When Narcissa Rucker married Henry Henderson in Wilkes County, Georgia, in 1815, he owned only five slaves: Sally, a young nurse; Burton, a boy; Daniel, a man; and Hester and her child. The Hendersons moved westward, first from Wilkes County, near the South Carolina border, to Coweta County, in 1828, not far from Alabama, and thence to Macon, Chambers, and Tallapoosa counties in Alabama. By 1850, the Hendersons owned extensive plantation lands in three counties, and eighty-seven slaves. They also had a considerable amount of "cash on hand." Narcissa contends that she was instrumental in helping her husband accumulate property. In 1850, fifty-nine-year-old Henry Henderson began to accuse his fifty-six-year-old wife of infidelity, and he soon became obsessed with several alleged affairs, including one with Madison Kinnebrew and another man named Augustus. He soon became increasingly violent. During the summer of 1850, as Narcissa lay in a sickbed, Henderson "commenced complaining about the conduct of certain of his negroes," especially the house servants and cooks. He "flew into a passion" and threatened his wife with a hickory stick. He then "took hold of her, in a rude manner, and seizing her by the head and throat, jammed her against the wall," scratched her below the ear, tore one of her gums with his finger, and threatened to kill her, brandishing a knife when she attempted to escape. In 1851, Narcissa Henderson files for divorce. She seeks a division of property "most consistent with the pleadings and proof of the parties."
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Repository: Tallapoosa County Courthouse, Dadeville, Alabama
