Fourth Generation Inclusive

Historical Documents of Genealogical Interest to Researchers of North Carolina's Free People of Color

Tag: Southern Claims Commission

October 16, 2012

My mother was an Indian woman came from Guadaloupe.

Lewis W. Levy Sr.‘s claim (#16083) with the Southern Claims Commission was submitted to Congress on 4 December 1876.  Levy lived in Cumberland County, 3 miles southeast of Fayetteville; was a free-born colored man; and owned 109 acres, of which 40 were under cultivation.  He worked as a saddle and harness maker.  During the war, he was forced to work in his trade at Fayetteville arsenal, where he was “insulted, abused and molested by the rebels.” He fed 6 Union soldiers on their way to federal lines after escaping from Florence SC, and his son Lewis Levy Jr. and Alexander Jackson, another colored man, piloted them over the Cape Fear River.

The Commissioners noted: “He was unusually well off in property for a colored man, much above the average of colored people.  He was nearly white, so much so that the confederates arrested him and tried to force him into their Army, but the surgeon discharged him on the ground of physical inability.”

“A large force of Genl. Sherman’s Army camped near him for 2 or 3 days in March 1865; & we have no doubt from the nature of the case that they stripped him of all he had. … We allow $723.00.”

“I was free born.  My mother was an Indian woman came from Guadeloupe France to this country in 1794.”

Alexander Jackson, age 60, testified that he was a colored man and that he resided in Rockfish township, Cumberland County and worked as a saddle and harness maker.  He was not related to Lewis Levy, but had known him 30 years and lived about 2 1/2 miles from him.  They sometimes worked in the same shop.

Edinboro Scurlock, age 48, testified that he was colored, lived in Cumberland County near Fayetteville and was a wagon maker.  He was not related to Lewis Levy, but knew him all his life and lived about 1/2 mile from him.

Lewis’ son Robert W. Levy was a 21 year-old farmer who lived in Rockfish township.  His testimony mentioned his mother, brothers Lewis Jr. and Matthew N. Levy, sister Ann Eliza Levy, and Wright Lambert.  Matthew N. Levy, age 23, and Lewis W. Levy Jr., 24, also testified. They lived in Fayetteville and worked as coopers.

George D. Simmons, age 39, lived in Fayetteville and worked as a barber and grocer. He had known Levy for 22 years and lived about 5 miles from him.

In the 1850 census of Fayetteville, Cumberland County: Lewis Levy, 30, saddle and harnessmaker; wife Sarah C., 25; children Robt., 6, Eliza, 8, Lewis, 4, and Matthew, 6 months; plus Abel  G. Stuart, 20, apprentice saddlemaker; Paul Jones, 23, painter; and Wm. Dunstan, 34, painter.  All were described as mulatto.

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October 6, 2012

A damn’d radical.

On 25 Mar 1875, 70 year-old Everett Hays filed a claim with the Southern Claims Commission (#3663).  He had lived in Wayne County’s Pikeville township for 25-30 years and worked as a farm laborer.  Hays was born in Greene County, “close by Pikeville,” and testified:

“I was whipped by Jim Combs and Council Radford and said it was because I was a d–n’d radical.”

The Union “was my pluck always.”

“I was compelled, like a great many of my color, to go in to the service as a cook.”

“Colored folks had always to get passes.”

“During the war, John Sykes and a party looking for deserters came to my house, and questioned me about deserters, and because I could give them no satisfactory information they took me out and whipped me, and carried off from my house a quantity of sausages.”

“It was our good luck that the Rebs would not take in colored men as soldiers.”

“I never heard of a colored man who did not rejoice at the defeat of the Rebs.”

Laurence Reid was deposed in support of Hays’ claim.  He was 58 years old “as near as I can come to it,” lived in Pikeville “near to Everett Hays.”  He had known Hays for 30 years, but was not related to him, and asserted, “We were both shoved off to do slave’s duty tho’ we were both free-born men …”

Others mentioned were Hays’ wife Millie Hays, his sons Burkett and Lafayette Hays, daughter Biddy Hays, and Elbert Artis and Beedie Artis, both of Pikeville.  Lafayette, a farmer, was about 26 years old and lived at Lagrange in Lenoir County.  Burkett was about 30 years old and also lived at Lagrange, where he worked as a blacksmith’s helper.

Hays asserted that Union troops had taken 3 barrels of corn, 400 pounds of bacon, 5 pounds of lard, a half bushel of meal, a pound of tobacco and cooking utensils valued at $122.00.  The Commission allowed $75.00 of his claim.

In the 1850 census of Edgecombe County: Everett Hays, 40, wife Milly, 40, and children Beady, 11, Burkett, 6, and Lafayette Hays, 2.

An act of Congress, approved March 3, 1871, provided that the President nominate three commissioners of claims (otherwise known as the Southern Claims Commission) to receive, examine, and consider the claims of “those citizens who remained loyal adherents to the cause and the Government of the United States during the war, for stores or supplies taken or furnished during the rebellion for the use of the Army of the United States in States proclaimed as in insurrection against the United States.” The commissioners were to satisfy themselves of the loyalty of each claimant; certify the amount, nature, and value of the property taken or furnished; report their judgment on each claim in writing to the House of Representatives at the beginning of each session of Congress, hold their sessions in Washington; and keep a journal of their proceedings and a register of all claims brought before them. The act provided further that of the claims within its provisions only those presented to the commissioners could be prosecuted, and that all others were to be barred. 

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