The following surnames are found among free people of color in Tyrrell County in 1860:
ALEXANDER, ARMSTRONG, BATEMAN, BOWSER, BRICKHOUSE, BRYAN, BYARD, CARSON, DEMPSEY, HILL, JOHNSON, KENNEDY, LIVERMAN, MYERS, PAINE, PALIN, ROUGHTON, ROUSSAM, SWAIN, TURNER, and WYNN.
The following surnames are found among free people of color in Watauga County in 1860:
ANDERSON, CUZZENS [COUSINS], EVANS, GRIMES, HATTON, MITCHEL, SCOTT, SHEARER, SMITH, THOMPSON, UNDERWOOD, and WALKER.
On 16 March 1805, Joshua Dove, a free person of colour aged 6 years 28 next May, was bound to Thomas Austin as a cooper.
On 10 September 180, William Parrish, a free person of colour aged 5 years last April, was bound to Shadrach Davis as a cooper.
On 13 December 1805, Jeremiah Godett, a free person of colour aged one year last March, was bound to George Godett as a cooper.
On 11 September 1806, William Lewis, free boy of color aged 13 years, was bound to Richard Harden as a tailor.
On 9 June 1807, Israel Harris, a free person of color aged 15 years, was bound to Jane Carney as a cooper.
On 10 [June] 1807, Loftin Chance, a free boy of color aged 9 years, was bound to Thomas Roe as a cooper.
On 10 June 1807, John Dove, a free black boy aged 14 years, was bound to John C. Stanly as a brick maker.
On 13 September 1808, Ann Cooper, a free girl of color, was bound to John C. Stanly as a spinster.
On 12 December 1808, Gatsy Davis, a free baseborn girl of color aged 9 years, was bound to John M. Oliver as a spinster.
On 15 March 1809, Caleb Copes and Jacob Copes, free boys of color, were bound to James Dukes as ship carpenters.
On 15 March 1809, James Dove, a free person of color aged 15 years and 6 months, was bound to Joseph Sparrow as a boat builder.
On 12 September 1809, Jessy Powers, a free boy of color aged 9 years in March 1810, was bound to William Mitchell as a farmer.
On 13 September 1809, Jacob Carter, a free boy of color aged 15 years in December 1809, was bound to Joseph Physioc as a cooper.
Killed with an Axe.
Liberty, N.C. – Alex Heath, an old colored man who lived about 2 ½ miles east of here, just over in Alamance County, was found dead in bed on the morning of Feb. 7th. Someone had gone there the night before and killed him with an axe. He was struck right over the eyes and his skull broken in. It appeared that the old man had gone to bed and was asleep when he was killed. Uncle Alex, as we all called him, was a good, honest old man, and his word was his bond. He had many friends among his white neighbors. He had always been a free negro. Quite a number of Liberty people went down to see him last Sunday and they say he was the most pitiful sight they have ever seen. He had a negro man and his wife living in the house with him and they had some words the morning before and the man and his wife spent the night at a neighbor’s house about ¼ of a mile distant. He was away from the house two hours or more and suspicion was so strong he was put under arrest.
I have thought for some time that the meanest man on earth was the one who wrote letters and signed no name to them and slipped them under doors at night with the purpose of causing hard feelings among neighbors, but I reckon the man who killed Alex Heath was just a little meaner, and if we had the right man I think he ought to be beheaded and let the devil get him before his feet get cold.
… — Liberty correspondent.
Asheboro Courier, 12 February 1903.
Hillsboro.
I am indebted to my uncle Alex Smith for the following short history of Hillsboro, written by Lawyer Joe Turner over twenty years ago, thinking it may interest some of the readers of the leader, I send same for print if you see fit. – F.W. Nelson.
…
Hillsboro was one of the five towns entitled to a representative (see Wheelers history if it be five or seven). Governor Graham and Chief justice Nash were Borough representatives. Traditions says it was a tie between Gov. Graham and his competitor when Hazekiah Revels an old issue free negro was sent for and gave the last and final vote for Graham, dropping this speech with his vote, “Ki Revels always votes for a gentlemen.” Before the next election the constitution was amended and the free negroes with old Ki Revels were disenfranched. …
Mebane Leader, 13 July 1911.
First Residents of Boone and Vicinity. — … There was another house which stood in the orchard near the present Blackburn hotel. It was a small clapboard house, with only one room. Ben Munday and family occupied it first and afterwards Ellington Cousins and family, dark of skin, lived there till Cousins built a house up the Blackburn branch in rear of the Judge Greer house. It is still known as the Cousins place …
…
John and Ellington Cousin. – The brothers came from near East Bend, Forsythe County, soon after Boone was formed, bringing white women with them. Ellington’s wife was Margaret Myers and John’s was named Lottie. Ransom Hayes sold Ellington an acre of land up the Blackburn branch, where he built a house and lived in 1857, having moved from the house in the orchard below the road near the present Blackburn hotel. He had two daughters. Sarah married Joseph Gibson and moved to Mountain City, Tenn., where he carried on a tannery for Murphy Brothers, but he afterwards returned to the state and lived at or near Lenoir, finally going West, where he remains. Ellington died at Boone and his widow and daughter, nicknamed “Tommy,” went with Gibson and wife to Mountain City, where she also married. John lived near Hodges Gap and at other places, dying at the Ed. Shipley place near Valle Crucis. He had several children.
From John Preston Arthur, A History of Watauga County, North Carolina, with Sketches of Prominent Families (1915).
In the 1850 census of Watauga, Watauga County: Johnson Cusins, 44, farmer, wife Charlotta, 41, and children Hezekiah, 18, Mary, 14, Clarkson, 11, William H., 9, Rebecca, 8, Annanias, 5, Martha, 4, W.W. and Evaline, both 3 months. All described as mulatto, except Charlotta, white. In the 1860 census of Boone, Watauga County: John Cuzzens, 52, farmer, wife Charlotte, 50, and children Henry, 19, Rebecca, 17, Ann, 15, Martha, 13, Wiley, 10, and Eveline, 10, all mulatto.
In the 1850 census of Northern Division, Davidson County: in jail, Francis Briant, 20, laborer, Alva Sapp, 22, laborer, and Ellington Cozzens, 41, shoemaker. Cozzens was mulatto; the others, white. In the 1860 census of Boone, Watauga County: Ellington Cuzzens, 53, boot & shoemaker, wife Margarett, 44, and daughters Sarah, 8, and Martha J., 5; all mulatto except Margarett, was described as white.
An Interview with Adora Rienshaw of 431 South Bloodworth Street, Raleigh.
I wuz borned at Beulah, down hyar whar Garner am now, an’ my parents wuz Cameron an’ Sally Perry. When I wuz a month old we moved ter Raleigh.
We wuz called ‘Ole Issues’, case we wuz mixed wid de whites. My pappy wuz borned free, case his mammy wuz a white ‘oman an’ his pappy wuz a coal-black nigger man. Hit happened in Mississippi, do’ I doan know her name ‘cept dat she wuz a Perry.
She wuz de wife of grandfather’s marster an’ dey said dat he wuz mean ter her. Grandfather wuz her coachman an’ he often seed her cry, an’ he’d talk ter her an’ try ter comfort her in her troubles, an’ dat’s de way dat she come ter fall in love wid him.
One day, he said, she axed him ter stop de carriage an’ come back dar an’ talk ter her. When he wuz back dar wid her she starts ter cry an’ she puts her purtty gold haid on his shoulder, an’ she tells him dat he am her only friend, an’ dat her husban’ won’t eben let her have a chile.
Hit goes on lak dis till her husban’ fin’s out dat she am gwine ter have de baby. Dey says dat he beats her awful an’ when pappy wuz borned he jist about went crazy. Anyhow pappy wuz bound out till he wuz twenty-one an’ den he wuz free, case no person wid ary a drap of white blood can be a slave.
When he wuz free he comed ter Raleigh an’ from de fust I can remember he wuz a blacksmith an’ his shop wuz on Wolcot’s Corner. Dar wuz jist three of us chilluns, Charlie, Narcissus, an’ me an’ dat wuz a onusual small family.
Before de war Judge Bantin’s wife teached us niggers on de sly, an’ atter de war wuz over de Yankees started Hayes’s school. I ain’t had so much schoolin’ but I teached de little ones fer seberal years.
De Southern soldiers burned de depot, which wuz between Cabarrus an’ Davie Streets den, an’ dat wuz ter keep de Yankees from gittin’ de supplies. Wheeler’s Cavalry wuz de meanest troops what wuz.
De Yankees ain’t got much in Raleigh, case de Confederates has done got it all an’ gone. Why fer a long time dar de way we got our salt wuz by boilin’ de dirt from de smoke house floor where de meat has hung an’ dripped.
I’m glad slavery is ober, eben do’ I ain’t neber been no slave. But I tell yo’ it’s bad ter be a ‘Ole Issue.’
In the 1860 census of Raleigh, Wake County: Cameron Perry, 48, blacksmith, wife Sarah, and children Adora, 7, Narcissa, 5, Charley, 3, plus Susan Cuffy, 70, and Henderson Duntson, 21; all mulatto except Susan, whose color designation was left blank.
Old Negro in Destitute Circumstances.
William Winters, a mulatto about 70 years old and helpless, lies at his home on Poplar street, between Trade and Fourth streets, in destitute circumstances. Winter has had a rather interesting career. He was born a free negro and during the war was a soldier in the Confederate forces. He left home as the valet and cook for Col. Charles Fisher, of the Sixth North Carolina Regiment, who was killed in the first battle of Manassas. Winters was with Col. Fisher when he was shot and assisted in getting him off the field. He remained with the Confederate army during the war and afterwards cooked in Charlotte hotels and cafes until about 10 years ago when he became too feeble to work. He has always been a good negro and has had many friends among the white people, especially among the old veterans.
Charlotte Observer, 4 January 1906.
Charlotte DeOrmond, a white woman servant of Major John Dunn has had a white & a mulatto bastard; she must serve a year for the white bastard and two years longer for the mulatto, who, being a female, is bound to said Dunn until 21 years old.
January Term, 1769, Minutes, Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Rowan County Records, North Carolina State Archives.
$20 REWARD. Ranaway from the subscriber, on the evening of the 18th inst., a mulatto woman by the name of LUCY. Said woman is about 23 years old, slender frame, but now quite corpulent, of ordinary bright, and will probably weight 120 to 140 lbs., short hair, with rather a bony face, and is quite intelligent.
Said woman is probably harbored by her mother, owned by J.A. Worth, and Bill Bruinton, a free negro, with whom she has been very intimate. I will pay the above reward of $20 if she is delivered to me or lodged in the Jail of this County, or I will pay $50 if she is taken in any other county and confined in the Jail of the same. JNO. D. WILLIAMS. Fayetteville, July 12, 1862.
Fayetteville Observer, 4 August 1862.
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Ranaway, a mulatto woman by the name of LUCY, about 23 years old, of medium size, but now quite corpulent.
Said woman is probably in or near Town, but may have been led off in the direction of Newbern by Bill Bruinton, a free mulatto man who has been at work as a Carpenter probably on the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad at a Depot North of Warsaw. I will pay $25 for the delivery of the girl to me or lodged in Jail in town, if found in this County, or $50 if said girl is found in any other County and confined in the Jail of the same, the party arresting giving me early information of the same. JNO. D. WILLIAMS. Fayetteville, Aug, 25, 1862.
Fayetteville Observer, 14 November 1862.
Fourth Generation Inclusive 