The Petition of the People of Colour of the State [of South Carolina],” April 30, 1794

Background

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries a very small percentage of the Black population in South Carolina, mostly in the Charleston area, was not enslaved. These free Black people never exceeded 2 percent of the Black population in the state. Although they were technically free, they lived under restrictive laws and social customs. They could not vote, did not have access to the same legal rights as White people, and were subject to special taxes, among other abuses. This petition sought to address and have rescinded one of those abuses, a poll tax aimed at free Black people. 

Transcript

“The Petition of the People of Colour of the State [of South Carolina],” April 30, 1794

To the honorable, the Representative of So Carolina

the Petition of the People of Colour of the state aforesaid who are under the act intitled an Act for imposing a poll tax on all free Negroes, Musteez and Mulatoes.—

most humbly sheweth

that whereas (we your humble petitioners) having the honor of being your Citizens, as also free and willing to advance for the support of Government anything that might not be prejudicial to us, it being well known that we have not been backward on our part, in performing any other public duties that hath fell in the compass of our knowledge,

We therefore, being sensibly griev’d at our present situation, also having frequently discovered the many distresses, occasion’d by your Act imposing the poll tax, such as widows with large families, & women scarcely able to support themselves, being frequently followed & payment extorted by your tax gatherers—

these considerations on our part hath occasioned us, to give you this trouble, requesting your deliberate body, to repeal an Act so truly mortifying to your distress’d petitioners—for which favor your petitioners will ever acknowledge, & devoutly pray—

Isaac Linagear
Isaac Mitchell
Jonathan Price
Nathan Price
Richard Ivins
Nathaniel Carbie
Samuel Collins
William x Turner
Thomas Shulon
Spencer x Bolton
William x Swett
Solomon x Bolton
James Shewmak
John x Turner
Solomon x Shewmk
Sampson x Shewmak
Thomas x Shewmak
Thomas x Shumake
John x Shumake
James x Shumake
David Collins
Thomas Collins
John x Turner
Mildred x Turner
Penelape x Turner
Cathrine x Turner
Elias Simeon
Chadworth Oxendine
Peter x Colden
Moses x Colden
Delley Gibson
Drusilla Gibson
Georg Mccloud

(April 30, 1794)

 

Source: Petition of the People of Colour: Manuscript, General Assessment Petition 1794, No. 216, Frames 370–74, Free People of Color ST 1368, Series S165015, Item 216, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

Excerpt

“The Petition of the People of Colour of the State [of South Carolina],” April 30, 1794*

To the honorable, the Representatives of South Carolina

The Petition of the People of Colour of the state [of South Carolina] who are [subject to] the act entitled “an Act for imposing a poll tax on all free Negroes, Musteez and Mulattoes.”—

most humbly sheweth

that whereas (we your humble petitioners) having the honor of being your Citizens, as also [we are] free and willing to advance for the support of Government anything that might not be prejudicial to us, it being well known that we have not been backward on our part in performing any other public duties that [we know of],

We therefore, being sensibly aggrieved at our present situation, also having frequently discovered the many distresses, occasioned by your Act imposing the poll tax [on us], [affecting] such [victims] as widows with large families, & women scarcely able to support themselves, [and all of us] being frequently followed & extorted by your tax gatherers—

These considerations on our part have occasioned us to give you this trouble, requesting your deliberate body, to repeal an Act so truly mortifying to your distressed petitioners.

[Signed by thirty-four African Americans, including five women, and witnessed and co-signed by forty-four white South Carolinians]

 

* Editorial note: The words in square brackets have been added by the editor indicating language that has been updated for modern readers.

 

Source: Petition of the People of Colour: Manuscript, General Assessment Petition 1794, No. 216, Frames 370–74, Free People of Color ST 1368, Series S165015, Item 216, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.