The nephew and niece of Phillip Vass petition for ownership rights to Meriweather Vass, a free person of color emancipated with several others by said Vass "many years since"; the manumitted slaves were then "carried to the State of Ohio." The petitioners disclose that "one of these said negroes whose name is Meriweather ... has returned to Halifax Va and has by residing there as we are informed forfeited his claims to the benefits of the provissions of our uncles will and ... is liable to be sold and the proceeds to be paid into the Treasury of the State." Claiming to be "in indigent circumstances," the petitioners pray that a law be passed "relinquishing the Commonwealths wright to the said man merriweather and granting us a wright to him we being next of kin, to said Phillip Vass."
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
