Twenty-nine citizens of the town of Rockingham ask that an act be passed prohibiting the sale of liquor within two miles of the Richmond County Court House, "provided that a majority of the free white male citizens of the Town of Rockingham shall so consent." They complain that "they have been most seriously annoy'd by the sale of intoxicating drinks sold in our midst that it is so corrupting in its tendencies and so grossly immoral in its effects, upon the white and black population, and particularly the latter." They report that they "find the servants frequently secreting and carying off their masters effect to give in exchange of ardent spirits to our great damage, as well as to the corruption of their morals." The petitioners firmly believe "that in times like the present, when the most watchful and strict discipline should be maintain'd between master and servant, that every thing the least calculated to produce an insubordinate spirit on their part should be removed as far as possible from them."
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
