ORDINANCE of the Administrators, which emancipates provisionally, until the orders of His Majesty, a mulâtre confiscated by Decree of the Conseil du Port-au-Prince

MARIE-JEANNE DELAUNAY, a free quarteronne, most humbly petitions, saying that, united for more than 13 years by the bonds of marriage to the man named Paul Carenan, mulâtre, this unfortunate man has just been condemned by Decree to return to slavery, because his emancipation did not appear in the eyes of the Court clothed with all the solemnities required by the laws. A public and constant possession for 40 years, repeated acts of a free Citizen, a union contracted in the face of the Altar, everything in a word seemed to guarantee him from the rigors of the law and to have made up for some formalities. But the Oracle has pronounced, however thundering it may be, and she will take good care not to murmur. From the moment Paul Carenan is declared enslaved, it follows that the engagement the Petitioner contracted with him is null according to civil and canon laws, as being the fruit of error. Will the Petitioner then find no other relief for her woes than in her tears? No, no, one resource still remains to her, and she has found it, my lords, in your clemency.