Twenty-six Edisto Island residents react "with alarm" to "the number of free negroes & people of Colour who have emigrated into the State," thus "increasing thereby an existing evil." The petitioners put forth some "immediate measures" for consideration and adoption. They propose that "all Negroes, bond or free" be banished "from the limits of this State"; that persons be prohibited "from emancipating his, her, or their Slave or Slaves upon any pretence whatever"; that the establishment of churches "for the exclusive worship of negroes and coloured people" be banned; that curtailing the travel of "free negroes and coloured people, visiting the Eastern States for ordination, or other religious purposes and returning" is necessary in order to control this "grievous evil," as the newly ordained ministers "return to this State to disseminate sentiments highly inimical to the best interests of this Country"; and that the "suffering [of] Schools for negroes" be prohibited and the leaders of said enterprises "immediately be arrested & Banished from this State."
Result: Referred to judiciary committee.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
