Free Moors win legal standing in South Carolina

Four free Moroccan subjects, sold into slavery despite a promised ransom, petition the South Carolina House citing the 1786 treaty with Morocco. The House resolves they are not subject to the laws governing the enslaved but should be tried as free citizens.

The petitioners (Francis, Daniel, Hammond, and Samuel) petitioned on their own behalf and their wives', named in the House journal as Fatima, Flora, Sarah, and Clarinda, invoking their sultan's alliance with the United States. The Moors Sundry Act is an early case of the Morocco treaty shaping domestic American law.