Fifty-eight residents of Northampton County address one of "the evils attending [the oyster] trade." They represent that "the oysters in many of their waters" are "materially diminished [in] their numbers" and that "the industry of the oysterman” will be forced to 'sweep the bottoms' of the small & shallow inlets of our county." They aver that "other & greater evils however press upon us with a might so serious & alarming, that all the foregoing considerations, however important in themselves, sink into comparative indifference." They report that "this trade is conducted almost exclusively by citizens of other states," who depend "chiefly on our slaves & free negroes; the former labour for them only in the night whereby they are rendered unable to labour for their owners in the day, & in the course of a few years are laid up with rheumatism & other diseases of a premature old age." The petitioners further note that said slaves come into contact with men "who have devoted themselves to the work of 'universal emancipation' & whose zeal for the slave sanctifies in their view the worst extremities of teaching & violence." They therefore seek relief and ask "so far as their county is concerned, the trade may be wholly forbidden."
Result: Bill reported.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
