<petition><petition_analysis_number>11684607</petition_analysis_number><petition_url>https://dlas.uncg.edu/petitions/petition/11684607</petition_url><state>Virginia</state><county>Spotsylvania</county><location_type>County</location_type><file_day>4</file_day><file_month>2</file_month><file_year>1846</file_year><filing_court>Legislative</filing_court><result>referred to Committee for Courts of Justice</result><enslaved_count>4</enslaved_count><fpoc_count>0</fpoc_count><total_people_count>9</total_people_count><repository>Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia</repository><abstract>Ely Ball and Henry Satterwhite, trustees of Nancy Horner, represent "that a slave named Dennis a portion of the trust property ... absconded and passed himself as a free man."  They further report that "while passing in that character he committed a felony punishable on a slave by stripes, on a free man by confinement in the Penitentiary."  The petitioners aver that they did not "he was arrested &amp; tried &amp; convicted as a freeman and sentenced to the penitentiary where he now is."  Noting that he is "now lost to owner," the petitioners ask to be "relieved by the passage of a Law to restore him to his owners and they respectfully pray the passage of such a Law."  Dennis, "by the name of William Mayo," was convicted "of having carried or caused to be carried from the town of Fredericksburg beyond the commonwealth, three slaves."</abstract><subjects><subject>Freedom papers</subject><subject>Jails/Workhouses</subject><subject>Trials (enslaved)</subject><subject>Rape</subject><subject>Freedom seekers</subject><subject>Enticing (enslaved)</subject><subject>Whipping</subject></subjects></petition>