The children of Bartholemew Dandridge, a free man of color, represent that their father “was possessed of a small real and personal estate” and “that at the time of his death the said Bartholemew was the owner of Sally the mother of your Petitioners who is now dead and the owner as well as Father of your Petitioners.” They further state that his estate is indebted and that they “constitute in Law apart of his personal estate” and “one of your Petitioners [was] actually taken in execution to satisfy the same.” They therefore ask that “their liberty may not be taken from them, and that they may be permitted to depart in Peace in poverty to some other land, where that liberty may be enjoyed” and that the real estate bequeathed to them be sold “and out of the proceeds of such sale to pay all the debts that may be unpaid, and to divide the residue among your Petitioners.” The petitioners acknowledge that “they know full well that the act which effects their emancipation sentences them to banishment & exile, from the land of their nativity but hard as it is they prefer that exile to slavery.”
Result: Bill drawn.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
