After Cesar and Lowis Peters and their children had been seized and carried away, Elijah Graves, a local tailor, swore out a complaint against Cesar and his wife and children, claiming they "are all guilty of theft" of various articles of clothing belonging to him. Elihu Marvin, the local justice of the peace, issued an arrest warrant for Cesar and Lowis Peters, which gave the Hebron citizens the right to detain the Peters family and return them to Hebron before they could be sent to South Carolina. A year later, in a deposition taken out in response to Cesar and Lowis Peter's application to the Connecticut General Assembly for emancipation, Elijah Graves stated that he had sworn the complaint "'movd with compasion under the Colour of Lawfull authority."

Elijah Graves Complaint
Hebron, CT; September 27, 1787
Courtesy, Hebron Historical Society, Hebron, CT

Elihu Marvin Arrest Warrant
Hebron, CT; September 27, 1787
Courtesy, Hebron Historical Society, Hebron, CT