Henrietta Phelps Jeffries Explained

Henrietta Phelps Jeffries
Birth Name:Henrietta Phelps
Birth Date:1857 1, mf=yes
Birth Place:Halifax County, Virginia, United States
Death Place:Milton, Caswell County, North Carolina, United States
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

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

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

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

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Piedmont Triad News-Record, "Midwife on Trial," November 19, 1999, p. D1.
  2. Web site: RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Caswell County Family Tree. Wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com. 2019-07-04.
  3. Web site: The Family of Henrietta Phelps Lawson Jeffries of Halifax County, Virginia, and Caswell County, North Carolina. Latham Mark Phelps. ncccha.org. September 11, 2023.
  4. 1910 United States Federal Census Record for "Henrietta Jeffries," Caswell and Semora Counties, District 0025.
  5. Web site: Henrietta Jeffries Death Certificate. Ancestry.com.
  6. Web site: RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Caswell County Family Tree. Wc.rootsweb.com. 2019-07-04.
  7. Whitlow, Jeannine D., Editor. The Heritage of Caswell County, North Carolina 1985. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Hunter Publishing Company, 1985. Page 680.
  8. Web site: Caswell County Historical Association: Trial of Henrietta Jeffries. Ncccha.blogspot.com. January 21, 2012. July 4, 2019.
  9. Powell, William S. When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County, North Carolina, 1777–1977. 1977, pp. 534-537.
  10. Caswell County Historical Association. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncccha/memoranda/publications.html
  11. Book: WorldCat record for documentary film, "The Trial of Henrietta Jeffries". 73175187.
  12. The Caswell Messenger, " 'History on the Square' This Saturday," November 17, 1999, Front page.
  13. Web site: Midwife Delivered Hundreds of Babies Despite Bigotry. August 22, 2018.