Petition from Sarah Garrett to Mississippi Governor Charles Clark; October 10, 1864
Title
Petition from Sarah Garrett to Mississippi Governor Charles Clark; October 10, 1864
Subject
Clark, Charles, 1811-1877; Freedmen.; Mississippi. Governor; Slavery.; Trade.
Description
From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Clark Collection. Petition from Sarah Garrett to Mississippi Governor Charles Clark asking that she be pardoned for her alleged crime of allowing enslaved people to trade as freemen.
Creator
Garrett, Sarah
Publisher
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. (electronic version); Mississippi Digital Library. (electronic version)
Date
1864-10-10
Contributor
Funding for this project provided by The Dale Center for Study of War and Society-USM, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Mississippi Digital Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the University of Southern Mississippi, and the Watson-Brown Foundation
Rights
NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Language
English
Identifier
mdah_768-950-02-40
Coverage
1864
Text
Page 1:
To His Excellency Charles Clark
Governor of the State of Mississippi
The petition of Sarah D. Garrett of the city of Canton, in the county of Madison in said state, Respectfully sherwith:
That at the Sept. Term 1864 of the Circuit Court of Madison County your petitioner was indicted on these several charges for the offence of permitting three of her slaves to go at large and trade as freemen; to said indictments your petitioner made no defence but plead guilty whereupon the Court, in each case, sentenced her to im-prisonment, nominal, and to pay a fine of $500, amounting to $1500 for the three cases, (one of said slaves being a barber the other two draymen)
Your petitioner respectfully asks the executive clem ency in the remission of the fines & imprisonment imposed as aforesaid, for the following reasons, to wit: that your petitioner is a widow lady with a helpless family, that her negroes are her only support, that her sons, her only protectors, are in the army, that she has therefore no person to controle them & being thus situated she became entirely de-pendent upon her slaves & was, of necessity, to make them at all profitable, compelled to permit them to hire themselves, In addition to this your petitioner would further state that the public enemy has taken from her all her effective force leaving on her hands a number of helpless, small negroes, that in consequence of the raids & threatened raids & constant prox-imity of the enemy for the last year & also in con-sequence of the fact that no circuit court has been held in said county since March 1863 The slave population has become much demoralized & difficult of management, your petitioner be-cause of her widowed & helpless state chose
Page 2:
rather to hire the said slaves to themselves, than to ^permit them to^ go at large as they could & probably would have done without any restraint or control being exercised over them,
Your petitioner therefore, in consideration of the premises to wit; that she is a widow, that her sons are battling in defence of their country, that said slaves are her only support & that she could make them profitable no otherway, prays your excellency to remit said fines and imprisonment imposed by the court aforsaid and as in duty bound she will ever pray &c,
Sarah, D. Garrett,
We, the undersigned, citizens of Canton and surrounding country, respectfully recommendthat the prayer of the foregoing petition be granted—
Sam Henderson
comdg Ind't Scouts
Wm J Taylor Sheriff
Jno. S Robinson,
Probate Clerk, Madison County
E. J. Bowers Commr C. S. Dist
[Court?] So. Div. Missi
O, A, Luckett
R, M, Latimer
C C Shackleford
Wm" Priestley
J Colgaham?
A, D, Shelden
T. C. Tupper
Page 3:
Sarah D Garrett
Petition
Madison County
Pardon granted as to imprisonment in jail
Octr 10th 1864
To His Excellency Charles Clark
Governor of the State of Mississippi
The petition of Sarah D. Garrett of the city of Canton, in the county of Madison in said state, Respectfully sherwith:
That at the Sept. Term 1864 of the Circuit Court of Madison County your petitioner was indicted on these several charges for the offence of permitting three of her slaves to go at large and trade as freemen; to said indictments your petitioner made no defence but plead guilty whereupon the Court, in each case, sentenced her to im-prisonment, nominal, and to pay a fine of $500, amounting to $1500 for the three cases, (one of said slaves being a barber the other two draymen)
Your petitioner respectfully asks the executive clem ency in the remission of the fines & imprisonment imposed as aforesaid, for the following reasons, to wit: that your petitioner is a widow lady with a helpless family, that her negroes are her only support, that her sons, her only protectors, are in the army, that she has therefore no person to controle them & being thus situated she became entirely de-pendent upon her slaves & was, of necessity, to make them at all profitable, compelled to permit them to hire themselves, In addition to this your petitioner would further state that the public enemy has taken from her all her effective force leaving on her hands a number of helpless, small negroes, that in consequence of the raids & threatened raids & constant prox-imity of the enemy for the last year & also in con-sequence of the fact that no circuit court has been held in said county since March 1863 The slave population has become much demoralized & difficult of management, your petitioner be-cause of her widowed & helpless state chose
Page 2:
rather to hire the said slaves to themselves, than to ^permit them to^ go at large as they could & probably would have done without any restraint or control being exercised over them,
Your petitioner therefore, in consideration of the premises to wit; that she is a widow, that her sons are battling in defence of their country, that said slaves are her only support & that she could make them profitable no otherway, prays your excellency to remit said fines and imprisonment imposed by the court aforsaid and as in duty bound she will ever pray &c,
Sarah, D. Garrett,
We, the undersigned, citizens of Canton and surrounding country, respectfully recommendthat the prayer of the foregoing petition be granted—
Sam Henderson
comdg Ind't Scouts
Wm J Taylor Sheriff
Jno. S Robinson,
Probate Clerk, Madison County
E. J. Bowers Commr C. S. Dist
[Court?] So. Div. Missi
O, A, Luckett
R, M, Latimer
C C Shackleford
Wm" Priestley
J Colgaham?
A, D, Shelden
T. C. Tupper
Page 3:
Sarah D Garrett
Petition
Madison County
Pardon granted as to imprisonment in jail
Octr 10th 1864