were forever freed from indentured servitude. Nance and her children became the first four of what eventually became four million slaves freed by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Free life Nance had eight children. In 1863 Nance watched her first-born son William H. Costley march off to the Civil War with the First Regiment Illinois Colored Volunteers (29th United States Colored Infantry Regiment). William was wounded in the Battle of Petersburg and became a disabled American Veteran, but not before his regiment was present at the original Juneteenth, celebrating the emancipation of Texas slaves, June 19, 1865, as one of the original Buffalo Soldiers. Nance's second son Leander Costley became one of the original Pullman Porters by 1866. Her husband Ben died in Peoria, Illinois, in 1883, after which Legins-Costley lived with her daughter Amanda and son-in-law Edward Lewis. Legins-Costley died in Peoria, Illinois, on 6 April 1892 at the age of about 79. She was buried in Moffatt Cemetery, a defunct Peoria burial ground formerly near the intersection of South Adams and Griswold streets. Biography Nance Legins Costley and the trials that eventually freed her are the subject of a book Nance: Trials of the First Slave Freed by Abraham Lincoln: A True Story of Mrs. Nance Legins-Costley. Notes References William E. Baringer; Lincoln Day by Day 1809-1848; V. #1 (Washington D.C.; Lincoln Commission; 1960), 117. William H. Bates; Historical Souvenir: Dedication New Tazewell County Courthouse, (Pekin: Bates Press; 1916), 11. Sydney Breese; Reports ... Supreme Court of the State of Illinois; V.1. (Kaskaskia: Robert K. Fleming, 1831) 183. N. Dwight Harris; History of Negro Servitude in Illinois (Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1904), 100. J. Young Scammon; Illinois Supreme Court Reports; V. #4; July term 1841, 70 External links Abraham Lincoln Association 2021 Events The Paradoxical President Free Negroes 1813 births 1873 deaths People from Kaskaskia, Illinois Abraham Lincoln