Petition of Peter Wiggins, Westmoreland County
Dublin Core
Title
Petition of Peter Wiggins, Westmoreland County
Subject
African Americans, slavery, family, labor
Description
In 1867 a former enslaved man named Peter Wiggins petitioned the Westmoreland County Court to gain custody of the two sons and two daughters he and Malinda Thompson had before the Civil War; but because Wiggins had been married to a woman named Ann when the 1866 cohabitation act was passed, the judge ruled that the children of Peter Wiggins and Malinda Thompson were illigitimate and refused to award custody of them to Wiggins.
Creator
Peter Wiggins
Source
Westmoreland County Writs of Habeas Corpus, 1867, 1870, Westmoreland County Court Records, Local Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.
Date
January 1867
Contributor
Library of Virginia
Rights
CC BY-SA
Format
JPG
Type
Manuscript
Identifier
14_0703_007, Peter Wiggins Petition_1867_transcription_14_0703_007.pdf
Coverage
Westmoreland County, Virginia
Citation
Peter Wiggins, “Petition of Peter Wiggins, Westmoreland County,” Remaking Virginia: Transformation Through Emancipation, accessed October 31, 2025, https://virginiamemory.com/online-exhibitions/items/show/521.