Ben, age about sixty, had served the Vaughan family for more than fifty years, including his present owner, Bolling, who, together with his brother, was left an orphan at an early age. Bolling ascribes to Ben's "upright and faithful Conduct" the "pinciple advantages they now enjoy." Bolling Vaughan now seeks to free Ben. "His Services have amounted to ten times the Value of ordinary slaves," Vaughan explains. Ben, however, has a slave wife and seven slave children in the county, and leaving them would be "worse than Slavery." Vaughan asks that Ben be emancipated and allowed to remain in Virginia.
Result: Laid on the table.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
