Ninety-two white men "most ardently desire" that a bill "now pending before the General Assembly” that would make “transportation, and consequently perpetual slavery, the punishment for all Larcenys, of which the black or colored part of our population, are convicted the second time." They represent that "as the law now stands, the courts have full power to apply this most barbarous of all punishments to aggravated cases of felony committed by any of this people," which would introduce "into our State, under the authority of our Laws, a traffick in men" and would create "so much uneasiness to the christian part of the community." Asking that the legislature "hear from their constituents, before they give their consent to the reenactment of a law which the people but a short period since repealed," the petitioners "respectfully demonstrate against the passage of said bill into a law."
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Repository: Delaware State Archives, Dover, Delaware
