Abby Guy

Race and Slavery on Trial in an 1855 Southern Court

Abby Guy was an illiterate slave woman, but bold and audacious, who took the slave establishment to court and put race and slavery on trial before a jury. She lived three decades as a slave and then ten years as a free woman, wife, widow and mother. In December of 1854 she and her four children were kidnapped by her former owner, William Daniel, and re-enslaved. Abby filed a Petition for Freedom in the Circuit Court in Hamburg, Ashley County, Arkansas, claiming that she was wrongfully enslaved and should be freed because she and her children were white. Her owner denied it, saying that she was born a slave and was still a slave. This is the true story of an audacious woman with an unconquerable spirit, Abby Guy.

Involved in this story are 19th century Arkansas figures Augustus H. Garland, James Yell, Theodoric F. Sorrels, John C. Waddell, Benoni S. Dubose, Josiah Gould, and Supreme Court Justices Elbert H. English, Thomas Hanley, and Hulbert F. Fairchild.