Benjamin Bilberry, a free person of color, traded land for his wife Kate, a slave held by Abraham Cowley. Bilberry laments, however, that "this purchase instead of liberating his said wife & freeing her perpetually from the Shackles of Bondage has only changed her master." He acknowledges that to even "his uncultivated Mind it is irksome to know that he himself, by the Laws of this, now independant Common Wealth, is forced to hold his own Wife in a Slavish Bondage without the power of making her as free as himself." The petitioner therefore prays that "no policy may restrict your Honor from suffering him to enjoy the sweet reflection of having spent the whole labours of his Life in bestowing freedom on one equal by nature ... to himself & whom he has chosen to be the partner of his worldly Cares."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
