Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva's Black History

Record Detail

Record #23 from Abstracts of Petitions to Southern County Courts, 1775-1867

Part of Series B
Microfilm Reel in Collection Series 6
Microfilm Frame on Reel 668
Accession Number (identifies petition on microfilm) 20983806
County Kent
State Maryland
Year Legislative Petition Filed 1838
Abstract of Petition Emily Ann states that she is "unlawfully held in slavery by George S Hollyday." She requests that the court "cause her to be liberated and to grant her such further and other relief as the nature of her case requires." Documents entered in the court record reveal that Emily Ann's original owner, Rebecca Ann Skirven, sold her at the age of three to Thomas W Skirven under the terms that she only serve until she reached the age of twenty-five. Rebecca Ann Skirven also stipulated that if Thomas Skirvenever offered Emily Ann for sale, Emily Ann would be "free from all manner of servitude and slavery whatever." Shortly thereafter, Thomas Skirven used Emily Ann as collateral in a mortgage agreement with George Vickers. One of Skirven's creditors then levied an execution on Emily Ann and she was offered at public sale where George Holyday purchased her. The court acknowledged that Hollyday "had a previous knowledge of the existence" of the document drawn up by Rebbecca Ann Skirven, but Hollyday claims that he "considered it invalid, so far as the restriction to selling therein mentioned."

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[Author (if known)], Abstracts of Petitions to Southern County Courts, 1775-1867, [Date (if known)], Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva’s Black History, Nabb Research Center, Salisbury University.

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