<petition><petition_analysis_number>11682610</petition_analysis_number><petition_url>https://dlas.uncg.edu/petitions/petition/11682610</petition_url><state>Virginia</state><county>Richmond</county><location_type>City</location_type><file_day>28</file_day><file_month>12</file_month><file_year>1826</file_year><filing_court>Legislative</filing_court><end_day>23</end_day><end_month>1</end_month><end_year>1827</end_year><ending_court>Legislative</ending_court><result>rejected</result><enslaved_count>0</enslaved_count><fpoc_count>2</fpoc_count><total_people_count>3</total_people_count><repository>Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia</repository><abstract>Forty-five-year-old Betsey joins her twenty-year-old son John in representing that "by the will of their deceased &amp; late master B W Coleman, they are emancipated &amp; set free &amp; ample provisions made for their support; so as to prevent their becoming a charge to the community."  They further avow that "this act of kindness on the part of Mr Coleman was dictated by a deep sense, of the good character of your Petitioners, &amp; gratitude for their fidelity to him in his last long &amp; painfull illness." The petitioners therefore pray "your Honorable bodies, to pass a law granting to them the right of remaining in the Commonwealth, as free people of Color."</abstract><subjects><subject>owner(s)/citizens manumit/free slave</subject><subject>Bequest (enslaved)</subject><subject>State residency issues (FPOC)</subject></subjects></petition>