Virginia Memory, Library of Virginia
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THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY

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November 27, 1815

Petition of Lucinda, 20 December 1815 (received), Manuscript, Record Group 78, Legislative Petitions, King George County, Box 133, Folder 44, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. Petition of Lucinda, 20 December 1815 (received), Manuscript, Record Group 78, Legislative Petitions, King George County, Box 133, Folder 44, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Lucinda Petitioned the General Assembly

Lucinda was an enslaved woman who received her freedom by the terms of the will of her owner, Mary Matthews. The rest of Matthews's former slaves moved to Tennessee, but Lucinda elected to remain in Virginia to be near her husband, an enslaved man owned by William H. Hooe. Laws passed during the previous two decades required freed slaves to leave the state within one year of emancipation. Lucinda had overstayed the year and faced being sold back into slavery by the county. So as not to be sold away from her husband, Lucinda petitioned the assembly to become a slave of Captain Hooe.