ABSTRACT
George Cooper, a light mulatto, went to Philadelphia in the spring of 1802, and in the 5th month of that year, he was arrested as the fugitive servant of Samuel Laird, 2 of Carlisle, one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, and committed to prison. At the time, I was one of the inspectors of that institution, and as I was passing through it, George accosted me, and informed me how he was circumstanced. I addressed a letter to his claimant, and in a few days I received an answer, date May 9th, 1802, which mentioned, that he (Laird) had bought George Cooper of George Holmes, with whom his mother lived at the time of his birth. Upon investigation, it appeared, that the mother was a servant until she should be thirty-one years old, and was registered as such. Of course, her children were born free. George was about twenty-five years old, and was claimed by S. Laird as his property until he should arrive to the age of thirty-one, in consequence of his mother having been a servant until she was of that age.
