inhabitants on the Eastern Shore of
Virginia 1185 were free Negroes and mulattoes when the census was taken.
The number is since much augmented.]

[Footnote 19: The act of 1795. c. 11. enacts, that any person held in
slavery may make complaint to a magistrate, or to the court of the
district county or corporation wherein he resides, and not elsewhere.
The magistrate, if the complaint be made to him, shall issue his warrant
to summon the owner before him, and compel him to give bond and security
to suffer the complainant to appear at the next court to petition the
court to be admitted to sue _in forma pauperis_. If the owner refuse,
the magistrate shall order the complainant into the custody of the
officer serving the warrant, at the expence of the master, who shall
keep him until the sitting of the court, and then produce him before it.
Upon petition to the court, if the court be satisfied as to the material
facts, they shall assign the complainant council, who shall state the
facts with his opinion thereon to the court; and unless from the
circumstances so stated, and the opinion thereon given, the court shall
_see manifest reason to deny their interference_, they shall order the
clerk to issue process against the owner, and the complainant shall
remain in the custody of the sheriff until the owner shall give bond and
security to have him forthcoming to answer the judgment of the court.
And by the general law in case of pauper's suits; the complainants shall
have writs of subpoena gratis; and by the practice of the courts, he is
permitted to attend the taking the depositions of witnesses, and go and
come freely to and from court, for the prosecution of his suit.]

Among the Romans, the _libertini_, or freedmen, were formerly
distinguished by a threefold division [Just. Inst. lib. 1. tit. 5.].
They sometimes obtained what was called the greater liberty, thereby
becoming _Roman citizens_. To this privilege, those who were
enfranchised by testament, by the census, or by the vindicta, appear to
have been alone admitted: sometimes they obtained the lesser liberty
only, and became _Latins_; whose condition is thus described by
Justinian. "They never enjoyed the right of succession [to
estates].--For although they led the lives of free men, yet with their
last breath they lost both their lives and liberties; for their
possessions, like the goods of slaves, were detained by the manumittor
[Harris's Inst. lib. 3. tit. 8.]." So