Rees W. Porter
American slave trader (1809–1892)
Rees Whitsitt Porter (October 30, 1809 – November 11, 1892) was a slave trader in Nashville, Tennessee in the 1850s. At one time he worked out of 33 Cedar St., now the site of the landmark Morris Memorial Building. He was a partner with Joseph W. Dabbs in the firm Dabbs & Porter. He had a full page ad in the 1857 Nashville city directory. Porter was the author of what have been described as "some of the more disturbing newspaper advertisements in Tennessee history," listing for sale "extra No. 1, Fancy Boy, 10 years old," "No. 1 Fancy Girl" (as distinct from "several House Girls"), and "1 very pretty Girl, 13 years old."
Porter moved to Texas in the late 1870s, settling in Brazoria County where his son lived and worked as a doctor.
Early life
R. W. Porter was born on October 30, 1809, to Reese Porter and Sarah Whitsitt, who were married before March 1805 in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. One account holds that Porter's birthplace was in Christian County, Kentucky. Rees Jr.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rees W. Porter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.