Editing Vincennes, Indiana (section)

===Slavery===
{{quote box|align=right|width=250px|Those who were pro-slavery tried to perform an end run around the Indiana constitution by putting in place indentured servitude under which slaves, in theory, appeared to be able earn their freedom. However, the terms often placed on indentured servants were so excessive, many never actually never were able to achieve freedom.|—Rebecca R. Bibbs, ''It took two Supreme Court cases to end slavery in Indiana''<ref name="Bibbs">{{Cite news |last=Bibbs  |first=Rebecca R.  |date=February 2, 2020 |title=Hidden History: It took two Supreme Court cases to end slavery in Indiana |language=en |work=The Herald |url=https://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/local_news/it-took-two-supreme-court-cases-to-end-slavery-in-indiana/article_3ed8c74a-44ba-11ea-9414-c71f02845816.html |access-date=2022-02-23}}</ref>}}
Slavery was practiced in the 16th century, when the present-day state of Indiana was part of [[New France]] (1534–1763), by the French and Native Americans. When the area became part of the [[Northwest Territory]], slavery was banned by the [[Northwest Ordinance]] of 1787, but slavery and [[indentured servitude]] continued.
<ref name="Keierleber">{{Cite news |last=Keierleber |first=Mark |date=February 16, 2013 |title=Woman's battle helped end slavery in Indiana |work=The Herald-Tribune}}</ref><ref name="IR">{{Cite news |date=August 9, 2021 |title=Mary Bateman Clark helped end slavery, indentured servitude in Indiana |language=en-US |work=Indianapolis Recorder |url=https://indianapolisrecorder.com/mary-bateman-clark-helped-end-slavery-indentured-servitude-in-indiana/ |access-date=February 21, 2022}}</ref> Slaveholders created a "loophole", that the provision did not apply to African Americans who were already enslaved in the state.<ref name="Johnson">{{Cite news |last=Johnson |first=Taylor |date=February 9, 2021 |title=Polly Strong & Mary Clark remembered as 'pioneers in this ongoing struggle for freedom' |language=en-US |work=My Wabash Valley, WTWO-TV, Nexstar Media |url=https://www.mywabashvalley.com/hidden-history/black-history-month/polly-strong-mary-clark-remembered-as-pioneers-in-this-ongoing-struggle-for-freedom/ |access-date=February 21, 2022}}</ref> In 1816, the [[Constitution of Indiana]] made forced labor illegal, stating that  "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this state."<ref name="Keierleber" />

[[Polly Strong]], an enslaved woman of Vincennes, was the plaintiff in a case that argued that she should be free. After losing in the Harrison County Circuit Court, she won the case at the [[Indiana Supreme Court]] on July 22, 1820, and she was freed.<ref name="IR" /> In the case of 
Clark's attorney appealed the decision with the Indiana Supreme Court in the case of ''[[Mary Bateman Clark#Court cases|Mary Clark v. G.W. Johnston]]'' was a former slave who was made an [[indentured servitude|indentured servant]] and lived in Vincennes. She won her freedom on November 6, 1821, when the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that servitude violated the state's 1816 Constitution.<ref name="Williams SB">{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Sandra Boyd |year=1997 |title=The Indiana Supreme Court and the Struggle Against Slavery |journal=Indiana Law Review |series=Symposium: The History of Indiana Courts: People, Legacy and Defining Moments |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=307–310 }}</ref> This was a landmark contract law case for indentured servants and foretold the end of [[wikt:bondservant|forced labor]] in Indiana.<ref name="IBC">{{Cite web |title=Mary Bateman Clark Project |url=https://www.in.gov/ibc/legacyprojects/2770.htm |access-date=February 25, 2022 |website=Indiana Bicentennial Commission, Indiana state government}}</ref>