Moore, Phoebe
Item
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Title
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Moore, Phoebe
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Gender
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Female
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Biography
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Pheobe was born between 1809 and 1836 in Boone County, Kentucky, the daughter of a white farmer and an enslaved woman. When she was twelve, Pheobe and her mother were sold to Colonel Thomas H. Benton, who served as one of Missouri's first two United States senators from 1821 to 1851. Phoebe was enslaved to Benton for about four years before he sold her to Henry Clay at sixteen years old. According to her obituary, Clay regularly had sexual relations with Phoebe, resulting in two children whose fates are unknown. Clay later freed her and went to live in Memphis, Tennessee. She kept a collection of letters written to her from Clay after she became free, but the only attestation to the letters and the affair with Clay was reported second-hand in her obituary. In Memphis, she married Tom Moore, an Irishman. Pheobe never told Tom about Clay's actions or the two children. The couple moved to New Orleans, where Pheobe lived for the rest of her life. Tom enlisted in "Dreux's Battalion," the 1st Louisiana Infantry Battalion during the Civil War. He was killed in Virginia, possibly during the Union Army's Peninsula Campaign in 1862. After the death of her husband, she made a living by sewing. She died at the Charity Hospital.
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Birth date
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1809-1836
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Spouse(s)
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Moore, Tom
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Death date
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3 Oct 1891
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Relationship
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Slaveholder(s): Benton, Col. Thomas H.; Clay, Henry