Wilson Advance, 25 February 1881.
As he wound his way through Crossroads township, Wilson County, in 1880, the census taker encountered farmer Tarrell Parker, 45; wife Minerva, 18; and children Trecy, 5, Jesse, 3, and Mancy Ann, 1.
A year later, Parker placed a notice in the Wilson Advance, offering a reward for anyone bringing to justice his wife Minerva and Ruffin Rowe, who had run off together.
Rowe [whose surname appears in early records as Rose] was married to Tilithia Locus, and they appear in the 1880 census of Crossroads, too: farmer Ruffin Rowe, 31; wife Tillitha, 26; and children James William, 5, David, 3, and John Hardy, 1. [A fourth son, Ruffin Haywood Jr., was born 1879-80.]
Tarrell Parker lived the remainder of his life in Wilson County. I find no further record of Minerva Parker and Ruffin Rowe Sr. Rowe was omitted from his father David Rowe‘s will, and his wife was described as divorced in the 1900 census.
Amazing and yet sad historical document to see! Just the simple fact that this husband even as a black man during that period, had the law on his side to chase his wife down like wanted criminal and runaway slave, shows just how women were still slaves long after slavery was supposed to be over! Both black and white women for that matter were still treated the same as property to men and slaves for forced sex that produced forced pregnancies of usually unwanted children due to being forced as if some animal to produce as much offspring that they had no control of or their own bodies is nonthing but slavery as a humbling! Women in those days were treated as bought property by especially men old enough to be their fathers and grandfather’s who are listing after them from usually starting as children and little girls and lying in wait like sexual predators just waiting for them to develop even just a little at 12 and 13 of puberty was a sick part of American History that was allowed and nobody ever wants to talk about now! Poverty taken advantage of by predators who whould buy daughters from the father’s for basically pennies just to get rid of them having to care for anymore! Mother’s we’re Slaves to their own husbands and could do nonthing to protect their daughter without being beaten themselves! This article clearly speaks for itself of that time because the wife being only 18 married to a man more than twice her age and by the ages of the children by him she obviously had the first one at 13😡 meaning he probably married her at only 12yrs old 😡! Another part of this wanted poster that clearly stand’s out was her description! It’s really Sad and disgusting in my opinion that unfortunately amongst black people that Slavery produced was what we call biracial today population of the black community although all black Americans have European decent DNA but some more than others! Back then especially right after Slavery ended, black’s that passed for white no longer had the protection of being in the big house and were part of their families that moved towards freedom like the rest! Mainly darksinned black men listed after girl’s and women with the features of the white woman and forbidden fruit they were lynched and beaten for even looking at! They saw these women as trophy’s like ignorant black men and especially very darksinned one’s continue that plantation thinking today! This poor girl in this wanted poster ran away from captivity by a monster who had been raping and beating on her since a child! It’s not hard to understand how another man although he had a family of his own wanted to help and save her from this horrific underage marriage and of course had fallen in love with her to choose to leave his wife and children he probably had extended family to care for them around them! What did this child sex abuser expect by this poster? For her to be dragged back into captivity in chain’s to him so he can beat the crap out of her and rape and then kill her afterwards because she has now been with another man instead of the virgin she was when he raped her for many years and forced pregnancies that whould have continued until she had 12 or 14 children like most women in those days of being slave’s to men!😡 The fact it was legal for him to have the right to post it shows just how badly women were treated and in forced marriage of Slavery and obedience of a child! This Black man like most black men in that day had to have something like land and money in order to even get access to having these child bride’s that looked white and that alone made them feel like a man and not a boy! There was even a division back then in the black community of the haves and the have nots! There were blacks that owned Slaves and property well before Slavery ended! I’m speaking from some experience and knowledge although I can’t speak to how they felt or tell their true story, but what I do know is that I am a product as a grandchild, both on my maternal and paternal side of both my grandmother’s not being of African decent! My maternal grandmother was Caucasian and Cherokee Indian and passed as white, my Paternal grandmother was Caucasian and Apache and also definitely passed and looked like any other white woman! Both were married to older darksinned black men who were considered well to do in those days! When I look at pictures I always have wondered how on earth and especially being in the South of Mississippi and North Carolina in the early 1900s of these unions that by eye they definitely look like interracial marriages that either or both of my grandfather’s were never lynched even just out of hatefulness 🤔! Their children like especially both my parents were clearly mixed looking and especially my father who was able to pass for white but refused to do so! Instead which to this day has always made him my hero that I today follow his example as a community activist, instead chose to get the door open because of the color of his skin of being mistaken as a white man and then he whould not just walk through all the doors that easily opened wide for him, he instead held that door open mainly for dark skinned men and personally held it open even for Jackie Robinson to try to get through but they unfortunately slammed that door in Jackie Robinson’s face instead 😡! I will forever be proud of what my father’s mission was even as a Republican in those days when the Republican party was black! Today we look on men that take advantage of underage girls and rape them as a crime! No matter your race! Back then it was acceptable no matter your race and girls and women had no rights that exists today in other countries and yet America who wants to act as if always civilized did the exact same thing to American women that they want to not admit to and keep hidden along with the rest of the truth about the horror’s and slaughters and lynchings and slavery of the true American History that’s not Whitewashed! The big Lie!!
I hear you; I feel you; I am you.