Of regional interest, The Pampa News has published an interesting story about Peter Gray, for whom Gray County in West Texas is named. Gray was a lawyer in Houston in 1847, when he agreed to take the case of Emeline, a freed black woman who had been forced into slavery.
Before coming to Houston, the freed woman had been living in Louisiana, where she had two children. But when she came to Houston, she was forced into slavery by a local slave owner. Emeline then filed a lawsuit, though she could neither read nor write, and Peter Gray took her case, though slaves had no rights under the law.
The case was extraordinarily complicated and time consuming, but when it came to trial a year and a half later, Emeline was freed by a jury. The slave owner was asked to pay a fine of one dollar.
