One hundred seventy-six citizens of Beaufort County complain that the "White Mechanics of our State are laboring under a serious injury, inflicted upon them by the competition they experience from negro mechanics." They believe that this is "not only an injury to them, but to every portion of the community, because it places a check against the advancement of Agriculture, and forbids genius and talent from entering its employment on account of degradation it may experience, by being brought down side by side with negro labor." They further declare that "the free negro population ... has increased to an alarming extent." The petitioners therefore pray "the General Assembly to pass an act, laying a tax upon free negroes which shall be applied for the purpose of colonizing them in Liberia, and if necessary, an additional sum from the State Treasury."
Result: Referred of committee.
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
