Samuel Johnson, a free man of color who informs the legislature that he is becoming "old and feeble," asks that his daughter, Lucy Malvin, be permitted to remain in Virginia. He explains that Lucy's husband, Spencer Malvin, a "thriving intelligent mechanic," deserted his wife and her little children when it was discovered that he was circulating anti-slavery literature. According to Samuel Johnson, Malvin sought to "array The Blacks against the whites with a view to the supremacy of the former." Samuel Johnson implores the legislature to take into consideration "a life of incessant toil" to procure for himself "a small cottage and Garden where he had hoped to close his eyes in peace attended by his child his only child." He adds that "his attachment to the Town the county and their people is strong and inalienable. He could not at his advanced age and with his feelings to another soil and another people and yet without his daughter and alone how could he be here." Several related petition reveal that Samuel Johnson (also called Johnston), a man of mixed race, had as early as 1812 purchased his wife and children, including his daughter Lucy mentioned in this petition. In addition, one the related petitions reveals that in 1837 Lucy Malvin was still a slave owned, together with her three children, by her father.
Result: Rejected.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
