Fifty-four citizens seek the repeal of an 1816 Delaware law "concerning free Negroes & mulattoes, Servants & Slaves." The subscribers submit that "the free negroes have become an intolerable nuisance & expensive burthen to the good citizens of this county." In their opinion, the law in question administers “no punishment whatsoever … on a free coloured person convicted of felony.” They avow that free people of color “are sold for little or nothing,” quickly released, and soon go back to thieving. They contend that free blacks steal with impunity and "of late seem to glory in it." The petitioners therefore pray "the Legislature, to take the premises into consideration & put a stop to this growing evil, either by repealing the said act of assembly (by which people of colour are so much more favoured than white citizens) or in some other way as the Legislature in their wisdom shall think meet."
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Repository: Delaware State Archives, Dover, Delaware
