 Upon election, Jennings declared Indiana a free state.The abolitionists won a key victory in the 1820 Indiana Supreme Court case of "Polly v. Lasselle", which stated that even slaves purchased before Indiana statehood were free; in the case "In re Mary Clark, a Woman of Color" involving an indentured servant, the Indiana Supreme Court decided, in 1821, that indentured servitude was merely a ruse for slavery and was therefore prohibited.Slavery was finally extinct by 1830.