| Summary: | This is a newspaper clipping about John H. Rapier's petition for the emancipation of his slaves Lucretia, Rebecca, Joseph, Thomas, and Susan. Florence historian Lee Freeman notes: "Freedman and Florence barber John H. Rapier, Sr. (1808-1869) was married twice with children by both wives; His first, free wife, Susan (1811-1841) gave him six children; Susan died in 1841 with two (infants) of those children. By 1850 John had acquired a slave housekeeper named Lucretia McAlister (1826-ca. 1864); needing a mother for his minor children and unable to legally marry Lucretia as she was a slave and he free, John took her as his common-law wife and she gave him several more children who under state law received the status of their mother. In March of 1862 John petitioned the probate court of Lauderdale for the emancipation of Lucretia and her children, which petition was denied. They were enumerated in the 1860 census by name with John as if they were free (the enumerator probably thought they were free)."
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