The "Petition of the Society of Friends ... from their Yearly Meeting" represents that "Liberty is one of the Natural and unalienable rights of all mankind; and that a violation of that right is not only Repugnant to the precepts of the Gospel, but also inconsistant with the principles of Republican Government." The Quakers further lament that "any Law should still exist in this State, whereby many of the African race of People ... are deprived of their personal Liberty, and the Citizens prevented from disposing of what by Law is deemed their property in such manner as they Reasonably believe to be their Duty, and in no wise injurous to their fellow Citizens." The petitioners therefore pray that a law be enacted "Allowing that such Citizens who are Consienciously scrupulous of holding their fellow Creatures as Slaves, may Legally emancipate them."
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
