Apr 07, 2022 - Sale 2600

Sale 2600 - Lot 158

Price Realized: $ 2,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(MISSISSIPPI.) Petition from the citizens of Adams County shortly after the creation of Mississippi Territory. Manuscript document, 9 pages (12 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches) on 3 folding sheets; folds, minor dampstaining, paper clip stain. Adams County, MS, 6 June 1799
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A contemporary transcript of a petition from the newly created Adams County, with Natchez as its county seat. It protests tax policy, the power of sheriffs to arrest delinquents without due process, the seizure of the property of non-residents, and more. Notably, "we present as a grievance the taxing of batteaux and boats carrying above twenty barrels, as it will thereby prevent the freighting our produce and necessities to and from New Orleans in our own bottoms to the manifest injury of our own people employed in that line." They also complain of the "ruinous state of the roads and bridges throughout the whole of this territory to the great shame and neglect of an industrious and civilized people."

On page 5 they complain that "a proper white person is not appointed as an Indian Inspector which has hitherto been effected by a Negro slave to the great shame of a free and independent people." They demand "qualified persons . . . to visit and examine the several public and private cotton gins throughout this territory."

Disorder in Natchez is a particular source of concern. They complain of the "great number of idle and disorderly people who assemble and meet at the different public houses in the town of Natchez on the Sabbath" and allowing "Negro slaves &c to play about the fences of the out lots at cards, dice and chuck penny upon the above day."

They conclude by reminding that "it was not a matter of choice our coming into this territory as belonging to the United States" but they still remained "a people descended from the same stock, possessing the same principles and animated with the same desire of freedom." The names of 17 signers are appended.

This petition was published in The Territorial Papers of the United States, Volume 5, pages 63-66, from another copy in the Timothy Pickering Papers at Massachusetts Historical Society.