High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Freedom suits were legal petitions filed by slaves for freedom in the United States and its territories before the American Civil War, including during the colonial period. Most were filed during the nineteenth century. After the American Revolution, most northern states had abolished slavery, and the United States Congress prohibited it in some newly established territories. Slave states and territories had slave laws that created "just subjection." They also had laws that provided for slaves to sue on the basis of "wrongful enslavement."