When in 1807 Susannah Bennett decided to accompany her daughter, then in "delicate health," from Virginia to Kentucky, she took along her thirteen-year-old servant, Maria. Susannah Bennett claims that Maria "had allways been accustom'd to" waiting on her and she could not "dispense" with Maria's services. Susannah intended to return to Virginia, but her daughter's ill health and subsequent death prevented her to do so; she stayed in Kentucky to care for her late daughter's "young & helpless children." She is now ready to return to Virginia and wants to bring Maria back with her. She is "apprehensive," however, that if she brings Maria without permission to do so "she will forfeit her sd slave." Losing Maria would not only be a pecuniary loss, claims Susannah Bennett, but a loss in "many other respects."
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
