In 1811, Isaac Clowes went to the Sussex County jail to arrange the release of free black Stephen Miller, accused of stealing twelve dollars worth of bacon from Thomas Evans. If convicted, Miller faced being sold to the highest bidder for seven years. Clows told Miller that he knew Evans as well as the man who owned Miller's slave wife and children. He would arrange Miller's release if he would sign an indenture to work for him for ten years. In addition, Clows said he would purchase Miller's wife and children if the wife would work for him for seven years and the children until they reached age twenty-five. He would then free them. Miller agreed and signed the indenture. Later, however, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to pay Evans twenty-four dollars, twice the cost of the bacon. When he was sold for two years, he petitioned the governor and obtained clemency. But the indenture remains, Miller says; and he asks the court to have it "cancelled and delivered up to him as Null and Void and unlawful." It was obtained, Miller says, under false pretenses.
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Repository: Delaware State Archives, Dover, Delaware
