Please free Clara, two years old.

by Lisa Y. Henderson

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina

The petition of Thomas Johnson of Washington County humbly sheweth that he is the owner of a mulatto slave named Clara (Clary), about the age of two years, whom he is desirous to emancipate. Your petitioner therefore prays your Honorable Body to pass a bill to liberate said slave and that she may be called by the name of Clara Johnson and your petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray.  /s/ Thomas Johnson

General Assembly Session Records, November-December 1813, Box 3, North Carolina State Archives.