On the trial of this cause it was proved on the part of the plaintiff that one Winne mother at the said plaintiff was carried into the now State of Illinois between twenty and thirty years ago by one Phebe Whitesides alias Pruitt and her husband when and where the said Winne was by them held in slavery during the space of three or four years: that at the end of the said time of three or four years the said Phebe with her said husband removed to the now State of Mis souri and that the said Winne was there and for years afterwards claimed and held as their slave there and is still held as a slave. The Counsel for the defendant then required the Court to instruct the Jury that a residence in the then North West territory (now) Illinois as above mentioned did not render the said Winne free under and in virtue of the ordinance of Congress of the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven for the government of the territory of the United States North West of the river Ohio , and also that the law did not authorize the recovery of more than nominal damages in this action by the plaintiff which instructions the Court refused but charged the jury that said Ordinance did in law act the said Winne free if it should appear to the satisfaction of the Jury that the said Phebe and her husband resided in Illinois with intent to make that (then) territory the home of themselves and of the said Winne ; and that the said plaintiff was entitled to damages in this form of action on the same principles that any other plaintiff might recover in an action of false imprisonment. To these opinions of the Court delivered to the Jury the Counsel for the defendant excepted and prayed the Court to sign and seal a bill of excep tions taken thereto which is done accordingly in open Court this tenth day of March in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty two.