[6] Friends of Rational Liberty v. Borders was a court case largely over the legality of slavery in Illinois, and took place in April 1842.

[8] The court case originated after Andrew Borders badly wounded Sarah Morrison's arm, an indentured servant he had acquired in 1825.

The next night, Morrison escaped and went to the neighboring house of Matthew Chambers, and then later fled as to not be found by the Borders.

Borders won, but the case was appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, where in December 1843 the decision was reversed.

The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the original judgment, stating that the court lacked the ability to make political decisions, and that the people should make the decisions on whether persons of color's rights should be fixed based on the state's constitution, though all of Border's slaves, including Richardson, had escaped before the verdict was officially handed down.

They apparently got on the Underground Railroad at Cairo to go to Canton and then reached Farmington, the extreme northeast corner of Fulton County, safely on September 5.

Her two young boys assisted with her cleaning job while Jarrot, the oldest, worked at a nearby farm.

Late November, early December 1843, Borders arrived in Knox County with indentured papers for Richardson and her children.

[16] According to the History of Knox County, Borders met the younger children in the hallway of the hotel they were hiding at.

[17] After these events took place members of the community came together and filed suit against Borders as they believed that his actions were unjust and that his indentured servant papers may have been fraudulent.

Borders was asked to provide the indentures for the boys and that he wouldn’t be bothered until the next secession of the circuit court.

Borders finally provided the indentures to prove he owned the children, but the committee found them faulty as Jarrot’s age was cut out of the paper.

This prison was described as cold due to it being open to the elements  and “‘too uncomfortable a place to spend the night,’” though it was apparently adequate for the Richardson's children who had been imprisoned there.

[24] He lost, and Borders was awarded $300 by the court, which covered the costs of finding and retaking Hannah, Richardson, and her children.

His attorneys argued that some of the counts in the case had been misjoined and that the process by which Richardson's children had been bound out into Borders’ ownership was performed in error and therefore void.

[26] They also argued that the registry of slaves from the Randolph county clerk was not properly certified and was filled out by an incorrect authority, that improper instructions were given to the jury which unjustly favored Borders, and that the court's refusal to grant a retrial was in error.

[30][31][32][33] Susan Richardson became a ‘conductor’ on the Underground Railroad in Galesburg who helped Bill Casey, among others, escape to freedom.

[34] In 1851, Richardson began to host prayer meetings at her house for the growing black community of the town.

[35] Richardson died of old age on the afternoon of June 16, 1904 in the Chicago home of her daughter, Mary Fleming, and was buried in Hope cemetery in Galesburg.