Manumission document signed. [Ste. Genevieve County], Missouri, 14 July 1856. 1 page, 4to. Undersigned by Peter A. Janis, Elizabeth Janis, and Eloy Le Compte. Court acknowledgement recorded below and verso. Ste. Genevieve County, MO, 21 November 1856. Undersigned by the Clerk of Land.

A manumission document for an enslaved woman named Madeline. The document records that "Peter A. Janis, Elizabeth Janis + Eloy Le Compte of the County of Ste. Genevieve in the State of Missouri...have manumitted and let free from slavery and the bonds of servitude servant Maleline or Madeline...now residing in the City and County of Saint Louis, State of Missouri. Madeline is a Yellow woman aged about thirty nine ...raised in Ste. Genevieve State of Missouri her occupation at this time a Cook + Wash woman. And do hereby give grant and release unto the said Madeline all right to the and claim to her person and service and to the property which she had or may hereafter acquire."

Originally a French community, Sainte Genevieve was the last community established during the French Regime in Illinois County in ca 1750. Peter Antoine Janis (1809-1900) and Elizabeth (b. ca 1826) were both natives of Ste. Genevieve County, and married in 1842. Together they had at least six children, as enumerated in the 1860 Federal Census. Eloy LeCompte (1806-1890), was from Prairie du Rocher, Indiana Territory before moving to Sainte Genevieve, Missouri by 1830. In about 1856, the same year as this document, LeCompte established the Cone Mill which operated until at least the late 1870s when they advertised "Cone" and "Eloy" grades of flour.

Prominent society members, Eloy LeCompte and several members of the Janis family (in various partnerships) are listed in the Merchants' Bank of Sainte Genevieve records held at the State Historical Society of Missouri (R0462). .

[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation, Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Missouri, Manumission]