TEXT SOURCE:  Schweninger, Loren, ed.  The Southern Debate over Slavery (Volume 1: Petitions to Southern Legislatures, 1778-1864).  Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001.  pp. 6-7, 25-26.

Daniel Cannon, et al., petition to South Carolina legislature (February 19, 1783).

To the Honourable Hugh Rutledge Esq. Speaker, and the other Members of the Honourable House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina in General Assembly Convened.

The Petition of the House-Carpenters and Bricklayers of Charleston,

Humbly Sheweth,

That your Petitioners have laboured under very great Inconveniences in their respective Occupations ever since the Commencement of the present War, having scarce had sufficient Employment to support their Families, owing, they apprehend, in a great Measure, to a Number of Jobbing Negroe Tradesmen, who undervalue Work by undertaking it for very little more than the Materials would cost, by which it is evident that Stuff they work with cannot be honestly acquired.  Your Honourable House will be sensible that this Practice must be prejudicial, not only to the Proprietors of Materials for building, but highly detrimental to your Petitioners, Who are thereby deprived of the Means of gaining a Livelihood by their Industry.

Your Petitioners therefore humbly request your Honourable House to take their distressed Case into your serious Consideration, and to enact such a Law as may prohibit Negroes from undertaking Work on their own Account....

Incorporated Mechanical Society of Wilmington, petition to North Carolina legislature (November 29, 1802).

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the State of N. Carolina.

The Memorial and Petition of the Incorporated Mechanical Society, and other Inhabitants, of the Town of Wilmington in the State aforesaid, Respectfully Sheweth,

That notwithstanding the Acts of Assembly for the especial purpose made and provided it has been the practice of many Owners of Slaves in this Town, to hire to them their own time; that the major part of those Slaves being Mechanics undertake work on their own account, at, sometimes less, than one half the rate that a regular bred white Mechanic could afford to do it --; that those Slaves so hired, again hire other Slaves to work under them, and take apprentices also -- that tho’ laws are made to restrain this practice, still the due execution and enforcing those laws not being the particular province of any person they lie neglected, and of no avail:

Your Memorialists are conscious that Your honorable Body, will see the evil tendency of practices of the nature above set forth, in many shapes; but they beg leave to point out and bring to your view more immediately many ways by which, those practices are, and may be still more hurtful, as well to individuals, as the Country at large viz:  the discouragement to population; for while Slaves can work at one half the price a White Man can, white Mechanics will never settle in the country; Also the real injury these transactions, have done and still will continue to do (if not timely suppressed) to the white Mechanics and their families, already settled in Wilmington; for it is a well known fact that a number of old and respectable Mechanics from being underworked and deprived of bread in the manner, and from the causes aforesaid, have been obliged to relinquish the trades they were regularly brought up to, and follow other occupations to procure sustenance for themselves and families....