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Unusual Petition
By Catherine C. Brooks
When I began research about national post offices, I approached Chesapeake
Bay Writers’ Club members for any outstanding item they could provide for
my book. Soon after the request, I sat at the table with Patricia Perkinson,
Topping, Virginia, at the the Chesapeake Bay Writers’ Conference at Rappahannock
College, Glenns. “Pat” told me she had an unusual petition, concerning
one of her ancestors, that she would be glad to loan me. I gave her my
card that included my address. In a short time, I received a typewritten
copy of the legal document from 1797 General Assembly in the mail. I welcomed
anything to give my book life. So I copied the original and returned it
to “Pat.” This section of my book reads:
Petition: In response to action that effected citizens from Tappahannock,
Virginia, to Gloucester and beyond.
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” Benjamin
Franklin
Slaves were ordered to take mail from one plantation to another before
1865. However, during the days when Mathews’ County citizens fetched their
overland mail from Gloucester Court House, documentation proves trustworthy
slaves did long overland hauls. Patricia Perkinson of Topping, Virginia,
has been kind in permitting me to use a typed copy of a handwritten petition
made by her great-great-great-grandfather, Judge Churchill Blakey. (Judge,
Middlesex County). The original petition is in the Virginia State Archives:
PETITION OF HANNAH THACKER LORIMER AND THOMAS FAUNTLEROY AND DIVERS CITIZENS
OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA-REGARDING THE EMANCIPATION OF “SAM” AFTER
HIS COURAGE ON NOVEMBER 17, 1797
To the honorable Speaker and members of the House of Delegates of the commonwealth
of Virginia-
The petition of Hannah Thacker
Lorimer and Thomas Fauntleroy and divers citizens of the commonwealth of
Virginia respectfully shew? that James Thacker Lorimer of the county of
Middlesex, an infant under the age of twenty-one years and orphan of George
Lorumer, dec’d, is possessed of a Negro slave named “Sam” as his absolute
property, who was employed for the purpose of conveying public mail from
Fredericksburg to Gloucester Courthouse, some time about the 17th day of
November 1797, as your petitioners have good reason to believe, and was
attacked on the public highway by two persons who attempted to dispossess
him of the said mail, but the said Sam with the utmost fortitude and intrepidity
resisted the attack until he was relieved from the violence offered by
the said persons by some other persons who casually discovered the _______
inconsequence of which resistance and a faithful adherence regard to the
trust reposed in him the said slave received several dangerous wounds and
languished under them for a considerable space of time thereafter; that
many of the citizens of this Commonwealth disposed and _________ to reward
the integrity and fortitude of said slave by emancipation and to that end
would most willingly pay to his owner the value of said slave by voluntary
contributions and your petitioners Hannah T. Lorimer, who is the mother
of James H. T. Lorimer, and your petitioner Thomas Faultleroy, who intermarried
with the only sister of said James H. T. Lorimer, who hath no brother living,
not only wish that the said slave could be emancipated, but would perform
any reasonable act to accomplish the same, but as the said James is an
infant under the age of twenty-one years and incapable to perform any act
which would be requisite for that purpose, your petitioners are advised
that the said slave cannot be emancipated without the interposition of
the legislature; therefore your petitioners pray that an act may be passed
to emancipate the said slave on the payment of such sum of money to the
guardian of said James as may be ascertained to be the value of said slave
in such a manner as your honorable body may direct or that such mode for
his emancipation may be adopted as may be thought most reasonable and consistent
with the interest of the proprietor and you petitioners will pray-
Twenty-two signatures: Churchill
Blakey. (Judge Middlesex County) is the first signature.
I’m often asked if Sam received
the freedom, which he deserved. No one has ever found the record of the
action of the General Assembly. Most records of that period were burned
at the closing of the Civil War.
© 2005 Catherine C.
Brooks All rights reserved. |