Fourth Generation Inclusive

Historical Documents of Genealogical Interest to Researchers of North Carolina's Free People of Color

Month: May, 2014

May 18, 2014

‘Tis supposed he is harbored by a free negro.

State of North Carolina, Craven County, ss.

By RICHARD ELLIS, and WILLIAM TISDALE, Esquires, two of the Justices for the said County.

NEWBERN, June 27, 1777.

WHEREAS complaint hath been made to us, by James Davis, that a negro fellow named SMART, very black, about 5 feet 8 inches high, well made, and very likely, speaks broken English, but very artful and insinuateing, is run away, and is supposed to be lurking about committing many acts of felony.

These are therefore to command the said slave forthwith to surrender himself, and return home to his said Master. And we do also require the Sheriff of the said County to make diligent search and pursuit after the said slave, and him having found, to apprehend and secure, so that he may be conveyed to his said Master, or otherwise discharged as the law directs. And the said sheriff is hereby empowered to raise and take with him such power of his County that he shall think fit, for apprehending the said slave. And we do hereby, by virtue of an act of assembly of this state concerning servants and slaves, intimate and declare, if the said slave doth not surrender himself, and return home, immediately after the publication of these presents, that then any person may kill or destroy the said slave, by such means as he or they may think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime or offence for so doing, or without incurring any penalty or forfeiture thereby. RICHARD ELMS, WILLIAM TISDALE.

N.B. ‘Tis supposed he is harboured about South River, by one Abel Carter, a free negro, as he has been seen there several times. I will give fifty dollars if delivered to me at Green Springs, or 20 dollars for his head. JAMES DAVIS.

North Carolina Weekly Gazette (New Bern), 14 November 1778.

In the 1790 census of Craven County, Abel Carter is head of a household of seven free people of color.

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May 18, 2014

Two cases of murder.

From the Halifax Advocate, Oct. 29.

Our Superior Court. — …

The next case taken up was that of a free man of color named Morgan. He was indicted for the murder of James Wiggins, a white man. The prisoner was defended by Messrs. Whitaker and Spruill. The testimony, in substance, was that the prisoner and the deceased, not long before the homicide, had a quarrel and that a few days thereafter, and before the homicide took place, the prisoner had been heard to make threats against the life of Wiggins, in the event of another dispute occurring between them; that soon after this the deceased, with three other men, went to the prisoner’s house in the night with a view of chastising him, and required him to open the door, he refused to do so, upon which the door after several attempts, was pushed open, and the deceased entered and as he did so the prisoner struck him with an axe burying the blade up to the helve in his bowels. The prisoner instantly fled and the deceased very soon died of his wound. After a lucid charge from Judge Donnell, the jury retired and in about ten minutes brought in a verdict of manslaughter.

The third case, was an indictment against Polly Carter alias Polly Harrison, a free woman of color, for the Murder of Nancy Combs, likewise a free woman of color. It appeared in evidence, that at the very moment when the deceased came in sight of the prisoner, the latter was listening to a conversation calculated to exasperate her against the former and immediately ran to her and struck her on the face. The deceased, who was a tall and athletic woman, and very far gone in pregnancy, threw the prisoner down with ease and while the parties were in this situation, a white man named _____ Hall came up and kicked the deceased violently in the side just above the hips. The parties were then separated, and soon afterwards the prisoner made another attempt to revive the fight. Upon this part of the case, there were direct contradictions among the witnesses. Some, and the greater number, affirmed that the person of the deceased was not touched, and others that she received a blow of some violence about the small part of her back. The deceased immediately complained of much pain in her side, and continued to linger in much distress for 6 or 7 days when she was delivered of a still born child, and did [sic]. In the opinon of the physicians who heard most of the testimony, the death was caused by the violence in the affray, and the prisoner was found guilty of woman slaughter, and imprisoned one month, and to pay the cost of the indictment. _____ Hall had fled from justice.

….

The North Carolina Star (Raleigh), 6 November 1834.

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May 18, 2014

Beware the goller-headed swindler.

Beware of a Swindler.

WALTER BARROTT, of Moore county, N.C. eloped from his father’s house on the 11th December last, taking with him sundry articles of clothing and a large Sorrel Horse, belonging to his father, also a very likely bay horse, which he had just purchased from a man in Stokes county, and for which he gave a $100 counterfeit note. It is thought that he took about $4000 of counterfeit money with him. He also took away with him a free mulatto man named Berry Walden, and said that he intended to sell him and one of the horses, and then go low down in Georgia and So. Carolina, where he thought he could pass some of his counterfeit notes. Walden is about 5 feet 9 inches high, of a light copper colour. Barrott is about the same size, 30 years of age, of a dark complexion, down look, very curly black hair, black eyes, and think lips, hump-shouldered, knock-kneed and goller-headed. It is hoped the public will be on their guard against him, and that he may be arrested, and the stolen property restored. Moore County, January 1828.

Fayetteville Weekly Observer, 17 January 1828.

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May 18, 2014

Floating in the river.

FOUND DROWNED.

The body of Hilliard Reid, a free mulatto, who had been employed on board the Railroad Company’s Steamer, was found this morning floating in the North East River, just above the Company’s wharves. We learn that when last seen, he was quite drunk, and the probability is, that he fell into the River and got drowned while in a state of intoxication. –Jour. of Thursday.

Weekly Commercial (Wilmington), 9 April 1852.

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May 18, 2014

Attempting to sell a free woman.

From the Raleigh Register.

A man by the name of Raiford Watkins, of Johnston, was brought before Justice Thompson, in this City, on Monday, upon a charge of attempting to sell Phoebe Flowers, a Free woman of color. He was bound over, in the sum of $200, to make his appearance at the next term of Wake Superior Court, and, failing to give bond, was committed to jail, to await trial.

Tarboro’ Press, 21 September 1850.

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May 17, 2014

They are non-residents.

State of North Carolina,

EDGECOMBE COUNTY.

Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions,

AUGUST TERM, 1853.

Obedience Lassiter vs. Silas Lassiter

Morrison Artis and wife Sally

and others,

Petition for Dower.

IT appearing to the satisfaction of the Court, that Morrison Artis and his wife Sally are non-residents of this State: It is ordered by the Court that publication be made in The Southerner, for six weeks, notifying them to appear at the Court House in Tarboro’, on the fourth Monday of November next, then and there to answer said petition, or the same will be taken pro confesso and heard ex parte as to them.

Witness, W.S. Pitt, Clerk of said Court, at office, the fourth Monday of August, A.D. 1853. W.S. PITT, Clk.

The Southerner (Tarboro), 5 November 1853.

——

The Lassiters and Artises were heirs of Hardy Lassiter.

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May 17, 2014

The iron bars were sawed in pieces.

Sylvester Mayo, a free negro, and a negro man by the name of John, broke the jail of Halifax county, on the night of the 28th of September. They procured a case knife, a razor and a glass bottle; and with the razor the knife was made a saw, and the razor was kept sharp by being often applied to the glass bottle. With these instruments, the iron bars of the cage were sawed in pieces, and a hole was worked in the outer wall of the prison, which is constructed of bricks, and they escaped. The Sheriff of the county offers a hundred dollars reward for the arrest of Mayo. Mayo is a free negro and stands charged with the murder of Robert Roberts another free negro. John is a runaway slave, supposed to be the property of Miss Judith Turner, of Albemarle county, Va.

The North-Carolina Star (Raleigh), 19 October 1853.

In the 1850 census of Halifax County, Sylvester Mayhoe, 30, boatman, born in Virginia, and wife Tabitha, 22, born in Halifax.

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May 17, 2014

One of the insurrectionists.

LEWIS S. LEARY, a free negro, one of the insurrectionists, who was shot at Harper’s Ferry, was a native of Fayetteville, an infamous scoundrel who ran away from justice, and thereby cheated the rope of a deserving compliment. His father still lives in Fayetteville and is a very exemplary citizen — and his brother has a saddle and harness manufactory.

North Carolina Argus (Wadesboro), 17 November 1859.

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May 17, 2014

To sell herself into slavery.

…

Mr. Cheek introduced a bill for the relief of Sythia Chavis, a free colored woman. (Allows her to sell herself into slavery.)

…

Weekly Raleigh Register, 19 December 1860.

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May 16, 2014

Twenty for the man, ten for the broken-down horse.

$30 REWARD.

Horse and Money Stolen.

STOLEN from the subscriber, on Thursday night the 26th Feb’y, a BRIGHT CLAY BANK HORSE, with a white blaze in the face, low in flesh and limps a little in the right hind leg, has a sore back. He was taken by a free negro by the name of Jacob Goings alias Morgan. There was a free girl with him by the name of Sara Jane Goings.

I will give a reward of Twenty Dollars for the arrest and confinement of Jacob Goings in Lumberton Jail, or ten in any other Jail in the State, and ten dollars for the return of the horse to me. DUGALD McDUGALD. Dondarroch, Robeson Co. – Feb’y 18, 1863.

Fayetteville Semi-Weekly Observer, 16 March 1863.

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