On a trip to Kentucky, slaveholder George Whitlocke took along his personal servant Edmund, but when Edmund misbehaved Whitlocke left him behind in Kentucky "as a method of punishment." Several years later, Edmund is still in Kentucky, but, Whitlocke says, he has expressed "great contrition for the offence he had committed" and is very anxious to return to Virginia. For his part, Whitlocke, who inherited Edmund from his parents, is loathe to leave him in Kentucky. And "he was about to give orders for" Edmund's return, "when he was told, to his surprise, that he could not do so without violating a law of the commonwealth." Edmund, Whitlocke avers, "was raised with great care & tenderness by your petitioners parents, with whom he was always a great favorite, & at their death, was left as a specific legacy to your petitioner. Your petitioner regards him, in this point of view, as a memorial of parental affection peculiarly interesting to his feelings, & it would be a subject of deepest regret to him thro his whole life if, by the stern inflexibility of the law, co-operating with his own unfortunate ignorance, the sacred intention of the authors of his existence should be frustrated." Whitlocke seeks permission to bring Edmund back to his "native country."
Result: Bill drawn.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
