North Carolina State Archives
General Assembly Session Records
Novemer-December, 1771, Box #5
Lower House Papers
Petitions Rejected or not Acted on

Petition from the inhabitants of Granville
1771, Entd.

To the Honble. the Speaker and Gentn. Of the house of Assembly
 The Petition of the Inhabitants of Granville County Humbly Sheweth that by the Act of Assembly Concerning Tythables it is among other things enacted that all free Negroes & Mulato Women and all wives of free Negroes & Mulatoes are Declar&39;d Tythables & Chargeable for Defraying the Public country & Parish Leveys of this Province which Your Petitioners Humbly Conceive is highly derogatory of the Rights of Freeborn Subjects.
 Your Petitioners therefore Pray that A Act may pass Exempting Such free Negroes & Mulatoe Women and all wives other than Slaves of free Negroes & Mulatoes from being Listed as Tythables & from Paying any Public County or Parish Leveys and your Petitions Shall ever Pray &c.
 

My notes:
From what I can ascertain from all my research into free blacks in NC before the Civil War, the following people who signed the petition above are free blacks:

• Gibea Chavis (also spelled Gibbea and Gibbs in various records)
• Benjamin Bass
• Lewis Anderson
• Davie Mircoll (this is actually Davie Mitchell but it's written like "Mircholl")
• William Chavis
• Edward Bass
• Rubin Bass (also spelled Reuben and Ruben in various records)
• Lawrence Pettiford (some records spell "Pettiford" as "Petitford")
• Agula Snele (this is actually Aquila Snell)

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