Fourth Generation Inclusive

Historical Documents of Genealogical Interest to Researchers of North Carolina's Free People of Color

Craven County Apprentices, 1800-1801.

On 10 March 1800, Samuel Willis, a free Negro aged 19 years, son of Dorcas Moore, was bound to Francis Lowthrop, Esq., as a mariner.

On 9 June 1800, Jean Louis Baptiste Harman, a free mulatto orphan aged 14 years, was bound to Thomas Marshall as a Merchant.

On 8 September 1800, David Moore, a free Negro boy aged 11 years, was bound to Ebenezer Slade as a cooper.

On 8 December 1800, David Moore, a free Negro boy aged 10 years, was bound to John Moore as a cooper.

On 10 March 1801, Jerry Powers, a Negro boy aged 18 years last December, was bound to Thomas Oliver, of New Bern, as a baker.

On 8 June 1801, Polly Hagle, a free mulatto girl aged 13 years in March last, was bound to Elizabeth Bartlett of New Bern as a spinster.

On 17 September 1801, Sally Henry, a free Negro girl aged 7 years, was bound to Richard Forbes, of New Bern, as a spinster.

On 17 September 1801, Rhoda Dove, a free person of color aged 13 years, was bound to William Dudley as a spinster.

On 17 September 1801, Ferebe Lewis, a free Negro girl aged [blank], was bound to Richard Forbes of New Bern, as a spinster.

On 14 December 1801, Ricor Carter, a free person of color aged 7 years, was bound to Abel Carter as a cooper, and Mary Carter, a free person of color aged 9 years, bound to Abel Carter as a spinster.

On 14 December 1801, Nancy Carter, a free person of color aged 8 years, was bound to Benjamin Mitchell as a spinster.

On 14 December 1801, John Carter, Leonard Carter and William Carter, free persons of color aged 7, 7 and 15 years, were bound to Isaac Perkins as a cooper. William Godett, a free person of color aged 12 years, was also bound that day to Isaac Perkins as a cooper.

On 14 December 1801, William Parker, orphan aged about 14 years, was bound to Jacob Cook, mariner of New Bern, as a mariner.

On 14 December 1801, Stephen Dove, free person of color aged 12 years, was bound to Frederick Jones as a cooper.

On 15 December 1801, Ezekiel Chance, “a certain person of colour” aged 4 years, was bound to John Jones, Esq., of New Bern, as a cooper.  On the same day, Proseply Chance, aged 6 years, and Betsy Chance, aged 2 years, were bound to John Jones, Esq., of New Bern, as spinsters.

On 15 December 1801, Hannah Carter, a free person of color aged 10 years, was bound to Abel Moore as a spinster.

On 15 December 1801, Nelly Lindsay, a free person of color aged 2 years, was bound to Thomas Lovick as a spinster.

On 16 December 1801, John Dove, a free person of color aged 12 years, was bound to William Jones as a cooper.

On 18 December 1801, James Lewis, a free person of color aged 11 years, was bound to Henry Butler, mariner of New Bern, as a mariner.

Bad company.

Highway Robbery. – On Saturday morning last, Mr. Richard H. Blount, merchant of Kinston, Lenoir county, started from home for Newbern, with 4,860 in his possession in Bank bills, with the intention of procuring Northern funds.  About 1 o’clock of the day, when passing through a lonely place called Dover Swamp, 15 or 16 miles from Newbern, four men, three whites and a mulatto, rushed out of a thicket by the roadside, seized Mr. Blount, hauled him from the buggy in which he was riding, beat him until he was senseless, and then robbed him of all his money.  Mr. B. remained in an insensible condition for an hour or two, when a negro travelling the road discovered him.  He was taken back to Kinston, and so soon as the fact of the robbery became known, a large number of the citizens of that place started out in various directions in pursuit of the villains. – Wilmington Chronicle of 13th inst.

Carolina Watchman, 21 Sep 1848.

Justly entitled to the privileges of a free citizen.

To the Worshipfull the Justices of the County Court of Duplin – The petition of William Duncan begs leave humbly to Represent to your Worships that he is in possession of a Mulatto Slave called Adam who has for a number of years past conducted and demeaned himself as a faithfull, honest, and well deserving Servant. Your petitioner conceives the said Negro Slave Adam from his meritorious Services & good conduct is justly entitled to the privileges of a free Citizen, he therefore prays your Worships will extend to him the Advantages which the Laws of the Country extend to him & as in duty bound will ever pray   B.H. Martin pro petitioner

Petition of Adam a Negro Slave Concurred and Adam Liberated April Term 1798.

This is possibly the Adam Greenfield listed in the 1800 census of Duplin County as the head of a household consisting of two “other free” persons.  In the 1820 census of Wayne County, Adam Greenfield headed a household consisting of two males under age 14, one male aged 14-26, and one male aged 45 or more, 2 females aged 14-26, and one female aged 45 or more.

Petition, Miscellaneous Records, Duplin County Records, North Carolina State Archives.  US Population Schedule.

Ausborn and Mariah Dunstan.

The headstones of Ausborn Dunstan and wife, Maria Dunstan, are found in Row E of Rest Haven Cemetery, Wilson, North Carolina’s African-American cemetery.  Unless reinterred from Rountree cemetery –  the earlier graveyard serving Wilson’s black folks, abandoned circa 1950 – they are among the earliest burials in Rest Haven.

Though both were free-born, and accordingly not subject to legislation creating a path to legitimation of slave marriages, Orsborn Dunson and Mariah Monday registered their five-year marriage on 24 August 1866 in Wilson County.

In the 1860 census of Wilson, Wilson County:  Asburn Dunstan, 23, laborer, in the household of H.L. Winton, who kept a boarding house.

In the 1850 census of North Side of the Neuse, Wayne County: Moriah Munda, 9, black, listed as farmhand in the household of John G. Barnes, 33, white, farmer.

Image