A dozen residents of Jefferson County verify that Malachi Hagins, a widower, was married to a white woman. The couple had ten children. On all occasions Hagins conducted himself "with great propriety" as an "honest and upright man." He had long been a member of the Baptist church. The petitioners ask the legislature to extend to Hagins and his children the right to sue and be sued and "all the rights privileges and immunities of a free white persons of this state." A related petition reveals that Malachi Hagins was born of free parents and that his grandmother was a white woman.
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Repository: Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi
