Petition #20784508

Abstract

Eight-year-old Caroline, a girl of color, asserts, by her next friend William Gilless, that she was born a free by virtue of having a white mother. Her mother, following a divorce, gave birth to Caroline, "her father being a man of color." Caroline was later turned her over to Michael Stephens, her mother's half-brother. Stephens has since acted as an "unnatural and inhuman uncle," and he sold Caroline to J. W. Brawner and James Quarles. Despite their knowledge of her claim to freedom, they took her to Louisville and sold her to Stephen Chenoworth and William Kelly. Caroline is currently in the possession of John Price, who has hired her for a term of five years. Caroline fears that Kelly and Price may take her out of the state. She asks that the defendants "be restrained from removeing her from this Commonwealth" and that "on the final hearing a decree be rendered confirming and establishing her right to Freedom."

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Citation information

Repository: Kentucky Division of Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, Kentucky

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