"There is a wealth of information abounding in the petitions wherein masters expostulate to the court the reasons for wishing to free their slaves. The petitions reveal relationships between diverse cultures and races, and many of them depict those relationships on an intimate level. Long obscure, these records have mostly remained out of reach of the general public. The purpose of this book is to...make them available to laymen and scholars alike." The sad plight of the slaves is brought to life by these recorded pleas for liberation. Transcriptions of individual petitions from the North Carolina State Archives are grouped by county: Bertie, Buncombe, Caswell, Chatham, Chowan, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Edgecombe, Franklin, Gates, Granville, Guilford, Halifax, Lincoln, New Hanover, Orange, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Randolph, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, Wake, Warren, Wayne, and Wilkes. Many petitions pertain to enslaved Indians, particularly women and children. Supplemental sections containing acts of emancipation by the General Assembly, emancipation laws, Quaker documents, and a fullname plus subject index are included.
William L. Byrd III
(1999), 2007, 8½x11, paper, index, 374 pp.
ISBN: 9780788412417
101-B1241
