PEKIN, Illinois — A Black woman who was born a slave, Nance Legins-Costley and her extraordinary story didn’t make it into the history books.
The longtime Pekin resident’s freedom was the subject of a pivotal court case that resulted in the abolition of indentured servitude — another name for slavery — in Illinois in 1841. Nance Legins-Costley and her three oldest children were freed, along with all other indentured servants in Illinois, as a result of Bailey v. Cromwell, a case brought before the Illinois Supreme Court.
