at it might not be possible to transport all the Negroes of
the country very easily, requests for dealing with the situation as it
was, were also in order. As a number of the farmers had suffered from
a loss of sheep by the numerous dogs maintained by slaves and free
persons of color, there came requests praying that the keeping of dogs
and hogs by Negroes be made illegal. Some of these petitions, too, had
an economic phase. There came from Culpepper a petition praying for a
passage of the law for the encouragement of white mechanics by
prohibiting any slave, free Negro or mulatto from being bound as an
apprentice to learn any trade or art. Charles City and New Kent
complained against the practice of employing slaves and Negroes as
millers and asked that a law penalizing such action be enacted.[24]

The question as to what should be done with the blacks turned out to
be the most important matter brought before the legislature.
Three-fourths of the session was devoted to the discussion of such
questions as the removal of the free Negroes and the colonization of
such slaves as masters could be induced to give up. The legislature
met on the 5th of December and after going through the preliminaries
of organization listened to the message of the Governor which had the
insurrection as its most prominent feature. When the petitions from
the various counties began to come in, there soon prevailed a motion
that so much of the Governor's message as related to the insurrection
of slaves and the removal of the free Negroes be referred to a select
committee, which after prolonged deliberation found it difficult to
agree upon a report.

Desiring to protect the interests of slavery, William O. Goode, of
Mecklenburg County, moved on the eleventh of January that the select
committee appointed to consider the memorials bearing on slaves free
Negroes and the Southampton massacre be discharged from the
consideration of all petitions, memorials and resolutions, which had
for their object the manumission of slaves. The resolution further
declared that it was not expedient to legislate on slavery.[25]
Whereupon Thomas Jefferson Randolph, of Albemarle County, moved to
amend this resolution so as to instruct the committee to inquire into
the expediency and to report a bill to submit to the voters of the
State the propriety of providing by law that the children of all
female slaves who might be born in that State on or after the fourth
day of