Fourth Generation Inclusive

Our Superior Court is now in session, Judge Caldwell presiding. … The next case taken up was the State vs. John Bullock, for stealing a free boy of color, named Nelson Dudley Richardson, from his parents in Raleigh, and bringing him to this place, where he claimed the boy as his property, and offered to sell him. The case was clearly made out on the part of the State, and after an absence of ten minutes, the Jury returned a verdict of guilty. The offender in this case has been well known in the Western part of the State as a great villain, having been twice whipped, once at Wadesboro’ and once at Asheville. … Carolina Watchman.

The Weekly Standard (Raleigh), 25 March 1846.

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JOHN BULLOCH – This miserable man, who has been lying in jail here for several months, for stealing a free boy of color, from his Parents in Raleigh, was discharged from prison on the 3d inst. He has been hanging about town ever since. One day this week he was detected in an attempt to decoy another negro. This is too much. Twice or thrice has he been whipped, and now just from a gloomy dungeon, he walks in our midst without the least terror of the law! Strange being! Has he common sense? Or is he led captive by the evil one at his will?

P.S. Since the above was written, this wretched man has experienced the “tender mercies” of a rail riding Court. On Wednesday night last he was rode on a rail. This is was wrong. The laws are our protection against such scamps. But the laws would not drive him from among us. We regret that he occasioned our young men to do an act they disapprove of as much as any people. We regret that he has been the means of bringing this stain upon our community; and we trust that he may never return to occasion a renewal of such a scene as our streets presented in the night of his late exit from Salisbury. – Carolina Watchman.

Weekly Raleigh Register, 17 July 1846.