Thirty-nine Beaufort County residents "respectfully request of you the passage of a law prohibiting free persons of colour from owning or carrying fire arms." They believe that it should take more than "proving a good character" in order to receive a license; they argue that a man may "prove his character to be good altho he was the meanest vilian in the whole country." They cite "their owning guns also gives them the opportunity which they make use of to kill a good many of our cattle hogs and sheep And to corrupt the morals of our slave population by loaning them guns and hunting with them on the Sabbath." The petitioners "would also suggest that their owning guns has the tendency to encourage their natural slothfull and idle habits."
Result: Rejected.
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
