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.
$200 Reward!
Stop the Thieves and runaway Mulattoes.
WHEREAS, sometime ago, Jemima Armwood, a free mulatto woman, for the sum of $200, (to enable her to purchase her husband, named Richard, or commonly called Dick Youngblood, well known in Barnwell District, So. Ca.) bound three of her Girls, named Becky, about 17 years old, Teena, about 14, and Darcas, about 12, to me, to serve as indented servants, and on Thursday, the 8th instant, they inveigled them from my service and removed to parts unknown, taking them my three servants; they besides committed several acts of swindling, theft, outrages, and other rogueries, to myself and others, — such as stealing my sulkey and harness, and selling them in Hamburg, S.C., on the 7th instant; and on the 8th, assaulting and beating a white man, a respectable old gentleman; and many other villainies too numerous to be here inserted.
A reward of $200 dollars will be paid for apprehending the said Jemima, her husband Dick, Becky, Teena, and Darcas, and deliver them to me, or in the Augusta Jail. They have besides five smaller children, one a sucking baby, and may probably have their son, named Daniel, about 22 years of age, all mulattoes, 10 or 11 in number. They started with a cart and a white blind mare; the cart is an uncommon one, it has a very large new body nailed to the shafts, the wheels are from an old gig, originally painted green, but dirty – the axletree of the cart is wood, and the ends that goes in the wheels are iron. Dick is short, about 40 or 50 years of age, illiterate but keen, artful, and well acquainted with the world – most any subject can furnish him with grounds on which to build plausible stories, to secure in his favor the sympathy of others; (and girls are known to be prolific subjects.) Therefore, in order, if possible to counteract his cunning, and as I am not known at a distance, let it be known that I am a married man, with wife and seven small children, the oldest only ten years. I employed the three girls in nursing my small children, and to no other work, and never whipped them; but Dick gave Teena a most unmerciful whipping on the 8th instant, for not robbing me according his directions, and may probably place that whipping too, to my credit, in order to enlist the feelings of others in his favor. – They have been traced to Fayetteville, N.C., and arrived there between the 18th and 26th February. JOHN GUIMARIN, Watch Maker, No. 171, Broad Street. Augusta, Geo. Feb. 23, 1827.
Fayetteville Weekly Observer, 3 May 1827.
Coroner’s Inquest.
Coroner Jones held an inquest yesterday on the body of Mary Green, a free mulatto woman. The particulars of her death as we have heard are as follows: She, in company with another woman, started to Green’s Mill, about one mile from town, sometime during the middle of the day on Monday. Just before getting to the mill, Mary was observed to stagger and fall, apparently in a fit. Her companion ran for assistance, and when she returned found that she was dead. The verdict of the jury was in accordance with the above facts.
Wilmington Daily Herald, 27 July 1859.
DROPPED DEAD. – A free mulatto named Dick Gee dropped dead in the streets on Thursday last – another victim of that greatest curse of the human race, intemperance, which annually sends so many thousands to the grave. So says the Fayetteville Carolinian.
The Daily Delta (New Bern), 17 May 1859.
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.
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.
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.
CORONER’S INQUEST. – Coroner Wood, yesterday afternoon, held an inquest over the body of a free negro named Bill Gafford, at the Manchester Rail Road Depot, who came to his death by being crushed between a train of cars eight miles this side of Fair Bluff. – Verdict in accordance with the above. – Wilmington Herald.
North Carolina Argus (Wadesboro), 29 August 1857.
Daniel Artis was born about 1820, probably in Greene County, and died in early 1905. He married an enslaved woman (or women) whose name is unknown, and his children were born in slavery. Daniel recorded two wills in short succession in Greene County. The first, dated 15 January 1905, was recorded in Will Book 1 at page 514; the second, dated two days later, at page 524. The legatees are the same, but the gifts are packaged differently:
Item 1. Page 514 — to daughter Clary Edwards, wife of Henry Edwards, his interest valued at $172 in the tract of land on which Clary and Henry live. The tract was purchased from Debro Cobb with money advanced from Henry Artis. If $172 is more than the other’s children’s share, Clary is to make them even, and vice versa. Page 524 — to daughter Clara Edwards, wife of Henry Edwards, his interest valued at $172 in the tract of land purchased from Debro Cobb. His agreement with Henry Edwards has not been recorded.
Item 2. Page 514 — to son Henry Artis, 1/4 interest in his real estate. Page 524 — to son Henry Artis, 40 acres, including the house in which Daniel then lived.
Item 3. Page 514 — to the children of his son Lodrick Artis (Anna Randolph, Frank Artis, Lula Forbes, Madison Artis, Marcellus Artis, Ernest Artis, Dicey Batts and Hannah Artis) 1/4 of his estate. Page 524 — to the children of Lodrick Artis and his wife Mandy, 40 acres (land Lodrick resided on at the time of his death) and all buildings thereon.
Item 4. Page 514 — to the children of his daughter Prior An Thompson (Isaac Sauls, C.D. Sauls, Maria Edwards and Clara Lane), 1/4 of his estate. Page 524 — to Prior An Thompson’s children and their heirs, 40 acres that Willis Thompson lives on.
Item 5. Page 514 — $50 to daughter Mariah Swinson, wife of Jesse Swinson, to be paid from the shares of the others in the amount of $12.50 each. Page 524 — a committee to be appointed to assess value of shares and make Clara Edwards’ share equal to the others, difference to be paid within seven years.
Item 6. Page 514 — none. Page 524 — Each lot to be taxed $12.50 to pay daughter Mariah Swinson, wife of Jesse Swinson.
Grandson Isaac Sauls was appointed executor in both, Daniel Artis signed each with an X, and both were proved on 21 March 1905.
Whatever his intent at clarification, things did not go well with Daniel’s estate. A Notice of Sale ran four weeks from December 1923-January 1924 in the Greene County weekly The Standard-Laconic announcing the sale of “a certain tract or parcel of land devised to Henry Artis by Daniel Artis by his last will and testament, … containing 40 acres.” The sale was advertised pursuant to a judgment in Greene County Superior Court in the matter of Frances Hall; Bennett Hall; Bessie Woodard, infant; and Alice Woodard, infant, by their next friend Amos Woodard v. J. Settle Artis and Roumania Artis. Settle Artis, who was Henry Artis’ son, had purchased the parcel at a courthouse sale the previous July. Frances and Bennett Hall were Settle’s sister and brother-in-law, and Amos Woodard was another brother-in-law, widower of Settle’s sister Dillie.
The next suit over Daniel’s estate — filed in 1930 — was Isaac Sauls; Walter Sauls; Luby Sauls; Edward Sauls; Hattie Speight and her husband Walter Speight; Mariah Thompson; Lillie May Sauls, minor, George Sauls, minor, Sarah Sauls, minor, Lillie Lee Sauls, minor, Walter Sauls, minor, appearing by their next friend, Luby Sauls; and Nettie Sauls; Henry B. Lane; Lillie Maud Best and her husband Alex Best; John H. Lane and Carrie D. Lane, a minor, children and heirs at law of Clara Thompson; Penny Edwards, Silas Edwards, Prior Edwards and the Henry Pettaway children as follows: Hadie Pettaway, minor, Willie Harrison Pettaway, Georgia May Pettaway, minor, Minnie Clyde Pettaway, minor, grandchildren of Mariah Edwards, by their next friend Henry Pettaway v. C.D. Sauls and Duffrey Edwards. In other words, a fight among the heirs of Daniel’s daughter Prior Ann Artis Sauls Thompson. The crux of the matter is set out in paragraph 10:
10. That the plaintiffs, heirs at law of Isaac Sauls, Mariah Edwards and Clara Thompson are the owners of three fifths of the land devised by Daniel Artis in Item 4 of his will to the children of his daughter Prior Ann and are entitled to have the defendant Cain D. Sauls declared to have the same held in trust for them and are entitled to an accounting of the rents and profits of the same from the date of his purchase in 1908.
Instead, they alleged, C.D. Sauls had been keeping hundreds of dollars of rent for himself and, in 1928, had sold the parcel to Duffrey Edwards for $3000, with full knowledge by Edwards that Sauls was trustee for his relatives. C.D. denied all, of course. In 1937, his daughter and son-in-law, Willie Sauls Burgess and W.D. Burgess, were added as defendants after C.D. and his wife Ada allegedly tried to fraudulently transfer the disputed property to her. In 1939, the clerk of court entered a non-suit judgment noting that the parties had reached an amicable settlement. No details were included. The matter was over.
Remarkable Occurrence, Death by Lightning – A free colored man by the name of Foster, was killed by stroke of lightning in the vicinity of this Town on Thursday evening. He was laying in bed, with his wife on one arm and a child on the other, and while he was instantly killed, neither the woman or child was at all injured. Jeffersonian.
The North-Carolina Star (Raleigh), 13 July 1842.
Fourth Generation Inclusive 