Diana Cephas

Bill for court fees for Josiah Cephas & Diana Cephas v. James Scott & Murray McConnell

Diana Cephas was the plaintiff in a freedom suit filed in St. Louis, Missouri in 1840. She won her case after it went to trial in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County in 1843. Born into slavery in Maryland, she and her young son Josiah had been taken to the free state of Illinois in 1839, where she was hired out by her slaveholder over several months. She was then taken to Missouri, a slave state, but won her freedom with the help of freedom suit attorney Francis B. Murdoch, despite the efforts of lawyers Myron Leslie and Roswell M. Field to discredit her.

Background Both Diana and her son Josiah had been born into slavery in the state of Maryland.

In 1839, Diana and Josiah were taken to the free state of Illinois by slaveholder Mark Delahay and his wife. Delahay settled in Naples, Illinois in July 1839 and hired Diana out to Ross Hughes for months at a time, collecting her wages. In August 1839, Mrs. Delahay died. Six months later, Delahay went south, leaving Diana and Josiah behind in Illinois. Diana stated that McConnell took her "forcibly and against her will" by steamboat to St. Louis, and held her there in slavery together with her son. Mark Delahay later claimed that he had in fact sold his slaves to McConnell in St. Louis for $1,100. but her case did not come to trial until September 18, 1843. Josiah died on July 19, 1842, one year prior to the trial. Roswell Field, lawyer for the slaveowner in his first slave case, went on to represent several enslaved plaintiffs in freedom suits before agreeing to represent Dred Scott in the United States Circuit Court for the District of Missouri.