At the Superior Court of Wake county, Lockley, a free man of color, implicated in the charge of disinterring a dead body for the purpose of obtaining the teeth, was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to three months imprisonment. The principal offender has not been found.
Salisbury, a free boy of color, was convicted of grand larceny, and sentenced to receive forty lashes.
Hillsborough Recorder, 16 April 1828.
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.
——
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.
Comments on additional muster rolls indicate that Dove, a corporal, “has no horse” in January-February 1864 and deserted the Confederate Army on 5 April 1864.
In the 1850 census of Lower Richlands, Onslow County: Hosea Baisden, 50, wife Nancy, 60, and Willis, 13, Hull, 12, and Rilly Dove, 5.
In the 1860 census of Southern Division, Duplin County, Willis Dove, 23, wife Mary Dove, 20, and daughter Mary Jones Dove, 4, plus B.J. Hall, a white schoolteacher, 18.
NEGRO CANDIDATES.
We requested our friends, a few days ago, to send us, from all parts of the State, the names of negro candidates in the State for the several offices, their pedigrees and general character. These statements begin to come in. A friend in Fayetteville sends us the following:
“NEGRO CANDIDATES IN CUMBERLAND: For House of Representatives, Isham Swett, free mulatto of old issue; Barber by trade; went with 1st Regt. N.C. Vols. (Confederate) in the capacity of a servant.
John Leary – free mulatto, old issue; Saddler by trade. His father, also free mulatto, formerly owned slaves and sold them. One of his brothers was in the raid with John Brown and was killed at Harper’s Ferry.”
If our friends will comply with our request as above, we shall have an interesting chapter of the practical working and character of Radicalism.
Semi-Weekly Raleigh Sentinel, 18 April 1868.
TWENTY SHILLINGS REWARD.
Run away last night, from the subscriber, an apprenticed negro boy, named Bill, known generally as Bill Copper, a light mulatto about 14 years of age. Any person taking up said boy, and sending him to me at Roanoke-island by any vessel bound there, shall receive the above reward, and all reasonable expences. HENRY KENNEDY. Edenton, June 4, 1794.
The State Gazette of North-Carolina (New Bern), 6 June 1794.
… a bill to allow Leah White, a free negress, to enslave herself to Morris McDaniel of Jones County; … a bill for the relief of James Moore, a free negro – allows him to enslave himself; …
The Raleigh Register, 27 February 1861.
A RUNAWAY SHOT. – A negro man, the property of Mr. Thomas Foust, of Alamance, was shot near this place on Saturday last. He ran away the 15th of May 1861, after threatening his master’s life, and he has been prowling about this neighborhood for some time, and was harbored, it appears, by a free negro woman named Jane Day, living a few miles from this place. Several slaves were in confidence with him, and they often met at Jane Day’s and gambled together, one of whom betrayed him. On Saturday last several gentlemen armed went out to capture him, but he refused to surrender, swore he would not be taken, and threatened to cut his way through if opposed. He had ascended to the top of the chimney, intending to make his egress from the house that way, and was told to stop, or he would be shot. One of the company aimed at his legs, but the negro stooped just at the time to make a leap, and the load lodged in his abdomen. He fell on the outside, and a large bowie knife which he had, fell inside of the chimney. He died in fifteen or twenty minutes. – Hils. Rec.
The North Carolina Argus, 30 January 1862.
Law. – …
We understand that Joel Mitchell, a free negro, who was arraigned at the last Halifax Superior Court for the murder of Miles Ralph another free negro, and who had his cause removed to Warren county, was attempted to be brought to trial at the Superior Court held for that county last week. On his way to the Court-house Mitchell complained of being unwell, and was suffered to take a seat in the Court-house yard – medical aid was immediately procured, but it was ineffectual, the prisoner breathing his last in a few minutes – he was much debilitated, having been severely indisposed during his confinement; and it is supposed that the alarm attendant upon the situation in which he was unhappily placed, hastened his dissolution.
North Carolina Free Press (Halifax), 27 October 1827.
Carolina Watchman (Salisbury), 27 February 1851.
RANAWAY, on Wednesday last, my wife Sally Conrod, a free woman of color, without any just cause. All persons are requested not to harbor said Sally, and are hereby forewarned from trusting her on my account, as I will not pay any debts she may contract. I can produce respectable recommendations as to industry and morality, & wish not to be clogged with the debts of my worthless wife. ABSALOM CONROD, of color. Greensboro, May 8th, 1841.
Greensboro Patriot, 11 May 1841.
Fourth Generation Inclusive 