Emancipated by Peter Lott of Albemarle County in his 1801 will, James Lott was nonetheless sold as a slave by the administrator of Peter Lott's estate to pay outstanding debts. It was James Lott's good fortune that Major Zachariah Carr, "knowing of the hardship of the case generously advanced the money for which he sold and waited" until James, "by his labour," had repaid him. By the time James was able to do so and he "fondly imagined he had arrived at the end of his Sufferings," an "act to amend the several laws concerning slaves" had been passed, which threatened to reduce him into "a State of servitude once more." James Lott prays that the legislature will pass a law confirming him in his freedom. Although, not specifically mentioned by James Lott, the law referred to in this petition probably is the law requiring all freed slaves to leave the state within one year of their emancipation.
Result: Reasonable, reported.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
