THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY
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November 27, 1815
Lucinda Petitioned the General Assembly
Lucinda was an enslaved woman who received her freedom by the terms of the will of her owner, Mary Matthews. The rest of Matthews's former slaves moved to Tennessee, but Lucinda elected to remain in Virginia to be near her husband, an enslaved man owned by William H. Hooe. Laws passed during the previous two decades required freed slaves to leave the state within one year of emancipation. Lucinda had overstayed the year and faced being sold back into slavery by the county. So as not to be sold away from her husband, Lucinda petitioned the assembly to become a slave of Captain Hooe.