"Subjected in many instances to great hardships & sometimes to manifest injustice in consequence of his legal disability in establishing his accounts against those citizens whose colour is fairer than his own," free man of color Elias Cray Jones seeks the privilege of proving his accounts. He purports that "it will readily be perceived that in performing work and labour, & vending articles it is utterly impossible that he should always have a white man present to establish his little accounts." He therefore prays "the passage of a Law authorising him to establish his accounts under the sum of twenty Dollars by his own oath."
Result: Reported "unreasonable".
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
