Thirty-seven citizens of Loudoun and Fauquier counties complain about "Free Negroes (and sometimes ... white men, of no higher grade of character) who unwilling to earn an honest support, by regular manual labour," traffick with slaves by "Trading Carts, between the Towns of the District of Columbia and the adjacent counties in Virginia." The petitioners avow that these traders purchase the "innumerable depredations by the slaves of the neighbourhood" and thus offer for sale "the plundered articles." They therefore ask that free blacks be required to obtain a license from the county court before they can act as tradesmen. The petitioners also "call the attention of your Honourable Body to the laws in relation to 'Slaves going at large and hireing themselves out as Free Persons,' and would ask that the same be revised and amended, with a view to the more effective suppression of that evil thereby intended to be prevented."
Result: Referred to committee for courts of justice.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
