On the morning of the 8th of September, 1842, my mother sued Mr. D. D.
Mitchell for the possession of her child, Lucy Ann Berry. My mother,
accompanied by the sheriff, took me from my hiding-place and conveyed
me to the jail, which was located on Sixth Street, between Chestnut
and Market, where the Laclede Hotel now stands, and there met Mr.
Mitchell, with Mr. H. S. Cox, his brother-in-law.

Judge Bryant Mullanphy read the law to Mr. Mitchell, which stated that
if Mr. Mitchell took me back to his house, he must give bond and
security to the amount of two thousand dollars, and furthermore, I
should not be taken out of the State of Missouri until I had a chance
to prove my freedom. Mr. H. S. Cox became his security and Mr.
Mitchell gave bond accordingly, and then demanded that I should be put
in jail.

"Why do you want to put that poor young girl in jail?" demanded my
lawyer. "Because," he retorted, "her mother or some of her crew might
run her off, just to make me pay the two thousand dollars; and I would
like to see her lawyer, or any other man, in jail, that would take up
a d---- nigger case like that."

"You need not think, Mr. Mitchell," calmly replied Mr. Murdock,
"because my client is colored that she has no rights, and can be
cheated out of her freedom. She is just as free as you are, and the
Court will so decide it, as you will see."

However, I was put in a cell, under lock and key, and there remained
for seventeen long and dreary months, listening to the

"----foreign echoes from the street,