Eight students from around the United States spent the summer studying digitized records of legal cases and uncovering the ways enslaved people fought for their freedom in the courts.

Student researchers from the Digital Legal Research Lab had the opportunity to present on their summer projects at a forum in Love Library on Aug. 2 and at the Research Fair on Aug. 3.

The students who worked on research projects in the lab were under the mentorship of Katrina Jagodinsky, Susan Rosowski associate professor of history and co-founder of the lab, and Will Thomas, professor of history and associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences. The research experience for undergraduates in the Digital Legal Research Lab was funded by National Science Foundation.

“We are a collaborative community of scholars and specialists who are using digital tools to tell critical legal histories,” Jagodinsky said. “We’ve had the pleasure of working with eight NSF REU researchers this summer.”

During the first half of the summer program, NSF REU students researched freedom petitions by enslaved people in several eastern states, and during the second half of the program they produced research on habeas corpus petitions from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Esme Krohn talks about one of her summer research projects at the research fair on August 3.

Esme Krohn, a student from Carleton College, studied the case of 22 enslaved people suing the daughters of John Elliot, their former owner who freed them in his last will and testament. Elliot’s daughters, Susanna and Rachel, contested the will and refused to free the enslaved persons.

“Enslaved people had agency despite being trapped in the inhumane system of slavery, and [the plaintiffs] still were able to take their stories to the courts and advocate for themselves, even if they weren’t always successful,” Krohn said.

Early in the summer the NSF REU students spoke at the University Libraries’ second annual Juneteenth Commemorative Program, where they presented their research on legal cases of freedom petitions by enslaved people.

All the students noted that they found more documentation and information about the slave owners/defendants than they did on the plaintiffs. The students used databases and resources from the Libraries to do some of their research to better understand the legal cases.

Krohn’s second project involved analyzing 121 Lancaster and Douglas County custody dispute cases made from 1877-1924 and found 20% of the cases involved the kidnapping of the child or children by one of the parent or relatives. She followed the case of Frances Lane, who at age 5 in 1917, went to live with an aunt and uncle after her mother died. Her father eventually remarried and wanted her back. Disputes ensued and Lane was first kidnapped by her own father, then again by her uncle. Lane’s father filed a writ of habeas corpus.

“It was a long emotionally involved trial, with many depictions in the newspapers of relatives crying in court,” Krohn said about the humanizing element that one discovers when delving into the research.

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Will Thomas talks to students in the Digital Legal Research Lab.

Krohn appreciated the opportunity to be a part of the program and the uninterrupted time to focus in-depth on such a project that allowed her to “look into people’s lives.”

“We are spending time with them and learning their stories — then sharing them with the world,” Krohn said.

The Digital Legal Research Lab is an interdisciplinary hub for the social scientific study of freedom-making in the United States over the long nineteenth century. The research team explores legal mobilization among marginalized people who leveraged the law to challenge enslavement, deportation, coercive confinement, coverture, and institutionalization. The cohort of students came to UNL from colleges and universities around the United States, to study, research, and present that research on freedom suits and habeas petitions.

Research done by the NSF REU students will be uploaded onto the O Say Can You See project site or Petitioning for Freedom: Habeas Corpus in the American West, 1812-1924.