In 1801, Pompey Branch contracted with his owner Benjamin Branch to purchase his freedom. By "great industry and economy" over the following several years, he paid for himself. James Johnson and Matthew Fulgham acted as his security. To protect them from loss, Pompey made sure that the two men were given a bill of sale; they have now been fully reimbursed and they have released the bill of sale and the act of emancipation. By 1810 Pompey is a free man and the owner of a small plantation in Isle of Wight County, where he lives with his family. Having "paid a considerable part of the purchase money before the passage" of the law requiring emancipated slaves to leave the state, he prays for an act authorizing him to remain in Virginia.
Result: Reasonable, reported.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
