Fifty-four white residents of Richmond complain that captains of northern trading vessels trade and barter with slaves, corrupting their morals. In some cases, captains "inculcate in their weak minds a spirit of discontent, tending to insurrection." In other cases, they encourage slaves to steal from their owners, receiving the stolen goods "in barter for spirits or baubles." They "decoy them away in the expectation of obtaining their liberty," and "after being thus beguiled they employ them as slaves, and convey them to ports where slavery is tolerated and there sell them as such." The petitioners represent that the laws on the books are weak and unenforceable. They ask for stricter laws to curb these practices.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
