Petition from Sarah Garrett to Mississippi Governor Charles Clark; October 10, 1864

To His Excellency Charles Clark Governor of the State of Mississippi

The petition of Sarah D. Garrett of the city of Canton, in the County of Madison in said State, Respectfully sheweth;

That at the Sept. Term 1864 of the Circuit Court of Madison County your petitioner was indicted on three several charges for offence of permitting three of her slaves to go at large and trade as freemen; to said indictments your petitioner made no defence but plead guilty whereupon the Court, in each case, sentenced her to im-prisonment, nominal, and to pay a fine of $500 amounting to $1500 for the three cases, (one of said slaves being a barber the other two draymen)

Your petitioner respectfully asks the executive clem-ency in the remission of the fines & imprisonment imposed as aforesaid, for the following reasons, to wit: that your petitioner is a widow lady with a helpless family, that her negroes are her only support, that her sons, her only protectors, are in the army, that she has therefore no person to control them & being thus situated She became entirely de-pendent upon her slaves & was, of necessity, to make them at all profitable, compelled to permit them to hire themselves, In addition to this your petitioner would further state that the public enemy has taken from her all her effective force leaving on her hands a number of helpless, small negroes, that in consequence of the raids & threatened raids & constant prox-imity of the enemy for the last year & also in con-sequence of the fact that no Circuit Court has been held in said county since March 1863 the slave population has become much demoralized & difficult of management, your petitioner be-cause of her widowed & helpless state chose

rather to hire the said slaves to themselves, than to ^permit them to^ go at large as they could & probably would have done without any restraint or control being exercised over them.

Your petitioner therefore, in consideration of the premises, towit: that she is a widow, that her sons are battling in defence of their country, that said slaves are her only support & that she could make them profitable no other way, prays your excellency to remit said fines and imprisonment imposed by the court aforesaid and as in duty bound she will ever pray & c.

Sarah. D. Garrett.

We, the undersigned, citizens of Canton and surrounding country respectfully recommend that the prayer of the foregoing petition be granted—

Sam Henderson Comdg Ind't Scouts W^m J Taylor Sheriff

Jno. S. Robinson, Probate Clerk, Madison Co

E. J. Bowers Courier C. S. Dist Court So. Div. Missⁱ

O. A. Luckett R. M. Latimer C C Shackleford W^m,, Priestley J Colquhom A. D, Shelden T, C, Tupper

Sarah D Garrett Petition Madison County

Pardon granted as to imprisonment in jail Octr 10^th 1864