Henry Ravenel, executor of the will of Paul D. St. Julian Ravenel, seeks to emancipate a family of slaves that belonged to the testator before his death in January 1820. The petitioner asserts that said slaves "are by the said will left to the Executors thereof, in special confidence, that they should be by them emancipated." Ravenel admits that he is "now greatly embarrassed by the act passed at the last Session of your Honble Body indirectly restraining or prohibiting future emancipations, by requiring all slaves thereafter sett free to remove beyond the limits of the State." Having "now no remedy but to apply to your Honble body for authority to execute a valid Deed of emancipation for the aforesaid seven slaves, with their future intermediate increase, without regard to their individual capacity for obtaining a livelihood," the petitioner prays "in their behalf that they may be permitted to reside within the State lines in the same manner as tho the Deed had been completed previous to the passing of the act of the last Session."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
