Her condition will be better than at the present time.
by Lisa Y. Henderson
North Carolina, Pasquotank Co. } January 31st AD 1861
To the Honorable: the Senate and House of representatives of the State of North Carolina in General Assembly convened,
The petition of Kissiah Trueblood most respectfully showeth unto your Honorable body, That she is a free woman of color now a resident of State and County aforesaid, and has been during her life, being at this time about 23 years of age; that during minority she was Apprentised to the late William Charles and served her time faithfully with him, since his death she has exercised the privilege of a free woman of color, being borned of free parents. For the space of two years just passed, she has lived with one Dr. W.P. Ritter in the capacity of a servant, receiving wages for services rendered. Your Petitioner further showeth unto your Honorable body, that after mature deliberation, upon her part, uninfluenced by any person, it being her own free will and accord, she desires to become the slave of the said Dr. Ritter, believing as she truly does after past experienced, that her condition in this life, will be for better, then, than at the present time. That in her present condition she is destitute and without protection, and in the condition of a slave, she would be cared for and have the protection of her Master, and to that end she prays your Honorable body, to enact such laws so as to enable said Dr. Ritter, to hold and possess your petitioner, in fee simple as his slave for all time to come, bothe your petitioner and children should she have any; governed only by such laws as have been enacted to regulate and govern the relations between Master and Slave. And your petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray. Kissiah X Trueblood
Signed in presence of W.W. Grandy Jr.
General Assembly Session Records, November 1860-February 1861, Petitions Box 8, North Carolina State Archives.
Fourth Generation Inclusive 
[…] answer lies in a recent posting that Lisa retrieved from the North Carolina archives and is echoed in other similar […]
This is my ancestor. It should be Youngblood as later stated not true blood as is in dark text wonderful piece though you do great work
Hmm. Interesting. I reviewed the PDF of the original petition, which is available at http://www.digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15012coll8/id/2215/rec/3, to double-check. My inclusion of “Youngbood” was a transcription error that I’ve corrected. Kissiah’s last name is listed as Trueblood throughout the record, which, in addition to the transcribed petition, includes affidavits from C.W. Grandy Jr. and Clerk of Court James Hinton. Are you sure this document was filed on behalf of your Kissiah Youngblood? Thanks for checking out the blog!
No I did some checking not her 😦 but excellent read also passed it along to another young lady researching her slavery ancestors namely a kissah perhaps she will have more luck than I but thanks for the clarification just got so excited… Jumped to soon. I guess it happens why we have to double check those facts I guess thanks again keep up the great work
Hi: I live in Northern California and was researching the history of Ellison Trueblood who was an early, 1850ish, resident of Tehama County. In the url: http://www.blissrichards.com/johncuddeback/sarah_elizabeth_sweetman.htm that shows that Mr. Trueblood, through his parents owned a plantation which he sold and freed his slaves. It seems to me that the Trueblood name was not that common (read: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dbeeler/History.html ). It seems that the Truebloods were Quakers and they were very much against slavery which seems to fit. I have a feeling that Kissiah mentioned above could be related to the Quaker Truebloods.