Fourth Generation Inclusive

Historical Documents of Genealogical Interest to Researchers of North Carolina's Free People of Color

Category: Free Status

March 6, 2013

Chapter 107. Slaves and Free Negroes, section 11.

11. Free negroes to procure like certificates. Penalty for neglect.  Free negroes working in any of said swamps [“the Great Dismal Swamp, or in the swamp which lies between Lees’ mill in the county of Washington, and Pamlico river in the county of Beaufort, or in the swamp which lies between Juniper creek, and the lands of Charles Pettigrew, in the county of Tyrrell”] shall procure from the clerks of the proper counties, a similar description of themselves, certified as above directed, and keep it ready at all times when so engaged to be exhibited. And if any free person of color shall willfully work in any of said swamps without such copy, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor; and, on conviction, may be punished at the discretion of the court, by fine, whipping, and imprisonment, or any of them.

The description of the swamps is found in section 10, as are the specifications for the document free colored workers were required to carry: “an exact description of the [person,] specifying the name and residence of the person intending so to employ the [person,] the height, complexion, and every peculiar mark of description … and such written description shall be entered by the clerk of the court of pleas and quarter sessions on the book kept for that purpose.”

Revised Code of North Carolina, 1854.

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February 28, 2013

Every presumption was to be made in favor of freedom.

May Stringer v. Shepherd W. Burcham, 34 NC 41 (1851).

May Stringer, a free woman of color, filed suit in Carteret County alleging false imprisonment.

At trial, her counsel introduced a record certified by Craven County Court showing that, in December 1807, William Jessup filed a petition to emancipate certain of his slaves for meritorious services. The petition was granted, and bond provided. Among the slaves was a woman named Sinah.  Stringer, who was born after the decree of emancipation, was the daughter of Hannah, who was Sinah’s daughter. Sinah and her descendents had been regarded as free persons of color since their emancipation, except on one occasion, when a man claiming to be William Jessup’s son came to Craven about 1817 and tried to carry off Hannah and another person.  He was arrested and had not been since heard of. The court held that, “after an acquiescence for 30 years by the public in the enjoyment of her freedom, every presumption was to be made in favor of” Stringer’s freedom, “especially against a trespasser and wrongdoer.”

The jury found in favor of the plaintiff, and Burcham appealed. The State Supreme Court affirmed the verdict.

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February 26, 2013

Sold for taxes, redux.

No. 471. An Act for the relief of John Montgomery and William A. Lewis, of Forsyth County; Nancy Going, Adaline Page, Thursday, Isabella, De la Fayette, and Elmira, free persons of color, of the County of Columbia, and for other purposes therein specified.

WHEREAS, Bryant Oxendine, a free person of color, was taken up for failing to comply with the Registration Laws of this State, in the year 1850, and was found guilty and fined by the Inferior Court of Forsyth County one hundred dollars, and being unable to pay the fine was hired out, under the Laws of this State, for a term of eighteen months, for the price of one hundred dollars, to John Montgomery, on the 5th day of December, 1850, and the said John Montgomery gave his note due eighteen months after date, to the Justices of the Inferior Court of Forsyth County, for the sum of one hundred dollars, with William A. Lewis as security for the same. And,

WHEREAS, The said Bryant Oxendine ran away on the 28th day of August, 1851, and therefore failed to perform the service for the time for which he was hired.

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SECTION I. Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in the General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the said John Montgomery and WIlliam A. Lewis be relieved, discharged and acquitted from the payment of so much of the said note, in proportion, as the service aforesaid was not performed, to wit: the sum of fifty-five dollars.

…

Acts of the General Assembly of Georgia, 1853-4 (1854).

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February 17, 2013

He is to stand trial to be sold as a slave.

Febry the 10th 1802

Wm. Littlejohn Esqr., Sir

I am Informed by Mr. Domenick That Eli Wilkins a person of Coulour In the Town of Edenton hath been Taken Up Under Some of the Acts of Assembly & bound for his appearance to Chowan County Court at March Term 1802 where he is to Stand his Tryal for to be Sold as a Slave if my affidavit that I herewith forward to you is Not Sufficient to Extricate the sd. Boy & for you to Give Up the Recognizance of the sd. Domenick & Let the sd. Boy Stand Discharged I will forward any Other proof that May be Deemed Necessary to that Efect as I am duly able So to do & More Also bound by the Laws of Nature & humanity.

I am with Submition, Your Hu’le Serv’t Tamor Wilkins

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State of No Carolina, Martin County  } Personally apeard before Me Ebenezer Seadons of The Justices for the County aforesaid Tamor Wilkins & Made Oath In Dew form That on The Seventh of July one Thousand Seventeen hundred & Eighty five She was Delivered of a Male Child which She Called Eli Wilkins a Natural Born & Child of Coulour which Child after Comeing of age to be bound She Bound as an apprintis to one John Edwards of Bertie County who Some Time Afterwards Removed to The then Cumberland Settlement & gave up the Indnturs of sd. boy to his sd. Mother She then put The sd. boy with one John Acrey to Learn The Hatters Trade the Boy as She this Deponat Has Since Understood Runaway from sd. Acre Better then Three years ago & as She has been Informed hath been Living with One Domenick Sinc that Time In the Town of Edenton which sd. boy Hath been brought to Her by this sd. Domenick on the 10th Day of February one Thousand Eighteen Hundred & Two In the County & State aforesaid & She this Deponant Doth Acknowlede & Swore him To be the Same boy In Testimony wherof She this Deponant Hath af[illegible] her hand & Declared the Same. Tamer X Wilkins

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Febry the 10th 1802 This May Certify That I have Known the within Mentioned Tamer Wilkins for Several Years & Believe ther is No Doubt of Her being free Born as will more fully appear By the Testimony of Many In the County of Bertie If it is Should be Necessary given – Under My hand and Seal the day & Date above written.   E. Slade {seal}

Miscellaneous Records, Chowan County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

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February 12, 2013

A woman and boy child, said to be manumitted.

Rec’d September 12th 1788 from William John Skinner one negroe woman named Pations & a Boy Child with her Said to be Manumited by John Sanders Which Negroes Ware Taken by Said William J. Skinner agreable to the act of Assembly previen Domestick Insurrections   /s/ Hen. Bont

Miscellaneous Records, Chowan County Records, North Carolina State Archives. 

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February 11, 2013

A prayer for release from cruel servitude.

North Carolina, Craven County   }  The humble Petition of Ailce Williams a free born Mollatto of the Age of Twenty-three Years to the Worshipfull Court of Craven County non-Sitting

In most humble Shew Whereas your Petitioner has long been detain’d as a Servant to Peter Conway and whereas your Pett’r never has Signed any Indenture or any other Instrument of Writing as may well known plainly appear Therefore may it please your Worships to take it into your Mature Considerations that your Pettitioner may be Released from a cruel Servitude and your Pettitioner as in duty bound Shall Pray.

[No date.] Miscellaneous Records, Craven County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

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February 10, 2013

Register of (NC-Born) Negroes and Mulattos: Bartholomew County, Indiana, no. 3.

Daniel Oxendine, age 37, born Robeson County NC, registered 19 Aug 1853.  He was described as a mulatto man, five feet nine and a half inches high; rather rawboned; medium size; rather light complexion; good teeth, two out; with a small mole on the right side of his upper lip.  Witnesses: John A. Abbott and Randolph Griffith.

Priscilla Jane Oxendine, age 10, born Robeson County NC, registered 10 Apr 1854.  She was described as a mulatto girl, daughter of Daniel Oxendine.

Sarah L. Almenya Oxendine, age 9, born Robeson County NC, registered 5 Oct 1855.  She was described as a bright mulatto girl, daughter of Daniel Oxendine, no marks.

Senith Oxendine, age 7, born Robeson County NC, registered 5 Oct 1855.  She was described as a dark mulatto, daughter of Daniel Oxendine, no marks.

In the 1850 census of Columbus, Bartholomew County: Daniel Oxendine, 33, laborer, born NC, wife Elizabeth, 41, and children Priscilla Jane, 7, Sarah E., 4, Seneth E., 2, Mary Ann, 1, plus Samuel Freeman, 45, and William Gilmore, 12. All born in NC except Seneth and Mary Ann, born in Indiana.

 

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February 10, 2013

A badge marked FREE.

Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1785, North Carolina General Assembly.

At a General Assembly, begun and held at New Bern on the nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, and in the tenth year of the independence of the said State, it being the first session of this Assembly. Richard Caswell, Governor.

CHAPTER VI.  An Additional Act to Amend the Several Acts for Regulating the Town of Wilmington, and to Regulate and Restrain the Conduct of Slaves and Others in the Said Town, and in the Towns of Washington, Edenton and Fayetteville.

…

And in order to discriminate between free negroes, mulattoes and other persons of mixed blood, and slaves:

X. Be it Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all persons of the above mentioned description, who are or shall be free, shall on or before the said first day of May next, apply to the commissioners, trustees or directors of the respective towns aforesaid, in order to have their names registered; and every such person coming into the said towns respectively to reside, shall within three days after their arrival make the like application; and the commissioners, trustees or directors are hereby authorised and required to give every such free person a badge of cloth, of such colour or colours as they shall respectively direct, to be fixed on the left shoulder, and to have thereon wrought in legible capital letters the word FREE: For registration of each of which names the town clerk shall receive two shillings, and the commissioners, trustees and directors respectively shall receive the sum of eight shillings for the use of their respective towns; which registration and badge shall continue in force during the time that such free person shall remain an inhabitant of the town in which he or she shall reside; and if any free negro, mullatto or other person of mixed blood, shall neglect or refuse to apply to the commissioners, trustees or directors as aforesaid, or shall refuse to receive a badge in manner by this Act directed, every such person so neglecting or refusing shall be subject to pay the same tax that is hereby imposed on slaves who are not returned as town taxables, and who shall have badges to enable them to hire themselves; and that such free persons may be the better known, the justices of the peace who shall receive the returns of taxable property in said towns, shall in their yearly returns describe all such persons as are free, and are negroes, mullattoes or otherwise of mixed blood as aforesaid; and all such persons as aforesaid not paying their fines, fees and taxes shall be hired out for so long time as will pay the same respectively.

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February 8, 2013

Register of (NC-born) Negroes & Mulattos: Bartholomew County, Indiana, no. 2.

Christy Ann Blanks, age 18, born Robeson County NC, registered 21 Sep 1853. She was described as a mulatto woman; 5 feet 9; no marks or brands; unmarried. Witness: Edward A. Herod.

Eli Blanks, age 13, born Robeson County NC, registered 21 Sep 1853. He was described as a mulatto boy; “young, likely and growing finely;” hair nearly straight; no marks or brands; son of John Blanks. Witness: Edward A. Herod.

Elizabeth Blanks, age 15, born Robeson County NC, registered 21 Sep 1853. She was described as a mulatto girl; 5 feet 5 inches and growing; has a blemish on the ball of the right eye; small scar on right arm; no other marks. Witness: Edward A. Herod.

John Blanks, age 54, born Robeson County NC, registered 21 Sep 1853.  He was described as a mulatto man; 6 feet high; no hair on the top of his head where hair ought to grow; crooked left wrist; right big toe wounded by an ax.  Witness: Edward A. Herod.

Willis Blanks, age 21, born in Robeson County NC, registered 21 Sep 1853. He was described as a mulatto man; 6 feet 2; scar on left side of left wrist about one inch long; no other marks. Witness: Edward A. Herod.

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February 6, 2013

He emigrated to Georgia and tried to take her and her children with him.

State of North Carolina Wayne County June 2nd 1853 Charity Bryant after Duly Sworn Deposith and Says as follows (viz) that She has Been acquainted with Fareby Simmons a free woman of Colour for the last Sixty years or theirabout and She lived with a certain William Burnham as an apprentice and after her time was Expired with Burnham She Still Remaind their with Burnham untwell he Sold out to Emigrate to the State of Georgia and wanted to Stip Said Fariby Simons off and hir children off with him and John Beck Thomas Wright William Gully Sollomon Rouse and Others and Established hir freedom and Burnham went of to the State of Georgia with his own Slaves and left fariby Simons and hir children to enjoy their freedom that was proven Hannah Simons a Daughter of Said Fariby was Bound as an apprintice to Betsey Burnham who afterwords intermarried with Thomas Simpson they Give up Said hanah as a free Girl and they have Remaind and past as free coulerd people ever since further the Deponant Sayeth Not  Charity X Bryant   June the 2nd Sworn to and Subscribed to Before me the Day & date first Written George Flowers JP

Records of Slaves and Free Persons of Color, Wayne County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

Nearly forty years after this statement was made, Charity Bryant’s granddaughter Minta Bryant Brown, a woman of color, sued one of Fereby Simmons’ descendants to take possession of a parcel of land.

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