Twenty individual and company stockholders of a steamship line seek exemption from a law entitled "an Act to prevent the Citizens of New York from carrying Slaves &c &c." The petitioners state that the company is subjected to a tax of ten dollars per departure "because a small proportion of said Steam Ships is owned in New York"; for their four ships, each with a capacity of 5,250 tons, this amounts "in all to the large and enormous amount of One Thousand Dollars per annum." Regarding said tax "as exceedingly onerous," the stockholders declare that "they are Citizens of South Carolina, owners of Slave Property, interested in all Laws tending to the Security of slave property," but they assert the effect of said law is "one not contemplated as they believe by the framers of the Act." They therefore pray "that the facts and Statements herein set forth may be duly investigated and such relief granted them as your Honble body may see fit to order."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
