Twenty-six petitioners assert that on 15 April 1848 seventy-six slaves, the property of various owners, escaped on the Potomac River aboard the schooner, Pearl. The petitioners voluntarily pursued the schooner onboard the steamboat, Salem, and captured the slaves and three white men who were navigating the Pearl. They placed the slaves in a Washington County jail as runaways. The petitioners assert that the owners of the slaves gave Francis Dodge Jr. a sum exceeding $3000 to pay the necessary expenses and to reward the petitioners for their services. The petitioners charge that Dodge has refused to distribute their reward. They ask that Dodge be summoned to answer their complaint and be forced to pay them for their assistance in the capture of the slaves.
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Repository: National Archives, Washington, D. C.
