Month: September 2019

Send me my money.

In 1858, Robert Fuller was subpoenaed as a witness in an unspecified court case brought by E.H. Flowers, apparently involving an enslaved person. Here is the note he sent back to the court:

Mrs Clearke you will pleas send me my money Due me a bout being a Witness in the Niggar suit by E.H. Flowers this the 28th of March 1859    Robbart Fullar

  • E.H. Flowers — in the 1860 census of Gardners township, Wilson County, E.H. Flowers is listed as 23 year-old farmer. He reported owning $3364 in personal property, which would have consisted primarily of enslaved people.
  • Robbart Fullar — in the 1860 census of Gardners township, Wilson County, Robert H. Fuller is listed as a 24 year-old carpenter.

Court Cases Involving Slaves-1859, Slave Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

Apprentices.

Under laws authorizing the involuntary apprenticeship of poor orphans and the children of unmarried parents, county courts in antebellum North Carolina removed thousands of children from the homes to be bound to serve their neighbors. Hundreds of indentures dot the pages of Wayne County court minute books, and free children of color were disproportionately pulled into the system. Apprenticeship created an inexpensive, long-term and tractable labor supply for white yeoman farmers, many of whom could not (or could not yet) afford to purchase enslaved people.

Wayne County lost its northern tip to the newly created Wilson County in 1855. By pinpointing the locations of the farms of the men (and rare women) to whom they were indentured, we are able to identify the following free children of color as residents of the area that would become Wilson County’s Black Creek township and parts of Crossroads township.

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William Ayers, 13, was bound to Fred Hollomon in 1843.

William Ayers, 13, was (re-)bound to Enos Rose in 1843.

  • In the 1860 census of Black Creek district, Wilson County: William Ayres, 30, farm laborer, in the household of Stephen Privett, farmer. In the 1880 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farmer William Ayers, 46.

Betsey Morris, 9, was bound to Thomas Horn in 1842.

  • In the 1850 census of North Side of Neuse, Wayne County: Elizabeth Morris, 17, is listed in the household of Thomas Horn, farmer.
  • In the 1860 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Martha Morris, 60; probable daughter Elizabeth, 25, and granddaughter Martha, 2. Next door, in the household of farmer John Saunders: Zillah Morris, 4, likely a second-generation apprentice. (Martha was white; Elizabeth and her daughters, mulatto.)
  • In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: domestic servant Elizabeth Morris, 33, and children Zilla A., 17, Martha, 13, Henry, 7, and Elizabeth, 1; all mulatto.
  • Possibly, in the 1900 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer William Morris, 47; wife Martha, 42; children Mattie, 16, Buddie, 6, and Frank, 1; and mother Elizab. Morris, 70; all white. (Elizabeth Morris and Martha Morris are approximately the right age to be Elizabeth and daughter above, but death certificates show Martha Morris’ maiden name to be Peele.)

Apprentice Records, Wayne County Records, North Carolina State Archives; federal censuses.

 

The last will and testament of Benjamin Hardy.

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State of North Carolina, Wilson County }

Know all men by these presents that I Benjmon Hardy being of sound mind and memory but knowing that it is apointed to man to die do make and declare this my last will and testament as follows first that all my just debts be paid sect I give to my beloved wif one half of my property both real and personal third I give to my wife daughter Litha the other half of my property booth real and personal and after the death of my wife then hir half to hir Daughter Litha fouth I here by Appoint Solomon Lamm executor to this my last will

this the 28th day of April eight teen hundard and eighty four   Benjmon (X) Hardy

Test    A.J. Ellis, Huel Newsom

The inventory of Benjamin Hardy’s estate, 28 December 1885.

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In the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farm laborers Benjn. Hardy, 25, wife Mary A., 30, and daughter Letha, 14.

In the 1880 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farmer Benjamin Hardy, 28; wife Mary Ann, 40; daughter Tillitha, 22; and mother-in-law Hester Hinnant, 65.

Estate of Benjamin Hardy, images available at North Carolina Wills and Estates, 1665-1998 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com.

State v. William Baker and Patsey Mitchell.

At Fall Term 1856 of Wilson County Superior Court, a grand jury charged William Baker and Patsey Mitchell, both of Wilson County, “being lewd and vicious persons not united together in the bonds of marriage” before and after 1 April 1856 “unlawfully lewdly and lasciviously associate bed and cohabit together … to the evil example of all others.”  William Felton and Elisha Owens were subpoenaed as witnesses, and jury foreman William Ellis returned a true bill to the clerk of court.

William Baker was white; Martha “Patsey” Mitchell was African-American.

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In the 1850 census of Edgecombe County, North Carolina: Willis Hagins, 50, and Patsy Mitchell, 45, and her children Sally, 20, Rufus, 9, Amanda 6, Wm., 2, and Mary, 1. Next door, laborer Wm. Baker, 26, white, in the household of Joseph Peacock.

In the 1860 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: Martha Mitchell, 44, and her children William, 13, Franklin, 11, George, 10, Thomas, 9, and Martha, 6. Also in Gardners, William Baker, 30, in the household of John Bynum, 22.

[A note: During my recent visit to North Carolina, I stopped for several hours for a long-overdue visit to the State Archives in Raleigh. I was pressed for time, so I skimmed folders with an eye for names of African-Americans (or indicia like “col.”), then flagged those documents for copies that I could study later. In the Adultery records, I pulled just a few years from 1856-1868 and ultimately copied only six or seven sets of documents. Baker-Mitchell is the fourth of them that involves an interracial relationship. The fact of these relationships does not surprise, but their seeming overrepresentation among prosecutions for adultery does. Perhaps it’s no more than a fluke of my search. I look forward to a return visit to search further.]

Adultery Records-1857, Miscellaneous Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

The ladies of Mitchell Adult Club.

This photo accompanied a 2 July 1976 Wilson Daily Times article on the history of the “home economics movement” in Wilson County. Home economics extension agent Jane Amos Boyd organized the club.

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“Mitchell Adult [Home Demonstration] Club was once selected as the most outstanding club in Wilson County.”

In May 1940, Jane A. Boyd submitted a report to the Daily Times of the activities of the Negro home demonstration clubs. The Mitchell and Yelverton clubs participating in a clean-up campaign reported stacking wood piles; cleaning under their houses (which stood without skirting on brick or stacked stone piers); moving their clotheslines to the backyard; cleaning barn lots; moving wash pots; trimming shrubbery; building new floors and porch steps; whitewashing outhouses; repairing steps and porches; painting houses; making window, screen doors and fly traps; covering garbage pails; and taking health exams.

The Wilson club met at Julia Barnes’ house. Items on the agenda: growing vegetables on a lot donated by Short Barnes and making pillowcases for Mercy Hospital.

Wilson Daily Times, 9 May 1940.