Smyrna times., 1907-07-03
WHITE SLAVE
IN VIRGINIA
Woman Sold. Into Bondage When 9
Years O.d is Freed.
COURTS ASKED TO AID HER

Richmond, Va. July lit is almost
beyond belief that in the enlightened
commonwealth of Virginia a young
AnglO-SaXOn woman should come out
of a county only an hours ride from
the city of Richmond with a startling
story of abject slavery and peonage
since her childhood
Deserted by her father when a baby,
left an orphan at . nder age by a
mother who found death a relief from
the unequal battle of making a liveli-
hood for herself and her child, sold
into slavery by her foster parents for
a small sum of money and an aged
horse, kept in total ignorance of her
parentage, and reared in the belief
that she was the absolute chattel of
the man whom she called master,
made to grow into a newer of wood
and a drawer of water, made to fell
trees with an axe and to guide the
heavy plough across the uplands. the
girl, in spite of these adverse circum-
stances, has matured into a comely
woman.
The condition of the girl first be-
came known, through ]. Kent Rawley,
Richmond lawyer, who was retain
ed by friends of the girl. These friends
1were the neighbOrs of the family with
whom the girl had spent all her years,
who gave of the tithes purchased by
the sweat of their brows that the Sc
cret of the mysterious child mightrbe
brought to light.
The girl then was rescued from her
sorry condition and taken to Rich
mOnd. where under kinder conditions
and with the courage of personal lib
erty in her heart she is maintaining
herself by honest labor, for which she
is receiving the wage to which she is
entitled.
The girl who is generally known
as the white slave" answers to the
name of Eleanora. She has never
known any other name. Her case soon
will be brought to a climax when At
torney Rawley institutes a suit in her
behalf against j. ]. Cawley, a dairy
man, of Chesterfield county, in whose
home the girl has spent the better
portion of q laboriOus existence.
Cawley is the man who is alleged to
have held the girl in slavery since she
was a child. The plaintiff to the suit
is now 81 years old. Her bill will al
| lege that she was sold to Cawley when
a child, for whom she was forced to
work without compensation until the
intervention of friends secured her re-
| lease.
Mrs. Cawley, wife of the owner of
| EleanOra, has made a statement in
| which she denies that the girl was
! ever regarded as a slave. She says
the .waif was tenderly cared for and
| kindly treated. She claims to shave
taken the girl in when a child for hui
| manity's sake.
The case has two sides. That of the
girl has not yet been made known ex-
| cept that she had ben held in peOn-
| age. Rawley is said to have in his pos
session 9c1davits and other evidence
which present exactly the opposite
view to that presented by the Cav
lers.
Elearora recently had heard from
the lips of David Leighton, a retired
artfleryman of the United States
army. the first information concern
ing her parentage that she ever re-
ceived. According to the story of
Leighton. he resided at the time of
EleanOra's birth on a farm. He recalls
the birth Of Eleanora Her father and
mother came to the state from Park
ersburg, w. Va.
| The name of the man is recalled by
aged artillerymen as Guilden. He s2-s
the mother of the girl was Miss Liz
zie Murrin or Murrell. Something more
than year after the birth of the girl
the father disappeared A month later
the girls mother left the Palmore
house. Neither was ever seen again
in the neighborhood
The mother went out into the world
to earn living for herself and child.
fell i'll and died in abject poverty.
It is said the Palmore family was
very poor, and when the child was 0
years old sold her to Cawley for
money and an old> horse.