Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-08-31
STARTLING STORY
Of AFFECT SLAVERY
A White Woman Held in Bond
age For Many Years Near
Richmond, Virginia.
SOLD BY FOSTER PARENTS.


Richmond. Va, Aug. SO--1t is al
most beyond belief that to the enlight-
ened commonwealth OF Virginia a
young Anglo-Saxon woman should
come out OF a county only an hours
ride from the city of Richmond with
startling story of abiect slavery and
peonage since her childhood.
Deserted by her father when a baby,
left an orphan AT a tender 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
sma lsun Of money and AN aged horse,
kept in total ignorance of ner parent
age. reared to believe that she was the
absolute chattel of the man whom she
called master. made To grow into a
newer Of wood and u drawer of water.
mace to fell trees with an axe and to
guide the heavy plough across the up
lands the girl, IN spite of these adverse
circumstance. has matured into
eomely woman.
She has low thrown herself on the
humanity of the Virginia people seek
ing relief, and the machinery of the law
has been set IN motion for her redress.
he condition of the girl first became
known through j. Kent Rawley, a
Richmond lawyer, who was retained
by friends of the girl. These friends
we're the horny handed sons of the red
Virginia hills, the neighbors of the FAM
lily with whom the girl had spent all
her years, who gave of the tithes pur-
chased by the sweat of their brows that
the secret of the mysterious child might
he brought to light.
These rained money which they
placed in the hands of the lawyer with
the understanding that he would do
what he conld to determine the real
facts concerning her birth.
4 humane society in Baltimore, Md,
als) interested itself in behalf Of the
girl, sending a representative to Vir-
ginia to confer with her and with the
attorney, with the end in view of al
leviating her then miserable condition.
The girl was then rescued from her
sorry condition and taken to Richmond.
where under kinder conditions and with
the courage of personal liberty in her
heart. she is maintaining herself by
honest labor for which she s receiving
the wage to which she is entitled.
The girl, who is generally known as
the white slave" answers 10 the name
of Eleanora. She has never known
any other name. Her case soon will be
brought to a climax when Attorney
Rawley institutes a suit In her behalf
against ]. j. Cawley, dairynan, of
Chesterfield county, in whose home the
girl has spent the better portion of
laborlousf exihtepce.
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 u years old. Her bill vii! al
lege that she was sold to Cawley when
n child. for whom she was forced to
work without compensation until the
intervention Of friends secured her re-
lease. The young woman is progresses
ing in appearance and timid 10 de-
gree. She has large brown eyes and an
abundance of dark hair.
Mrs. Cawley, wife of the owner OF
Eleanora, has made 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 10 have taken the
girl in when child for humanity's
sake.
The case has two sides. That of the
girl has not yet been made known eS-
cept that she had been held in peonaSe.
Rawley is said to have I'm his possession
affidavits and other evidence which pre-
sents exactly the opposite view TO that
presented by the Cawleys.
1t is an Interesting fact that the suit
for the girl was first lnsJgated by
neighbors Of the. Cawleys, who claim
that they have known Of the girl all
her life. and that so far az they have
been able to determine, she has been
regarded as a slave. Certainly that Is
the general belief In the community in
which the Cawleys live.