Petition of Inhabitants of Loudoun County

This petition, submitted to the Virginia Revolutionary Convention by the inhabitants of Loudoun County on January 8, 1776, asks for financial relief for tenants. It states that when the tenants agreed to the price of their rent, they did so with the understanding that the port of Alexandria would be open to trade, specifically for grain and enslaved people. The petition continues, “that those Articles are now useless on our Hands is so notoriously known, and of consequence the difficultys your Petitioners now Labour under, that it needs no Further Explanation.” The petitioners did not explicitly ask to have their rent payments paused or lowered, instead asking that “your Honorable House will take our situation into consideration & grant us such Writ as you in your wisdom shall judge proper.”