Dick Greenway, a fifty-one-year-old free man of color, petitions for permission to remain in Virginia. He represents that his father, Simon Parham, a free man of color, "more than fifty years ago, took for his wife a slave the property of Robert Greenway, and by his diligence and industry" purchased and freed her; twenty-five years ago, Parham purchased his son "with the intention to restore him to his liberty which as far as he could was done by his last will and testament." Anxious to remain in Virginia with his friends and family to whom he is tied "with attachments as strong as nature made them," the petitioner prays "that the general assembly will pass a law with any restrictions they may deem necessary permitting him to remain in the state of Virginia the few days he has yet to live, to enjoy as a freeman his liberty and his patrimony."
Result: Bill drawn.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
