All rights reserved. Department of History, The University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Petitions to state legislatures address a myriad of topics, including individual requests for emancipation, campaigns demanding the total abolition of slavery, and complaints about the activities of free blacks.
Most petitions have a common format.
The first item of a petition is typically a salutation to the legislative body to which it is addressed. In most cases petitions were handwritten, but sometimes a printed petition form was used. In the case of handwritten petitions, the formality of the language and script may serve as an indicator of the petitioner's level of literacy. The body of the petition generally contains an explanation of the case. Often, petitioners wished to bring a grievance to the attention of the legislature.