This is a petition submitted to the General Assembly of Virginia in 1833 by a man named Nathan. Nathan was a free African American man seeking to remain in Rockingham County with his enslaved wife and children. At the time, Virginia law required recently-freed African Americans to leave the state soon after their emancipation, unless they petitioned and were granted permission to remain in the area. This petition was signed by Jacob Lincoln Jr. and dozens of other white men from Rockingham County.
