Six Davie County residents ask "that a certain man of colour ... by the name of Roger aged about fifty years" be emancipated. They submit that the said Roger "by honest industry acquired money sufficient to purchase his freedom from his late master Isham P Ellis." The petitioners conceive that the said slave is "well entitled to his freedom for which he has paid" and that "he is now advanced in years and therefore not a proper subject to be sent to Africa." They assert that Roger "should not be compelled to seek the enjoyment of liberty in a foreign clime far away from the land of his birth, for even to a black man 'home is sweet'." They therefore pray that a bill be passed "extending to the said Roger the rights and privileges of a free man ... and that in said Act the said Roger be known by the name of Roger Brown."
Result: Rejected.
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
