Petition of Peter Wiggins, Westmoreland County

14_0703_007_.JPG
Peter Wiggins Petition_1867_transcription_14_0703_007.pdf

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

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