Margaret Lee requests that a writ of habeas corpus "may immediately issue, directed to Samuel Gammon of Sullivan County, commanding him to appear before your Honors ... with the Bodies of Margaret Lee & her two children Maria & Abraham." Born in Boston of free parents, Lee laments that she was "suddenly seized" at sunset while on a wharf and then "bound with Cords, and hurried on Board of a Vessel" that later landed in Maryland. The petitioner decries that she was "doomed to Servitude" and that "Labour, oppression & their attendant Grief, hovered around her." Lee reveals that "she communicated her situation to some benevolent Men, with a view of obtaining relief;" however, her owner, fearing the "truth might appear from Investigation, sold her." Noting that she, "for the period of twenty years, has suffered a Life of Servitude, in a Country, where she had inherited from her Parents Liberty," the petitioner and her two "tender little Infants" pray that the court may issue "the most gracious Writ of Liberty ... a Habeas Corpus" and that "your Honors may take such Steps, as will give to your petitioner an opportunity of shewing that freedom was her Birthright."
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Repository: Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee
