Mary Hassell laments that her husband Benjamin "has betaken to himself as a wife & companion a negro woman, the slave & lawful property of your petitioner." Hassell admits that she has removed herself from her husband, "who is looked upon as disgraceful ... by every upright & virtuous member of civil society," in order "to relieve herself from the odious embraces of a man so entirely destitute of all the finer feelings of sensibilities." Seeking to secure to herself "the remnant of property yet remaining" and to protect any future acquisitions "from the cruel & rapacious grasp of the monster," the petitioner implores the legislature to pass an act protecting the property still “in her possession, & all that she may ever hereafter acquire, either by her own industry or inheritance."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
