Ordered.
Indenture. Ordered that Sarah Rouse a free girl of color be bound as an apprentice to John D. Abernathy, which is done, bond filed.
Minutes, January Term 1853, Duplin County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions.
Fourth Generation Inclusive
Historical Documents of Genealogical Interest to Researchers of North Carolina's Free People of Color
Tag: apprentices
October 9, 2012
Learn him the business of a planter.
13 Nov 1771. Ordered that Dick a base born child born of the body of Lucy Jones a negro be bound to Joseph Norris untill he attain to a Lawful Age being born the 15th of June Last his said master to learn him the business of a planter.
Minutes, November Term 1771, Bute County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions.
Image | October 7, 2012
On motion it is ordered that the sheriff of this county be directed to bring into Court at the next term the bodies of Lavinia Hagans & Rebecca Hagans coloured children of Eliza Hagans and notify said Eliza Hagans to show cause, if any she has, why the said children should not be bound out to service.
October 7, 2012
A summons.
August Term 1841.
Notice issued to Margaret Carroll, residing at Mrs. Sally Grice’s plantation, to bring in her children Garry, Feriba, Elvina and Mary Carroll.
Minutes, Johnston County Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions.
In the 1850 census of Johnston County, Margaret Carroll and her children Mary, Raiford, Patsey, Mary and William appear in the household if farmer John M. Grice.
October 5, 2012
A parcell of small children not able to help them selves.
State of North Carolina Wayne County
I Zilley Hagans of the Same county having some Ennemys having Raised a Report that my Childrain is Runing about in the neighborhood for the purpose of giting Something to Eate & that they were likely to Suffer & that they are living in idleness this Report having bean Raised for the purpose of takeing my Children and having them bound out But I the sd Zilley Hagans will Certify to you By the Signature of my neighbours to the Revurse that they are Cleare from the Charge that is Reported against them I umbly Beg of the Court without Some Cause or proof of the Charge not to take my Children from me that is able to work and leave me with a parcell of Small Children not able to help them Selves this July the 25th 1824.
Jonathan Pike
Josiah Musgrave
William Garriss
Samuel Perkins
Mark Pike
Benjamin Boswell
William Musgrave
William Jackson
Nathan Pike
Isaac Cork
James Buntin
Box 3, Apprentice Bonds and Records, Wayne County Records, North Carolina State Archives.
[Sidenote: Druzilla “Zilley” Hagans was called into court to show cause why her children should be bound as apprentices. To aid her quest to keep her children, she sought support from eleven white neighbors, who averred that charges against her were untrue. Most free colored families were painfully poor. A small and prosperous few worked as artisans or farmed their own land. Others eked out tolerable livings as farmhands or tenant farmers. However, opportunities for women’s paid work were few. Free women of color competed with slave and poor white women for the little washing or sewing that took place outside households. These women depended on the contributions of all family members who could work. A mother hwose children were bound could console herself with the expectation that her children would be fed, clothed and sheltered during the terms of their indenture. However, the loss of the labor of older children could imperil a family’s survival. As Hagans’ petition poignantly illustrates, children most useful as apprentices were also those most useful to their parents. Hagans’ petition was unsuccessful. Her children Vina, 16, Eli, 18, and Sherard Hagans, 9, were bound to Robert Hooks during the court term. The indentures of successive children left Hagans’ family in worse straits. In 1833, she approached the court with an arrangement with a neighbor that worked to the advantage of each. — LYH]
October 5, 2012
No interest in the question.
Harriet Owens v. Jasper Chaplain, 48 NC 323 (1856).
Currituck County Court bound free colored girl Polly Gordon to Frederick Owens, a free man of color, at August Term, 1851. In October 1854, Owens sailed for the West Indies and was not heard from again, leaving Gordon with his wife, Harriet Owens. Jasper Chaplain took Gordon from Harriet Owens’ custody, and Currituck County Court Court rebound her to him without notifying Harriet Owens and without the girl’s presence. Reversing the lower court, North Carolina Supreme Court held that, because Owens was derelict in his duty towards Gordon, Currituck had the authority to rebind her without notice to the wife (who “had no interest in the question”) and without the girl.
Frederick Owens married Harriet Owens (her maiden name) on 13 July 1850 in Tyrrell County. The couple appear in Frederick’s mother Mary Owens‘ household in the 1850 census of Poplar Branch, Currituck County. They are not found in the 1860 census.
In the 1860 federal census of Powells Point township, Currituck County, 53 year-old farmer Jasper Chaplin and his wife share a household with six free colored children, Sidney (17) and Lydia Patterson (15), Joseph Case (14), and Polly (13), Aaron (9) and Pater Gordon (5).
Sarah Wesley’s death certificate reveals that Polly Gordon married her fellow apprentice, Joseph Case. Wesley was born 7 July 1874 in Jarvisburg NC and died 29 May 1925 in Poplar Branch. Polly and Joseph are listed as her parents, and they appear together in the 1870, 1880 and 1900 federal censuses of Currituck County.
October 4, 2012
… whether they are paupers or not!
P.L. Ferrell v. Hilliard Boykin, 61 NC 9 (1866)
An unmarried free negro woman gave birth to a child in Nash County. She and the child lived there until December, 1856, when they moved to Wilson County, where the child continued to reside until the time of the trial. In June, 1857, soon after his mother’s death, the child was bound [apparently in Wilson County] by his mother’s husband, who was also his reputed father, to the defendant, Hilliard Boykin. At November term, 1857, Nash County Court bound the child as an apprentice to the plaintiff, P.L. Farrell, who demanded that Boykin deliver up the boy. Boykin refused, and the suit was brought.
From the decision: “In the course of argument here, it was said that the County Court of Nash ought not to have assumed jurisdiction over the boy, unless that of Wilson had returned him thither, as a pauper. The answer to this is, that it is the duty of the court to bind out all free base-born colored children, whether they are paupers or not! At least such was the law at the time of this transaction. It was assumed by the Legislature that children in their condition would be neglected, and so the courts were directed to bind out all of that class. In the present case, the County Court of Nash County, being responsible for the proper nurture of the boy, was not to wait until he became a vagabond, and has been cast back upon it as a pauper, by the county of Wilson; but it was its duty at once to exercise its legitimate control, and bind him as an apprentice.”
Judgment for plaintiff. The holding: “An illegitimate free negro child who has gained a new settlement by a year’s residence insome other county is, for the purpose of being apprenticed, subject to the jurisdiction of the county in which its which its mother lived of its birth.” “A master may recover damages of anyone who, after demand, detains an apprentice.”
P.L. [Pleasant Luten] Ferrell is listed as a head of household in the 1860 federal census of Bailey township, Nash County NC. There is no free colored apprentice in his household. On the other hand, two, John (11) and Zilpha Brantley (9), both described as mulatto, are listed with Hilliard Boykin in 1860 Old Fields township, Wilson County.
Fourth Generation Inclusive 