One hundred seventy Williamson County residents represent that "they have long suffered from a petty robbery carried on by the slaves and despite of locks and bolts stealing is but carried on the more extensively and since they have been unable to protect their corn cribs wheat granaries poultry Houses dairies &c they would humbly pray that Your Honorable Body would so amend the present patrol System as to make it more effective." They also propose that a law be passed "allowing to those who act as patrols a reasonable compensation for every night they ride." The petitioners believe "that the traffic of stolen property now carried on so extensively to the injury of the community and also to the injury of the slaves would be in a great degree destroyed."
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
