Tabitha Anne Holton
Written by Kellie Slappey
The first woman to be licensed as an attorney in North Carolina and in the Southern United States was Tabitha Ann Holton.
One of five children, Tabitha Ann Holton was born in Iredell County in the early 1850s to Quinton and Harriet Holton. Her parental lineage included Quaker and Moravian roots, and her family, like many other religious dissenters, migrated southward from the northern United States into North Carolina.
Her father, however, was a radical, itinerant Methodist preacher who regularly and publicly condemned slavery. In 1863, her father was elected as the president of the North Carolina Conference for Methodist Preachers, and his additional duties undoubtedly demanded more time away from his familial responsibilities. As a result, Tabitha saw her father every so often in between preaching circuits. FOR MORE
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my general comment is that I really enjoy your site because it often reminds me of early items of progress that either I have not heard about or did not have a clear picture of. I certainly didn’t think about the birds names, and probably never paid attention. and probably never paid attention to the name of a person that was connected to the birds. But I am glad that this is being brought forth just for the educational and cultural importance of it. And, of course, of the seven women you named I will know at least three but the other four I either didn’t know or wasn’t clear any longer about their history. And if I heard that Stevie Wonder had worked so hard to get a Martin Luther King birthday day, then I don’t remember knowing that. so, in summary, thanks for bringing us important news that’s fit to print