Henry Mathews asks that the county tax collector and sheriff "be compelled by a perpetual Injunction from Enforcing any assessment of capitation tax against your orator." Mathews asserts that his maternal grandmother, "who being a free Indian In amity with this State transmitted to her posterity the same Rights, priviledges & exemptions as are or ought for right to be claimed & used by the White Citizens of this State." The petitioner complains that he has been assessed a tax pursuant to an 1817 law, which "enacted 'that seventy five cents per Head shall be levied upon all Slaves of all ages & descriptions and the sum of two Dollars per head upon all free Negroes, mulattoes & mestizoes.' " Noting that he refused to pay said tax, Mathews informs the court that the sheriff is now authorized to make said assessment "of the Goods & Chattels of your orator & in default thereof to take his Body." He thus prays "this Honb Court to restrain the said Tax Collector and Sheriff and all other officers & magistrates from proceeding to collect or Levy the said Tax."
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
