Henrietta Phelps Jeffries | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Henrietta Phelps January 5, 1857 Halifax County, Virginia, United States |
| Died | August 22, 1926 |
| Occupation | Midwife |
Henrietta Phelps Jeffries (January 5, 1857 – August 22, 1926) was an African American midwife and a founding member of the Macedonia A.M.E. Church located in Milton, North Carolina.[1]
Biography
[edit]Henrietta Phelps was born as the daughter of a slave, Elijah Phelps, and Charlotte Ann Bennett, a midwife.[2] She was the eldest daughter in a family of seven children. Henrietta lived with her parents until her first marriage to George Lawson of Milton, North Carolina, on January 21, 1872, at the age of 15. The marriage produced a son, George Jr., but Henrietta was widowed by the age of 22.[3] She subsequently married James Allen Jeffries, a tobacco farmer from Leasburg, North Carolina, in Milton, Caswell County, on July 30, 1881. Henrietta had 11 children with Allen Jeffries (as he was informally known) and was mother to a total of 18 children.[1] The family resided in Milton, North Carolina.
Henrietta was literate and identified her occupation as "doctress" in the 1910 U.S. Census, where she worked as a midwife.[4] She is recorded as having delivered "hundreds of children, both black and white"[1] throughout Caswell County, North Carolina. It appears that Henrietta learned midwifery from her mother, who was also a midwife.[3]
Henrietta Phelps Lawson Jeffries died of chronic nephritis on August 22, 1926.[5] She is buried at Macedonia A.M.E. Church on Yarborough Road in Milton, North Carolina.
In 1985, Henrietta Jeffries was listed as one of the "First Ladies of Caswell County, Past and Present."[6][7]
Trial
[edit]Henrietta was brought to trial on charges of "practicing medicine without a license" in 1911.[3] At the time, the penalty for such a conviction was death by hanging.[1]
Jeffries' trial was a historic event for the small town of Milton, North Carolina, as it garnered national attention in the press of that era.[8] The jury consisted of all white men, and the judge heard Henrietta defend herself without legal representation, relying on her Christian faith. The judge then stepped down from the bench, stood beside Mrs. Jeffries, defended her cause, and as judge, overrode the jury's decision and dismissed the charges.[2][9] Such a dismissal was unprecedented for an American woman of color during the early 20th century. Henrietta Jeffries continued her work as a midwife until her death in 1926.
The trial is recorded in William S. Powell's book, When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County, North Carolina, 1777–1977.[10]
Production
[edit]The trial of Henrietta Jeffries was made into a reenactment film titled The Trial of Henrietta Jeffries.[11] Produced by Piedmont Community College in Roxboro, North Carolina, in 2002, the film features many of Henrietta Jeffries' descendants as characters.[12]
On August 22, 2018, WRAL-TV News (Raleigh, NC) aired a segment about Henrietta Jeffries' life as part of reporter Scott Mason's series Tar Heel Traveler. The segment was titled "Midwife Delivered Hundreds of Babies Despite Bigotry."[13]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Piedmont Triad News-Record, "Midwife on Trial," November 19, 1999, p. D1.
- ^ a b "RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Caswell County Family Tree". Wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
- ^ a b c Latham Mark Phelps. "The Family of Henrietta Phelps Lawson Jeffries of Halifax County, Virginia, and Caswell County, North Carolina" (PDF). ncccha.org. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
- ^ 1910 United States Federal Census Record for "Henrietta Jeffries," Caswell and Semora Counties, District 0025.
- ^ "Henrietta Jeffries Death Certificate". Ancestry.com.
- ^ "RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Caswell County Family Tree". Wc.rootsweb.com. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
- ^ Whitlow, Jeannine D., Editor. The Heritage of Caswell County, North Carolina 1985. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Hunter Publishing Company, 1985. Page 680.
- ^ "Caswell County Historical Association: Trial of Henrietta Jeffries". Ncccha.blogspot.com. January 21, 2012. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
- ^ Powell, William S. When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County, North Carolina, 1777–1977. 1977, pp. 534-537.
- ^ Caswell County Historical Association. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncccha/memoranda/publications.html
- ^ WorldCat record for documentary film, "The Trial of Henrietta Jeffries". OCLC 73175187.
- ^ The Caswell Messenger, " 'History on the Square' This Saturday," November 17, 1999, Front page.
- ^ "Midwife Delivered Hundreds of Babies Despite Bigotry". August 22, 2018.
Sources
[edit]- Powell, William S. When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County North Carolina 1777–1977. NC: Caswell County Historical Society, 1982. Print.
- The Trial of Henrietta Jeffries, A Piedmont Community College Production, 2002. Video.
External links
[edit]- The Trial of Henrietta Jeffries (2012). Caswell County Historical Association.
- Tar Heel Traveler: Midwife delivered hundreds of babies despite bigotry (2018). WRAL-TV, Raleigh, NC
- Remembering Henrietta Jeffries: The Caswell County Midwife (2022). WRAL-TV, Raleigh, NC