A Documentary History of African- American Freedom: An Introduction to the Race, Slavery and Free Blacks Microfilm Collection Jennifer Hull Dorsey This essay offers an introduction to the Race, Slavery and Free Blacks: Petitions to Southern Legislatures and County Courts microfilm collection, edited and published by Professor Loren Schweninger and the Race and Slavery Petitions Project at The Uni- versity of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2003–04 the author joined the RSPP staff as the National Historical and Public Records Commission’s Fellow in Documentary Editing. This essay identifies how the petition testimonies included in this unusual micro- film collection can inform our understanding of African-American freedom before eman- cipation. More specifically, it examines petition testimonies filed with county courts and legislatures for evidence of how slaves, slaveholders and free African-Americans experi- enced the legal process of manumission. It argues for petition testimonies as a unique form of African-American narrative. In 1845 freedwoman Dolly Moore of Virginia faced the possibility of losing her daugh- ter Sally to the domestic slave trade. It was not the first time. Years earlier Dolly had purchased her own freedom and immediately offered to purchase Sally from slave- holder William Madison. Moore recalled that Madison had agreed to sell Sally to her, but that the agreement fell apart quickly when Henry Washington offered to buy the girl and take her with him to Tallahassee, Florida. Moore redirected her efforts and offered to purchase her daughter from Washington, but she could not match his asking price. Discouraged but undeterred, Moore followed Washington to Florida, an action that spared her the agony of separation by sale, common among too many African-American mothers. Upon reaching Florida, Washington finally agreed to sell Sally to her mother. More important, Washington allowed Sally ‘the liberty of employing herself in any legal way’ so that she could work for wages to Slavery and Abolition Vol. 30, No. 4, December 2009, pp. 545–563 Dr. Jennifer Dorsey is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Revolutionary Era Studies at Siena College, 515 Loudon Road, Loudonville, NY 12211-1462, USA. Email: jdorsey@siena.edu ISSN 0144-039X print/1743-9523 online/09/040545–19 DOI: 10.1080/01440390903250521 # 2009 Taylor & Francis