Fourth Generation Inclusive

Historical Documents of Genealogical Interest to Researchers of North Carolina's Free People of Color

Tag: miscegenation

April 20, 2014

Her mulatto child was nursed by a negro woman.

The Petition of John Chambers of Haywood County Humbly Sureth Your Honerable Body that about the first day of February, that a certain Theophilus Oneal who emigrated from Johnson County in this State to this Haywood County. And that after some acquaintance with the family of Mr. Theophilus Oneal Your Petitioner Maried his daughter Riney. But in Abouts two Weeks after marriage your petitioners Wife was charged With having been delivered of a Molatto Child which was Nused by a Negro Woman of the said Theophilus Oneals the Father inlaw of the Petitioner. After being Charged with the above crime, the family has since the Mariage Confessed the fact. After which time your Petitioner carried his wife Riney to her father and has never lived with her since. Your Petitioner is a poor young Man but Wish to Conduct him self in such a manner so as to render himself Respectable, as this petition May Want form, Gramar, and eloquence yet there is one thing he feels himself weel assured of that is the correctness of his Narative he therefore wish your honerable Body to take his case into serious consideration and pass a law to annul the Marriage of your unfortunate Petitioner, And in duty bound he Will ever pray, your petitioner think it needless to have paper crowded with Names he therefore Contents himself with having a few of the respectable part of his neighbours or county men placed on the petition.

——

The Committee on Divorce & Alimony to whom was before the Petition of John Chambers of Haywood County, have had the same under consideration and ask him to report; Your committe find that the said John Chambers intermarried with Riney ONeal the daughter of Theophilus ONeal, who was emigrated from the County of Johnson to the County of Haywood three or four years since, and that some short time afterward, the said Chambers discovered, and it appears to your committee in proof likewise, that it was the common talk previous to their removal from the County fo Johnson, and has been, subsequently acknowledged by the family that the said Riney (previously to her removal) had been delivered of a mulatto child; And it appears further to your Committe that as soon as the Petioner the said John Cahmbers had ascertained this fact, he returned or carried his wife to her parents, & with whom and himself  there has been no fellowship since __ Your Committe aware of the importance of rendering indi[illegible]ible teh marriage contract, and of that demoralizing tendency which a seperation under any circumstances produces, are yet of an opinion, that the prayer of the Petitioner in this Case should be granted, and therefore recommended the passage of the accompaning bill. All which is respectfully submitted.  /s/ J.G.A. Williamson, Ch. of the Com.

General Assembly Session Records, November 1825-January 1826, Box 4, North Carolina State Archives.

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July 2, 2013

The predicament.

As we have already noted, according to the laws of the colonial period, illegitimate children acquired the status of the mother, and this ruling explains the predicament of John Oggs’ children. Oggs was a bachelor whose housekeeper and cook was his slave, a Negro woman named Hester. By her he fathered four offspring, two males and two females. To “my gairl Alley (Alice)” and “my boy Jesse” he devised an equal interest in the plantation whereon he lived. To “my gairl Prudence” and “my boy Charles” he bequeathed the “land on the Island.” The total acreage of his real estate was between two and three hundred acres. He had failed, however, to provide for the manumission of either the mother or her children and since the law prohibited a slave from owning real property, the complications produced by the will became immediately evident. Here were properties clearly intended for individuals who were unable to exercise the privileges of ownership.

This peculiar state of affairs continued for a period of eighteen years, the boy Jesse having died in the meantime, when John Hamilton solved the problem by sponsoring a special legislative enactment, doubtless at the behest of interested persons in Camden and in Pasquotank. Following are quoted pertinent passages from the act finally passed by the State Legislature: “And whereas, the within mentioned Hester, and her children Charles, Alley and Prudence Oggs, are recommended to this General Assembly by several very respectable inhabitants of Camden and Pasquotank, as worthy of being manumitted and set free agreeable to the intentions of their father John Oggs. . . . Be it therefore enacted, that the said Negro woman Hester, and her children Charles, Alley and Prudence Oggs, are hereby manumitted and set free to all intents and purposes, and to possess all rights and privileges as if they had been born free.”

Exercising their long-delayed rights of ownership, for a few years the Oggs heirs sold and bought real estate. The father had owned one tract located in a neighborhood now known as Wickham, and the other was on Indian Island. Prudence finally purchased fifty acres on Indian Island, where she apparently spent her last days. Hester and the other two children later assumed the surname of Dixon. Eventually they sold all their possessions and departed for parts unknown.

Excerpt from Jesse F. Pugh, Three Hundred Years Along the Pasquotank (1957).

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June 24, 2013

She was delivered of a colored child.

To the Hon’bl the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina –

The memorial and petition of John Fugate of the County of Wilkes respectfully represents that he intermarried with one Patsey Johnson on the 8th day of May 1823, and that on the 8th day of the ensuing July the said Patsey was delivered of a coloured child – That at the time of the intermarriage of your petitioner, he had no knowledge of the pregnancy of the said Patsey, and that as soon as the facts came to his knowledge, and the child was discovered to be a coloured one, he immediately abandoned the said Patsey, and has had no kind of connection with her since – Your Petitioner further represents that he is extremely poor and not able to make application to the Superior Court for relief, even if his case was cognizable by that authority, of which he is informed there are some doubts – He therefore prays that your Honorable Body will take his case into consideration and pass an act absolving him from the bonds of matrimony with the said Patsey, and he as in duty bound will ever pray.   /s/ John Fugate Dec’r 20th 1826

[A supporting affidavit signed by 14 friends and neighbors is attached.]

General Assembly Session Records, December 1826-February 1827, Box 4, North Carolina State Archives.

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June 4, 2013

His sunshine gleam of felicity was evanescent.

To the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina

The Petition of Lewis Tombereau most humbly sheweth

That your Petitioner is a native of France and a shoemaker by trade and that being from his youth attached to a government founded on Just and liberal principles such as guarantees the enjoyment of rational liberty, and an equal participation in the administration of its laws to every citizen however humble. He emigrated to the United States, and settled himself therein, near Williamston in Martin County in this state, where without a care beyond his lap stone, he worked at his trade with such assiduity and industry as to have been considered eminently useful in his line in that neighbourhood, so that he was enabled to make both ends meet with comfort, which he still hopes to do and thereby to his last, eat the bread of independence.

That to lighten the cares, and sweeten the toils of life, and make his share of its burthens sit easy, He intermarried with a young woman of the neighbourhood, named Nancy Jolly of whom he became enamoured of, to whom he was determined to stick as close as wax; and to exert the powers given to him by God, and nature, to satisfy her desire, supply her wants, administer to her necessities, and provide for her support in a manner befitting his humble, but independent sphere in life.

That with the most pungent and heart felt sorrow, your Petitioner feels himself compelled to state, that his sunshine gleam of felicity was evanescent; and he too soon with heart rending horror found, that in his indulging in the best passion incident to humanity, he linked his fortunes with, and intrusted his happiness to, one of the most frail, lewd, and depraved, daughters of Eve, for without either cause or provocation she shortly after her said marriage withdrew herself from your Petitioner, and from the discharge of her conjugal duties, and forsook both his board and bed, to cohabit with a certain mulatto Barber named Roland Colanche then living in Williamston by whom she had a coloured child, and became, and continues to be, a public and notorious prostitute in the most unlimited sense of that word. She indulging in an unreserved, and promiscuous intercourse with men of every colour, age, class and description she meets, sufficiently dissolute, licentious, and sensual, to gratify their passions, and her lust, and desire of variety.

That your Petitioners hopes of happiness being thus early blasted, in a way, and by persons whose abject stations in life, precludes his obtaining any redress for the injuries this done him, without making him obnoxious to that portion of ridicule, that most inconsistently follows matters of this nature, because the butt of such ridicule, is more an object for the balm of pity, than for the gall of unfeeling mirth, to avoid which, he moved from thence, and is now seated in Raleigh in Wake County, where his demeanour has been such, he feels himself authorized to say, as to gain for him the good will of his neighbours notwithstanding his poverty.

That from his imperfect knowledge of the English language, he being a foreigner, and the consequent difficulty of making himself understood, as well as from a reluctance to make public, what without any fault of his own might by mean and illiberal minds be thought disgraceful to him, he has hitherto brooded over his wrongs in agonising silence, and his poverty precluding the possibility of his engaging a lawyer to file a petition for a divorce in a court of law, or if he has found a lawyer kind enough to befriend him therein, he was, and is, unable to give the security for the accruing costs which is require by act of assembly: which costs he would be compelled to pay, tho successful in the suit, as neither the unhappy woman complained against, not her paramour, have any visible means of paying them: and as your Petitioner is able to substantiate the facts herein set forth, as well as by several members of your Body, as by other respectable witnesses; and being advised, that the acting upon it, so as to release him from the unhallowed bonds he in an evil hour entered into, is a matter wholly within the discretion of your Body.

He earnestly prays that you will take his case into consideration that he is a foreigner, and poor, and the woman complained against, an open and notorious prostitute, and that you will either divorce him from the said woman, or make such order as to your collective wisdom shall seem commensurate with the affording him adequate relief in the premises and He will ever gratefully pray &c.   /s/ L Tombereau

Raleigh Wake County November 19th A.D. 1824   }

General Assembly Session Records, November 1824, North Carolina State Archives.

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June 4, 2013

Concerning Hannah, a likely young handsome female with good qualities.

The bond of Doctor Nesbitt and his letter to Mr Jonah Clark, (concerning a certain mulatto woman called Hannah, who formerly belonged to said Clark) having lately been put into my hands, and understanding that Dr Nesbitt still threatens to make another attempt to carry her off in a clandestine manner, I have thought proper to lay them before the public through the medium of the Wilmington Gazette.

John McFarlane

Wilmington, April 16, 1805

—–

Know all men by these presents that I, Robert Nesbitt, of the State of South Carolina, Physician, am held and firmly bound to Jonah Clark, of North Carolina, planter, in the sum of four hundred pounds, current money of the state of North Carolina, for the payment of which sum to the said Jonah Clark, his heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, I, the said Robert Nesbitt, do hereby bind myself, my heirs, executors, and administrators firmly by these presents sealed with my seal and dated this 24th day of April, 1797. The condition of the above obligation is such, that whereas I, the said Robert Nesbitt, have purchased and possessed myself of a certain Mulatto Female slave, named Hannah, late the property of the said Clark, which said mulatto slave I, the said Nesbitt have agreed with the said Clark, to manumit and set free, free, whensoever he, the said Clark, or any person for him or his representatives, or any person for them shall pay, or cause to be paid to the said Nesbitt, the sum of three hundred and forty Spanish milled dollars, or in case of my death, to my representatives; now, therefore, if I, the said Robert  Nesbitt, or my representatives, shall at any time after the date of these presents on application of said Clark or his representatives, and the payment by him or them as aforesaid, or the sum of three hundred and forty dollars aforesaid, manumit, emancipate and set free agreeably to law, the said mulatto slave Hannah, so that she shall not be thereafter subject to the control, or command, or debt, or demand of any person whatever as a slave. Then the above obligation to be void, otherwise to to remain and abide in full force and virtue.

In witness whereof, the said Robert have hereunto set his hand and seal, the day and year aforesaid.

Robert Nesbitt (Seal)

Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of G Hooper

—–

Mr Jonah Clark,

It surprised me not a little at the return of my boy, without Hannah, after you had promised me so faithfully that she should be sent whenever called for, now after being with you near one twelve month, immediately upon sending for Hannah, down comes Sye with a letter from you mentioning Hannah’s unwillingness to come, likewise that Sye would deliver me three hundred and forty dollars at the same time, putting me in mind of justice and honor in the nature of the contract between  yourself and me. Gods know if any justice or honor were thought of either by yourself or me when that penal bond was given you by me, as you well know I was obliged to do so, to get my property delivered to me by you — but again Sye never delivered this money as your letter to me specifies, no it is sent down to an Allston with a letter to them to see this business done and should I refuse to emancipate your daughter Hannah, to commence an action against me immediately for the recovery of the Penalty — but you were too fast, you thought you had things to your wishes, not knowing it was necessary that the wench must be down on the occasion as the law requires.

I would notwithstanding have sent Hannah up for her cloths not Sye and being apprehensive of the consequence would not venture as you have deceived me more than once, you will deliver the clothes to my servant or cause them to be delivered at the request of Hannah and myself.

You may conceive a great deal of honor in my penal bond, but there is really none except what the laws of my country will make me comply with, which is either to emancipate Hannah or pay the penalty of eight hundred dollars which when paid will be no more than four hundred and sixty out of my pocket, and believe me, should you push, and I expect nothing else and indeed it is my wish, will and shall exert myself to pay you in your own coin, that is, will endeavour to procure your antique mouldy papers wherever they may be procured either below or above the value, for am not a little irritated at your conduct after my handsome behaviour to you and yours. But on the contrary if you will leave it in my breast to emancipate, which I promise you I shall on these conditions — that she continue with me my life, I will return you the money that I have received from you by Mr Allston whatever intent it might have been given for. I wish you to consider the business maturely as it concerns Hannah’s welfare much, like consider if you have any bonds still out unpaid, if you have, be assured I will endeavour to purchase them, likewise consider what an enormous price negroes sell at in So. Carolina, a likely young handsome female with good qualities and disposition will bring a price extraordinary. I have been offered for Hannah 1290 by one 1730 dollars by another but Sir, that and twice as much more will not tempt me to part with her, unless am provoked and find it not safe to keep her (that is to say people of bad stamp should put notions in her head to abscond from me, which I am certain she will never do otherwise.

However to come to a conclusion whatever has been said above is really from a candid mind, that never meant to injure you nor yours, but rather were it in my power would assist if occasion wanted and I request you to write me as candidly by my servant, whatever you think on the subject and what you wish to be at, whether you will accede to my proposals or what you first intended, am prepared for either, Hannah says she is satisfied with my offer.

I remain Sir, expecting to hear from you by my servant, your most obedient

Robert Nesbitt

Waccamaw, 15 Nov 1801

Mr Jonah Clark, North Carolina

N.B. I have been just now inform in bringing the horse across the river to the main, he has got staked and he being the only horse I can spare, the other being rode down, Sye will deliver this to you, unless I change my mind.

Send the clothes belonging to Hannah over to Mr Howes so that when my boy should come he may not be detained unnecessarily.

R.N.

Wilmington Gazette, 23 April 1805.

[Sidenote: This is not, strictly speaking, a document about a free person of color, as I don’t know whether Hannah was ever emancipated. It is, however, a fascinating — and appalling — glimpse behind a curtain.

In a nutshell, Clark sold (or, in effect, mortgaged) his own daughter Hannah to Nesbitt for $340, and Nesbitt agreed to free her upon reimbursement of payment. The girl, however, apparently remained with Clark for a year. When Nesbitt sent for her, Clark’s slave Sye delivered a message that Hannah was unwilling to come, and Clark was ready to pay the $340. The girl eventually went to Nesbitt’s, but Clark did not pay Nesbitt directly. Instead, he sent the money to an intermediary with a threat to sue Nesbitt if he did not free the girl. Nesbitt was outraged and threatened to sell Hannah in South Carolina if Clark did not let him keep her his lifetime (with money refunded.) John McFarlane submitted Nesbitt’s letters in a Wilmington newspaper to expose Nesbitt’s threats to the public. – LYH] 

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May 26, 2013

Being in a slow state of health.

In the Name God Amen

I Tamsey Gandy of the County Wayne and State of North Carolina being in slow State of Health but of Sound mind and memory blessed be god for the Same Calling to mind the certainty of death, I make & publish this my last will and Testament in manner and form following Viz I give and bequeath unto my Son Henderson Gandy my bed bedstead and necessary furniture, and Red chest and all my clothes and Spun Cotton. I leave the rest of my property to be Sold by my Executor and money arising there from I leave to my Son Anderson Gandy.

I leave my Worthy friend Robert Williams my Executor to this my last will and Testament revoaking all other Wills by me made. April 28th in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty two whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal    Tansey X Gandy

Signed sealed and published in the presence of William Lewis

The will was proved at May Term 1842. Recording Docket Book 8, p. 309. Office of Clerk of Superior Court, Wayne County Courthouse, Goldsboro.

Tamsey Gandy’s estate was sold on 15 August 1842 and brought in $41.33 ¼.  Purchasers included Theo. Seaberry and Offie Seaberry (probably the same man, Theophilus Seaberry), but were primarily white neighbors. Though she could not write (or, presumably, read), Tamsey’s estate included “1 Lot Books.” Recording Docket Book 8, p. 355-356. Office of Clerk of Superior Court, Wayne County Courthouse, Goldsboro.

Edward Gandy named his daughter Tamsey Gandy as a beneficiary in his 23 July 1823 will filed in Nash County. Will Book 1, page 291, Office of the Clerk of Superior Court, Nash County Courthouse, Nashville. In 1809, the surname of Tamsey Whiddon and her siblings Griffin, Brinkley and Elizabeth was changed to Gandy, and they were “legitimated.” North Carolina General Assembly, 1809 Session Laws, Chapter CXXVIII, page 40.

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April 17, 2013

He carried a white woman there.

Fifty Dollars Reward.

Made his escape from me, on Friday evening the 4th of the present month, near Stantonsburg, a negro man, named ALLEN, (calls himself Allen Woodard) he is about 30 years of age, of a tolerable size, yellow complexion, a pretty good House Carpenter and a very ingenious negro. He formerly belonged to Wm. Dickinson, decd. – and has lately been confined in the Newbern gaol, was removed thence to Snow Hill, had his trial and was whipped – his back is pretty much scared [sic]. It is said he has forged free papers, with which he has passed as a free man. It is probable he will lurking about Newbern as he carried a white woman there, with whom he was intimate, as it was said.

The above reward will be given to any person who will deliver him to me, or lodge him in Tarborough gaol.  DANIEL DICKINSON.  Edgcomb County, 2 miles above Stantonsburg, May 8th, 1822.

Newbern Sentinel, 18 May 1822.

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March 20, 2013

Horrible outrage.

OUTRAGES IN NORTH CAROLINA.

Three Radicals Murder a Negro, His Wife and Four Children in Their Own Home.

The House Burned to Conceal the Crime – A Mother’s Devotion – The Woman Alarms Neighbors and Secures the Arrest of the Murderers.

RALEIGH, N.C., May 2, 1871.

The Sentinel of to-day has a correspondence from Rutherford Court House, which give the details of one of THE MOST HORRIBLE OUTRAGES that has ever shocked human ears. The perpetrators of the deed are radicals, though it partakes of the nature of Ku Klux Klan outrages. Six souls were, without a word of warning, ushered into eternity, and their slaughtered bodies afterwards consumed in the flames of their burning home. The outrage occurred in Morgan township, on the border of McDowell county, and is as follows:

Silas Weston, a free negro before the war, has for many years been living with Polly Steadman, a white woman of loose character. Polly has or had four children, white, the oldest about fourteen, the youngest nearly two years of age.

SILAS AND POLLY lived peaceably together, and were in better circumstances than most of their class. Some time ago three notorious characters – Govan and Columbus Adair and M. Bernard – were charged with the theft of a quantity of brandy and bound over at McDowell County Court. Silas had seen the thieves carrying off the booty, and was subpoenaed as the principal witness for the prosecution. The Adairs threatened his life if he peached but Silas expressed a determination to bring the rogues to justice. What we now proceed to tell is THE SWORN DEPOSITION of the woman Polly Steadman: — On Wednesday evening, April 26, shortly after nightfall, while the family were preparing to retire to peaceful repose, the dog began to bark violently. Polly, looking through chinks between the logs, received a pistol bullet in the eye. With a wild scream she sprang back, and at that instant the door was broken down and in rushed Govan Adair, Columbus Adair and Bernard FIRING AS THEY CAME. Silas fell dead, with two balls in the head. One of the assassins stood over the children as they lay upon the floor, shooting them through the head like so many pigs. Polly stopped to creep under the bed, but was flung back. Then she began to fight like a tigress. One of the butchers attacked her with a knife. Finally, with five deep cuts on the body, with her throat deeply gashed and a pistol shot through the eye, this poor creature sank to the floor and was kicked into a pile of broom straw preparatory to THE GRAND AUTO DA FE.  Meanwhile every voice in the family had been stilled. Six lifeless bodies lay on the bloody floor – the old man on the hearth, the mother haggled in pieces on the straw, and the children in their night clothes, lying where they fell – all had been jostled by rude feet. The fiends contemplated their work, to make sure it had been done thoroughly, and prepared to hide their tracks. Piling up clothing, straw and other combustible matter they applied the match, and then, with an ineffaceable stain on their souls, fled away into the darkness.

A MOTHER’S DEVOTION. And now occurred what may well sound marvelous. Polly Steadman, scorched by the flames, arouses herself, seizes her youngest child, who gives signs of life, and, crawling towards the door, tries to drag out another child, but nature fails, and the body lies just outside the threshold; then, with supernatural strength, Polly staggers the distance of half a mile to the residence of Mrs. Williams, and gives THE ALARM. It is too late. Three bleached skeletons grin from the ashes,, and a blistered corpse lay without the door.  As soon as possible messengers were dispatched for Sheriff Walker and for medical assistance; but before either arrived, Polly, supposing herself in the last agony of death, solemnly testified against the murderers. She knew them well; they were her near neighbors, and were not disguised. Her testimony was so clear and positive it carried conviction to all who heard it. Accordingly Squire Hanes promptly issued a warrant for THE ARREST of the suspected parties. They were found at home, one of them in bed, though late in the day. Sheriff Walker arrived shortly afterward and conveyed the prisoners to this place, where they are closely confined. Commenting on this horrible affair, it is proper to state with emphasis that all the parties are of the lowest order of society, and that all of them, the slain and the slayers, are radicals of the deepest dye. The Adairs for years have attended the polls for no other purpose than to insult and intimidate conservative voters. So “trooly loil” were they that even with murder in their hearts they sought to make the deed redound for the benefit of the party.

Reading Eagle, Reading, Pennsylvania, 4 May 1871.

In the 1860 census of Catheys Creek, Rutherford County: Cinthia Weston, 41, (described as “idiotic”), Elizabeth, 32, Stephen, 21, and Silas Weston, 20. In the 1870 census of Morgan, Rutherford County: Silus Western 50, farmer, wife Mary, 25, and children Harberd, 10, Docia, 6, David, 4, and Mary, 7 months. Silus, Harberd and baby Mary were described as mulatto; Mary, Docia, and David as white. Nearby, the large household of James H. and Arminta Adair, which included sons Columbus, 26, and Govan, 24.

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March 19, 2013

The Cousins brothers, dark of skin.

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.

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March 18, 2013

She put her pretty gold head on his shoulder, and …

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.

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