“Islay Walden, black poet and Congregational minister, was born in Randolph County, the son of a slave named Ruth belonging to James Gardner. At Gardner’s death in 1843 Ruth and her two children were sold to Dolphin Gardner. Islay was at that time a babe in arms while his sister, Sarah, was two. How many times he was sold after that is unknown. His father was William D. Walden, a free black who was highly respected in his community. …”
FIVE DOLLARS REWARD.
RANAWAY from the Subscriber on the 17th of October last, a colored Boy named THOMAS WALDEN, about eight years old. I understand said boy is about Donald Street’s, in Moore county. I will give the above reward for his delivery to me at Emerson’s Tan Yard, Chatham county. Said boy was bound to me by the County Court, I therefore forewarn all persons from harboring him, as I intend to enforce the law against the aggressor. DANIEL CAMPBELL. October 23rd, 1841.
Fayetteville Weekly Observer, 3 November 1841.
Beware of a Swindler.
WALTER BARROTT, of Moore county, N.C. eloped from his father’s house on the 11th December last, taking with him sundry articles of clothing and a large Sorrel Horse, belonging to his father, also a very likely bay horse, which he had just purchased from a man in Stokes county, and for which he gave a $100 counterfeit note. It is thought that he took about $4000 of counterfeit money with him. He also took away with him a free mulatto man named Berry Walden, and said that he intended to sell him and one of the horses, and then go low down in Georgia and So. Carolina, where he thought he could pass some of his counterfeit notes. Walden is about 5 feet 9 inches high, of a light copper colour. Barrott is about the same size, 30 years of age, of a dark complexion, down look, very curly black hair, black eyes, and think lips, hump-shouldered, knock-kneed and goller-headed. It is hoped the public will be on their guard against him, and that he may be arrested, and the stolen property restored. Moore County, January 1828.
Fayetteville Weekly Observer, 17 January 1828.
NOTICE. $10 REWARD. Stolen from the subscriber on the night of the 23d inst., a small bright Chestnut Sorrel MARE, about 3 years old, with a star on her face. Supposed to have been stolen by a Free Negro by the name of Penn Walden. Said Walden is a bright mulatto, about 35 years of age, about 5 ½ feet high. I will pay the above Reward for the delivery of the Mare at Carthage, N.C., or $5 for sufficient proof to convict him of the theft. JOHN CAMPBELL. Aug. 24, 1860.
Carolina Observer, Fayetteville, 27 August 1860.
State of North Carolina, Halifax County } On this 20th day of May, 1846, personally appeared before me Lemuel P. Johnston an acting Justice of the Peace in and for the County aforesaid, Mrs. Winaford Holley, a resident of said County and State, aged eighty eight years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth, certify that She was an eye witness to the marriage of Drury Walden to his wife Elizabeth, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Harriss; that they ran away and was married some time in the year (1780) Seventeen hundred and eighty (she well remembers) in an old field a little from the Road, in the County of Northampton North Carolina, by Herbert Harris, who was, at that time, an acting Magistrate in Said County of Northampton; and that the said Drury and wife (after their intermarriage) took supper that evening, at her Winaford Holley’s Mother’s House. That she well recollects, that at the time of the aforesaid Marriage (To Wit) in the year (1780) her husband Jesse Holley, was then a soldier in the army.
She further certifies that upon her oath, that the said Drury Walden’s family, and his wife, the aforesaid Elizabeth’s family, were at (the time of their intermarriage,) living within an half Mile of her Mother’s house; and that she very well remembers, that the aforesaid Drury Walden, did serve one, and she believes two tours in the Army of the Revolution, after he intermarried with the aforesaid Elizabeth Harriss, for all of the above named families, were living at the same places, that they were, at the time of the aforesaid marriage, when the said Drury Walden returned home, from the service; and that she saw him, when he arrived at home from the said service. Winafred X Holley
Sworn to and subscribed on the say and year above written before me L.P. Johnston
EX-SLAVE STORY AS TOLD BY MILLIE MARKHAM OF 615 ST. JOSEPH ST., DURHAM, N.C.
I was never a slave. Although I was born somewhere about 1855, I was not born in slavery, but my father was. I’m afraid this story will be more about my father and mother than it will be about myself.
My mother was a white woman. Her name was Tempie James. She lived on her father’s big plantation on the Roanoke River at Rich Square, North Carolina. Her father owned acres of land and many slaves. His stables were the best anywhere around; they were filled with horses, and the head coachman was named Squire James. Squire was a good looking, well behaved Negro who had a white father. He was tall and light colored. Tempie James fell in love with this Negro coachman. Nobody knows how long they had been in love before Tempie’s father found it out, but when he did he locked Tempie in her room. For days he and Miss Charlottie, his wife, raved, begged and pleaded, but Tempie just said she loved Squire. ‘Why will you act so?’ Miss Charlottie was crying. ‘Haven’t we done everything for you and given you everything you wanted?’
Tempie shook her head and said: ‘You haven’t given me Squire. He’s all I do want.’
Then it was that in the dark of the night Mr. James sent Squire away; he sent him to another state and sold him.
But Tempie found it out. She took what money she could find and ran away. She went to the owner of Squire and bought him, then she set him free and changed his name to Walden, Squire Walden. But then it was against the law for a white woman to marry a Negro unless they had a strain of Negro blood, so Tempie cut Squire’s finger and drained out some blood. She mixed this with some whiskey and drank it, then she got on the stand and swore she had Negro blood in her, so they were married. She never went back home and her people disowned her.
Tempie James Walden, my mother, was a beautiful woman. She was tall and fair with long light hair. She had fifteen children, seven boys and eight girls, and all of them lived to be old enough to see their great-grandchildren. I am the youngest and only one living now. Most of us came back to North Carolina. Two of my sisters married and came back to Rich Square to live. They lived not far from the James plantation on Roanoke River. Once when we were children my sister and I were visiting in Rich Square. One day we went out to pick huckleberries. A woman came riding down the road on a horse. She was a tall woman in a long grey riding habit. She had grey hair and grey eyes. She stopped and looked at us. ‘My,’ she said, ‘whose pretty little girls are you?’
‘We’re Squire Walden’s children,’ I said.
She looked at me so long and hard that I thought she was going to hit me with her whip, but she didn’t, she hit the horse. He jumped and ran so fast I thought she was going to fall off, but she went around the curve and I never saw her again. I never knew until later that she was Mis’ Charlottie James, my grandmother.
I don’t know anything about slavery times, for I was born free of free parents and raised on my father’s own plantation. I’ve been living in Durham over sixty-five years.
From Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves (1841).
Squire Walden married Tempy James on 28 March 1832 in Halifax County. John Keemer was bondsman, and clerk of court J.H. Harwell witnessed.
In the 1850 census of Northampton County: Squire Walden, 38, laborer, wife Temperance, 34, and children Samuel, 14, William, 13, Amanda, 12, Martha, 11, James, 9, Hester, 8, Peyton, 5, and Whitman, 1, plus William Walden, 78, farmer. All born in NC, except the elder William, who was born in Virginia. All were described as mulatto.
“Rev. J. W. Wellons, of Elon College, N. C., relates an interesting experience he had in attempting to preach to a group of free negroes in Randolph county many years before the Civil War. The free negroes referred to were known as Waldens. They owned considerable land and were withal respectable farmers. The Quakers had allowed them to sit in the congregation with the white folks, and also to come to the white “mourner’s bench.” On the particular occasion in question, Reverend Mr. Wellons assigned them a certain space in which to sit, and invited them to a separate “mourner’s bench,” whereupon they became insulted, raised their tents, and left the camp meeting. As a rule, the free negroes did not attend church, possibly for the reason that in nearly all the churches they had to sit with the slaves.”
Taylor, Rosser Howard, The Free Negro in North Carolina (1920). http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/taylorrh/taylorrh.html
Fourth Generation Inclusive 