Ninety-four residents of Rutherford County accuse "twenty to thirty families of free negroes" in said county of encouraging slaves to steal and of instilling "into their minds views of liberty." They further assert that, "in elections for militia officers, they are in the habit of uniting upon some favorite candidate and thereby controal as they please all elections where they have a stake." Complaining "that they are rude and insolent in their behavior," they declare that free blacks are "in every respect bad neighbors and bad members of society." The petitioners therefore pray that a law be passed "compelling all free persons of colour forthwith to leave the county of Rutherford and take up their abode in some State beyond the Ohio where slavery is not tolerated."
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
