I constitute and appoint Solomon Reavis as my sole executor. Free Ginger
and Patient."
s/Isham Reavis
Witnesses: Geo H. Arnold, Harmon Bingham, Edward Reavis, Warren P. Reavis,
and Margaret (X) Reavis
Heavenly Event Freed a Slave
"The Standard-Times by James J. Fisher Boonville, Mo
Like many slaves back in the early 1830s, the young black man belonging to the
Isham Reavis estate had but a single name"Sant"
Sant as it turned out, was a man who could "thank his lucky stars" and literally mean it.
Sants story, put down later by a newspaperman here named W.F. Switzler, began in
1816 when Reavis and his family emigrated from Kentucky to Missouri.
The moved slaves included Sant, then a child; his mother; and Sants brothers and sisters.
Their destination was the rich land of the so-called "Bourbon counties" along the Missouri
River. Reavis was a prudent man. Halfway to Missouri, Reavis, his kin and his slaves
resumed their trek, eventually settling in Saline County, where they lived and worked until
the late 1820s.
Then the elder Reavis died. The slaves (Sants mother had apparently died by then) were
parceled out like any other property. Sant went to one of the sons.
But an odd thing happened.
In those years, well before the Civil War, there were those who preached abolition. It was
mostly furtive, useless talk. Missouri was a slave state. But among the Reavis blacks,
abolitionists found something moreslaves who were not slaves any longer. Because of
their six months residence in Illinoisa free statethe Reavis chattels were technically
free.
What to do?
Sant somehowperhaps the abolitionists helpedfound a lawyer named Peyton Hayden.
Sant sued for his freedom. It was a big case. The Reavis family hired its own defense
counsels, including Austin A. King, later governor of Missouri, and Abiel Leonard, who
would distinguish himself as a judge of the state Supreme Court. The trial was held in
Columbia in 1833. Judge David Todd presided. "In spite of bitter prejudice," wrote
Switzler, "the Negro received a fair trial." In its verdict, the court faced Sant, saying the
time in Illinois had made him free and there was nothing Missouri could do about it. No
unexpected, some found the verdict wanting. A plot was hatched to seize Sant and "run
the Negro south," meaning return him to bondage. Ned Camplin, a slaver, paid $1,200
for the young man. There upon Sant was seized, tried hand and foot Sant was seized, tied
hand and foot, and whisked to a landing to catch the next steamboat heading for St. Louis
and points south. Sant and his guards waited until the small hours of the morning. Then,
as the steamboat pulled abreast, the sky lighted up. It was a meteor shower. "Terror struck
every heart." Wrote Switzler. "The white men were good farmers but their astronomical
teaching had been neglected. They believed Judgement Day had come as they were en-
gaged in the questionable business of "running south" a miserable Negro whom the courts
had declared free."
The guilt worked, Sant was freed from his bonds. He headed one way, his captors another.
Those who had let Sant go were soon the laughing stock of the community. Strong men
scared by some falling stars?
Sant" He headed down the Santa Fe Trail, eventually becoming a successful freighter and
a well to do New Mexican. His brothers and sisters werent so lucky. Within days of
Sants dash to freedom, and before any court could act, they were "run south".