RACHEL & ESTHER'S FREE PAPERS

Lauderdale County, Alabama
Deed Book 12, p. 538

Rachel & Esther’s Free Papers

The State of Alabama, Lauderdale County. Before the Subscriber a justice of the peace personally came Robert M. Patten and makes oath that I have been aquainted [sic] with the woman Rachel with a large wen on her neck, some ten to fifteen years during which time she has been residing in the town of Florence and regarded by the Citizens of Said Town as a free woman of which fact I have no doubt, Said Rachel had two Children known to me the one boy named Bob drowned Some years Since by the Sinking of the Steam Boat Jno Stacker near Florence on the Tennessee River, the other a girl named Easther, if living, now between twenty and thirty years of age, Said girl was also considered free, have no doubt she was born of a free woman, & that She is entitled to her freedom. Sworn and Subscribed to [me] this June 22nd 1849.
                                                                                                     R. M. Patton
J. Bigger J Peace
                                       Recorded 22 June 1849

Return to Emancipation Papers