{"petition":[{"petition_analysis_number":"11283808","petition_url":"https:\/\/dlas.uncg.edu\/petitions\/petition\/11283808","state":"North Carolina","county":"Wake","location_type":"County","file_day":26,"file_month":11,"file_year":1838,"filing_court":"Legislative","result":"House: referred to committee","enslaved_count":1,"fpoc_count":1,"total_people_count":2,"repository":"North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina","abstract":"Henry Patterson, a free person of color, seeks to free his wife whom he has purchased.  Patterson, \"a bricklayer & Plasterer by trade,\" asserts that \"he & his said wife have been brought up in the City of Raleigh and as to character for industry, quietness & good order in general he appeals for himself & his wife to all the respectable inhabitants of this City.\"  Fearing \"that if he were to die without a Will his Brothers & Sisters would become the owners of his wife & she might be sold a slave for life for their debts,\" he also submits that \"if he were to make a will he cannot liberate her, nor make any other disposition of her according to law.\"  Patterson therefore states that \"to your Hon Body alone can he look for help & redress.\"","subjects":[{"subject":"Purchased own family (FPOC)"},{"subject":"owner(s)\/citizens manumit\/free slave"},{"subject":"Property owners (Black)"},{"subject":"Occupation (FPOC)"},{"subject":"Enslaver (FPOC)"},{"subject":"Frees own family (FPOC)"}]}]}