O Say Can You See

The petition of Henry Thomas Edmonson, a coloured boy about eleven years old represents to your Honors that although entitled to his freedom, being descended from a free woman by the name of Nancy Edmondson, [illegible] in George Town yet he was forcibly arrested and committed as a runaway slave by the name of William Thomas to the jail of Washington County in the District of Columbia, where he was kept in close confinement, and advertised for sale as a runaway by the name of said William Thomas, to satisfy and pay the jail fees and expenses growing out of said imprisonment. That at such sale a certain Joseph Neal, purchased your Petitioner under the name of one William Thomas, and that he is now held & claimed by the said Joseph Neal who is a trader in negroes and a nonresident of the District, as a slave. Your Petitioner is ready to establish his freedom. he therefore asks of your Honors all judicial process necessary to make the said Joseph answerable to this court and that proper security may be required of the said Joseph Neal to prevent his removing your Petitioner out of the city of Washington or the jurisdiction of this Court when the said Petitioner will respectfully until the right be properly determined by this Court and that the marshall may take into custody the petitioner and have him brought into court.

J Hellen for Petitioner