1. CO 28/93 ff 192-193 24 th May 1824 Petition of Kitty Atherley and her 4 children 1.Was Kitty Atherley’s husband a slave? What evidence is there for this? 2.Was Kitty Atherley a slave? What evidence is there for this? 3.Why do you think the family got themselves into this situation? 4.What language does the petitioner use to address the reader? Why do you think this might be? 5.What was the purpose of this petition? 6.At the end of the letter, Kitty and her four children sign it- the letter says that this is ‘evidence’- what might this be evidence of? 7.What can we learn from this document about the power that slaves possessed? Extension Task Write a speech

4. Most humbly pleadeth unto your Excellency that her husband, John Thomas Atherley, a free coloured man, departed this life, the 31 st day of March in the year 1822 after going to bed apparently well, he was suddenly seized in the night, with a fit of apoplexy- the attack was so awfully severe and sudden, that he was unable to speak, neither had he any time to make his Will. Your petitioner humbly prays your Excellency to pardon the liberty she has taken in thus explaining to your Excellency, the unhappy circumstances of herself and children; and she looks forward with humble confidence to your Excellency, to be reclaimed out of her present disagreeable and distressed situation