O Say Can You See

The petition of Milly Bowie, a person of color, humbly sheweth to your Honors that your petitioner was introduced into the State of Maryland from the State of Virginia several years since by a certain William M. Offutt then a citizen of the State of Maryland, and that by the noncompliance of the said Offutt with the requisitions of the Act of Assembly of Maryland in such cases made and provided, your petitioner has become entitled to her freedom. And your petitioner further sheweth that she is credibly informed that the said Offutt conspiring with one Zadock Offutt, (who likewise claims some title in your petitioner) to defraud her of her just claims, designs selling her to some distant state where, cut off from all means of establishing her right, she will be doomed to a hopeless slavery for life. To avert which fate, your petitioner humbly prays the judgment of your Honors that she be released from further servitude.

Clement Cox for the Petitioner