Two years later, Strong's mother Jenny and attorney Moses Tabbs asked for a writ of habeas corpus for Polly and her brother James in 1818.

In 1819, attorneys John W. Osborn and Amory Kinney, sought to test the legality of slave arrangements made prior to 1816.

By 1746, African and Native American enslaved people were owned by Catholic priests and French traders, and the practice continued during the period when Great Britain controlled the area that is Indiana.

[1] Around 1796, Polly Strong was born in the Northwest Territory to an enslaved woman, Jenny, who was owned by Antoine Lasselle who lived near Fort Wayne.

[1][b] At around the age of ten, Strong was purchased by Hyacinthe Lasselle, an innkeeper and trader from Vincennes, in what was then Indiana Territory (1800–1816).

[1] Strong was baptized on April 11, 1819, with the name Marguerite at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Vincennes.

[2] The Lasselles were among the oldest family of immigrants in the state and had been in the region since France had owned it in the 18th century.

[1] Vincennes had been an early outpost for the French, who bought slaves to tend to their "creature comforts".

[2] In 1819, two abolitionists, John W. Osborn and Amory Kinney, sought the aid of a Vincennes law office to test the legality of slave arrangements made prior to 1816.

The lawyers at the office, Colonel George McDonald and Moses Tabbs, also members of the anti-slavery party, began to prepare a test case to bring before the courts.

[5] Her case had been combined with a similarly situated enslaved man, Francis Jackson, who was owned by Francoise Tisdale.

[2] On January 27, 1820, attorney Amory Kinney filed a freedom suit on her behalf with the Knox County Circuit Court.

Slaveholders in slave states automatically owned any of their enslaved women's children under  partus sequitur ventrem and the judges ruled that doctrine should apply to this case as well.

[5][7] The ruling was made on July 22, 1820,[1] based upon the Indiana Constitution, 11th article, section 7, There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this state, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.

"[6]Justice James Scott wrote, "It is evident that by these provisions, the framers of our constitution intended a total and entire prohibition of slavery in this State; and we can conceive of no form of words in which that intention could have been more clearly expressed.

[9] The decision was a major victory for the abolitionists in the state who had organized to ban slavery only seventeen years earlier.

The case also led to the impeachment of the Clark County Justice of the Peace for aiding slaveholders who refused to free their slaves.

[12] In 1821, Kinney filed a suit to free an indentured servant, Mary Bateman Clark.

[8] One report is that Strong moved to St. Louis, Missouri and later traveled to Indiana where she visited members of the Lasselle family.

[4] In a June 17, 1825 letter to Lasselle, her brother James promised to deliver Strong's bureau when requested.

[8] A historical marker commemorating Polly Strong is located in front of the Harrison County Courthouse and the First State Capitol building in Corydon, Indiana.