The petition "of the Female Benevolent Associations of JamesTown, Springfield, and Kennet" calls the legislature's attention to the evil of slavery "which was brought upon us by our forefathers, and is growing with a rapidity which must put at hazard everything that is near and dear to us." The women particularly object to the practices which "degrade the Female Slaves, and render them unacquainted with the honours due to Chastity, both in speech and behaviour." The petitioners pose that "is it not degrading to humanity to see the back of the matron exposed to public view, (although a Slave) and severely lacerated by the whip for trivial offences?”; they find it "still more shocking to see the mother and her infant offspring separated by a Sale." The petitioners therefore "earnestly entreat" the legislature "to meliorate the condition of this unhappy people as much as possible; by prohibiting the separation of the mothers from their tender infants; and restricting Masters in the administration of corporal punishments from the shameful practice of stripping the black matron's back -- it is a sight too shocking to behold in any Country, and much more in this civilized land of boasted Liberty."
Result: House: read, laid on table.
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
