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
^ abcdPiedmont Triad News-Record, "Midwife on Trial," November 19, 1999, p. D1.
^Whitlow, Jeannine D., Editor. The Heritage of Caswell County, North Carolina 1985. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Hunter Publishing Company, 1985. Page 680.
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.
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