<petition><petition_analysis_number>21278801</petition_analysis_number><petition_url>https://dlas.uncg.edu/petitions/petition/21278801</petition_url><state>North Carolina</state><county>Perquimans</county><location_type>County</location_type><file_month>10</file_month><file_year>1788</file_year><filing_court>County</filing_court><enslaved_count>1</enslaved_count><fpoc_count>1</fpoc_count><total_people_count>3</total_people_count><repository>North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina</repository><abstract>Dick, "at present confined in the Common Gaol of the County," represents that he "has been taken up by Sundry Persons supposing him to have been a Slave the roperty of John Smith one of the people called Quakers and illegally liberated by him."  He further states that his "grandmother, Betty was an Indian, a free woman by the Laws of Nature."  Dick, assisted by John Smith as his next friend, asks for an inquiry "into the fact of he natural freedom of your petr."</abstract><subjects><subject>owner(s)/citizens manumit/free slave</subject><subject>Sues for freedom (enslaved)</subject><subject>Jails/Workhouses</subject><subject>Churches</subject><subject>Native Americans</subject></subjects></petition>