March 31, 1641: Enslaved father John Graweere successfully petitions to buy freedom for his son.

You are there: John Graweere is thought to have been born around 1615 in Angola under the name Joao Geaween. He is kidnapped and brought to Virginia where he works as a field hand on the tobacco plantation of one John Evans. It’s unclear whether he is enslaved at the time or instead an indentured servant.

But Graweere fathers a son named Mihill with an African born woman named Margaret Cornish who is a servant to colonist Lt. Robert Sheppard. After which he applies to the Virginia Governor’s Council to free the boy “so that he can be made a Christian and be taught and exercised in the church of England.”

Graweere has accumulated the money required for freedom from an agreement with Evans to raise hogs and split the proceeds when they are sold.

At the hearing, overseer Thomas Gooman attests that both Evans and Sheppard agree to Graweere’s request and the court, likely moved by the religious appeal, agrees to free the son.