Ninety-six citizens of Northampton County seek to remove free people of color from their county. The petitioners argue that the station of free people of color "exposes them to distrust & suspicion." Maintaining that free blacks are "inferior to the whites in intelligence & information; degraded by the stain which attaches to their colour; excluded from many civil privileges which the humblest white man enjoys, and denied all participation in the government," they declare that "it would be wholly absurd to expect from them any attachment to our laws & institutions or any sympathy with our people." The petitioners assert, however, that "the enjoyment of personal freedom ... elevates them, at least in their own opinion, to a higher condition in life" than slaves. The petitioners propose sixteen measures to curtail free blacks' "capabilities of mischief," the first of which declares "that it is absolutely necessary, not only to the correct government of our slaves, but also to the peace & security of our society, that all free persons of colour should be promptly removed from this county," perhaps "sent to Liberia in Africa."
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
