"To His Excellency Major General Sir Lionel Smith Knight Commander of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath Governor and Commander in chief in and over the islands of Barbados Saint Vincent Grenada and Tobago and their respective dependencies &c &c &c

The humble Petition of Pierre of the Island of Grenada free black man

Sheweth,
That by an Act of this Colony made on the twenty sixth day of april one thousand eight hundred and twenty five intituled “An Act to consolidate all the Laws now in force relating to the Slave Population for making more effectual provision for their maintenance and protection and for the admissibility of their testimony in certain cases” it is amongst other things enacted that any person or persons whether free or Slaves who shall pretend to use any art or mystery with the intent or so as to affect the life or health of any Slave or other person or who shall mix or prepare with an intent to give or cause to be given any poison or poisoners drug pounded glass or other deleterious matter in the practice of Obeah or otherwise although death may not ensue on the taking thereof or who shall have in his her or their possession any poisonous drugs pounded glass Parrot's beaks Dogs' teeth Alligators' teeth or other materials notoriously used in the practice of Obeah or Witchcraft and in a state of evident preparation for carrying on such dangerous and nefarious practice or who shall be found at any meeting formed either for the purpose of administering unlawful oaths by drinking human blood mixed with rum, grave dirt, or otherwise or for any other unlawful or dangerous purpose whatsoever such person or persons shall upon conviction thereof be deemed guilty of felony and shall suffer death transportation or such other punishment as the Court shall think proper to direct

That Your Petitioner in the month of December one thousand eight hundred and thirty three was tried before the Supreme Court of Judicature and found guilty on the Indictments which charged Your Petitioner with giving and causing to be given to certain persons therein named certain noxious drugs in the practice of obeah and of having in his possession certain materials notoriously used in such practice and your Petitioner was thereupon sentenced and adjudged by the said Court on the conviction to be transported at the expense of this Colony to be put on board the Hulks at Woolwich and from thence to New South Wales, or to such other place beyond the Seas as His Majesty's Government may direct there to remain in banishment for the space of fourteen years and on the second conviction to remain after the first period of banishment shall have expired for the further period of fourteen years in his then place of a banishment.

That Your Petitioner humbly states that he ought not to have been so convicted and sentenced because no evidence was produced or shewn to the to the Court or Jury of Your Petitioner having given or caused to be given any poison or poisonous drug pounded glass or other deleterious matter to the person or persons named in the said Indictments and because the giving or causing to be given any poison or poisonous drug pounded glass or other deleterious matter in the practice of Obeah with which your Petitioner was charged by the said Indictments is not punishable by the said Act which was intended to prevent the belief in pretences to Obeah and which only punishes and applies to the mixing or preparing with an intent to give or cause to be given any poison or poisonous drug pounded glass or other deleterious matter in the practice of Obeah with which Offences your Petitioner was not charged by the said Indictments and because the Counts in the said Indictments which charged Your Petitioner with having in his possession certain materials notoriously used in the practice of Obeah are uncertain and insufficient and ought to have specified the nature kind or description of materials in order that Your Petitioner might have been enabled to prepare his defence accordingly and to plead his conviction in bar of any other prosecution for the same Offence and because (the said Counts not charging Your Petitioner with having in his possession any of the Articles or things specified in the said Act) no proof was produced or shewn to the Court or Jury of any other materials in the possession of Your Petitioner being in notorious use in the practice of Obeah.

That the aforesaid objections to the said Indictments were taken by Petitioner before Judgment but the same were overuled by the said Court.

That transportation is a species of punishment unknown to the Common Law of England and where it is now inflicted it is either by the choice of the Criminal himself in order to escape some severe punishment or it is imposed by the express direction of some Act of the Legislature.
[20] That Your Petitioner humbly submits that the said Act does not authorize the transportation of any Offender for any period nor the confinement of any Offender for any period in any place beyond the Seas nor transportation to any particular place & there is no Colonial Act authorizing transportation to any place. Vide 1st Report of commissioners on Criminal & Civil Justice in the West Indies (Jamaica) pages 52. 137. 171 on this subject and 5 Geo 4 C84 [?] 3 and 17

That the Statutes passed in England regulating the transportation of offenders from Great Britain are not in force in this colony except so far as the provisions of the 5 Geo 4 C 84 are thereby made to extend to Convicts adjudged to transportation by the Courts of this Island but if such Statutes were in force in this Colony your Petitioner humbly submits that the transportation of Your Petitioner for the said several periods of fourteen years by the aforesaid Sentence of the said Supreme Court on the aforesaid Convictions is illegal.

That the word transportation simply does not authorize transportation for any period or confinement for any period in any place beyond the seas may be collected from the several Statutes of Great Britain and of this Colony imposing the punishment of transportation which specify the periods for which such transportation may be ordered and the same may in particular be inferred from the 4 Geo 4 C 11 though some Statutes [?] not been extended to this Colony the first section whereof amongst other things enacts that when His Majesty shall be graciously pleased to extend Royal mercy to certain offenders upon condition of transportation to America it shall be lawful for any Court having proper authority to order the transfer and conveyance of such offenders to any person willing to contract for such transportation [?] of fourteen years in case such condition of transportation be general [?] for such other [?] as shall be made part of such condition if any particular time be specified by His Majesty which Provision your Petitioner humbly begs leave to observe only applies to conditional [pardons?]

That if Your Petitioner were liable by law to transportation for fourteen years on the said convictions Your Petitioner humbly submits that the aforesaid sentences of transportation are illegal inasmuch as it is held that a sentence of transportation to be legal must commence immediately and not from any future period whilst the sentence of transportation on the aforesaid first conviction of Your Petitioner adjudes him to be transported to be put on board the Hulks at Woolwich and from thence to New South Wales or to such other place beyond the seas as His Majesty's Government may direct there to remain in banishment for fourteen years and therefore such period of transportation not commencing until Your Petitioner's arrival in New South Wales or such other place as aforesaid is indefinite and uncertain and may be forever prolonged and is de future il contingente and may never commence and the same is moreover repugnant to the 19 Section of the 5 Geo 4 C 84 which enacts that the time during which any offender shall continue in any Gaol or House of Correction or in any such place of confinement as in the said Act mentioned under Sentence or order of transportation or banishment shall be taken and reckoned in discharge or part discharge of the [term?] of his transportation or banishment.

Your Petitioner therefore most humbly prays Your Excellency that Your Excellency will be pleased to take his case into your merciful consideration and to grant him such relief in the promises as to Your Excellency in your clemency may seem fit or that Your Excellency will be pleased to respite the execution of the said Sentences until His Majesty's pleasure may be taken thereon and to transmit this Petition to the Right Honorable the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

And Your Petitioner shall ever pray &c

Pierre

his
X
mark"