The petitioner states that he is a sailor and a citizen from Maryland, who worked aboard the schooner Susan Mary, based out of New York. Arriving in New Bern, in July 1835, he was jailed for an undisclosed crime. He has now spent several months in jail "& is very anxious to have the benefit of the Laws of the Country, to either be tried for any offence with which he stands charged or be discharged if none be alledged." Francis Alexander Golding, "a coloured man but free," prays for a writ of habeas corpus. A related document refers to another man of color named Richard Bryant, who was arrested when the description on his freedom papers did not match his physical appearance. Richard claimed to be a free person, and that the discrepancy between his physical appearance and the content of his papers were due to the fact that he had switched coats with another man, and that the papers found in the coat belonged to the other man.
Result: Rejected; appealed; reversed.
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
