William Patrick Davis, a free black minor, joined by his mother and next friend, Kitty Davis, files suit against Mahlon Cadwallader, a Lynchburg cooper. By "some authority," either an indenture or apprenticeship, Davis was "placed in the custody" of Cadwallader "for the purpose of learning, and being taught the art & business of a Cooper." Davis asserts that there is little doubt that Cadwallader, who is planning to move to Indiana with his family, "has designes upon his freedom, and from his intemperate habits and reckless course of conduct of late" will sell William "as a slave in foreign servitude." He asks the court to "vacate and annul the recognizance under which he is held (if any)" and issue an injunction preventing Cadwallader from transporting him out of Virginia.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
