LOCAL HISTORY: Rachel Brooks, Black Pioneer of 1843

Rachel Brooks’ slave receipt (Oregon State Archives)

This column was originally written for the Willamette Valley Genealogical Society’s publication in a slightly different form and is shared here with permission.

Rachel Brooks (freed married name) is in the Early Oregonians Database Index maintained by the Oregon State Archives and, mentioned in additional genealogical sources, as born a slave in Greene County, Tennessee in about the year 1828. Her first slave name was Rachel Belden and…