Court Actions

Affidavits of good behavior, no. 1.

NOTE: I found these documents before my trip to Aberdeen. They, in fact, spurred me to go.

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I’ve been hunting for digitized evidence of the trade of Wilson County slavers like Wyatt Moye, Robert S. Adams, Stephenton Page Jr., and Joshua Barnes in Aberdeen, Mississippi. I finally found some in a deed book dated 1847-1850. (Wilson County, of course, had not yet formed, but these and other traders lived or had lived in parts of Edgecombe, Nash, Wayne, or Johnston Counties that are now Wilson County.) These registered affidavits attest to the affiants’ personal acquaintance with an enslaved person who had been sent from North Carolina to Mississippi for further sale.

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Deed Record 13, page 643. Chancery Clerk’s Office, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Know all men by these presents that we Zadock Peacock and Washington M. Stanton, Citizens and free holders of the State of North Carolina & County of Edgecombe hereby certify we are acquainted a negro woman by the name of Beady that Wyatt Moye sent to Mississippi by Stephenton Page, Junior, that said Slave is about nineteen years of age, very tall black slave, furthermore certify said Slave has never been guilty of convicted of arson Burglary or felony in Said State within our knowledge or belief. Given under our hands & Seals Feby 28th 1849.    /s/ Zadoc Peacock, W.M. Stanton

Deed Record 13, page 644. Chancery Clerk’s Office, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Know all men by these presents that we Josh Barnes and L.D. Farmer, citizens and free holders of the County of Edgecombe & State of North Carolina do hereby certify we are acquainted with negro boy about Seventeen or Eighteen years of age, a very black Slave weighs about one hundred & twenty or thirty pounds said Slave Joshua was sold by Delpha Wiggins to Moye & Adams furthermore that said Slave has not been guilty or convicted of murder arson Burglary or other felony within our knowledge or belief in said State. Signed this 27th day of  Feby 1849.    /s/Joshua Barnes, L.D. Farmer

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  • Zadock Peacock — Zadock Peacock (1790-1852) lived in the Saratoga area. He was a slaveowner, but does not appear to have been a trader.
  • Washington M. Stanton — Washington May Stanton (1808-1854) lived in the Stantonsburg area. He was a committed slaveowner, but does not appear to have been a trader.
  • Wyatt Moye — Moye was a former sheriff of Greene County, N.C.; the North Carolina state legislator who introduced the bill to incorporate the Town of Wilson; and, notoriously, a slave trader and money lender. He seems to have settled in Monroe County, Mississippi, full time shortly around 1850, but spent his last decade between his Aberdeen home and his business concerns in Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana.
  • Stephenton Page Jr. — Page probably lived in the Saratoga area. He is listed in the 1850 census of Edgecombe County as a constable. Page worked as an agent or factor with Moye & Adams, but in 1850 went to court in a dispute with them over their share of proceeds from a slave sale he handled in Mississippi.
  • Joshua Barnes — “Father of Wilson County.” Farmer and state legislator, Barnes was a large-scale slaveowner and was involved in the numerous sales of enslaved people south via the United States’ internal slave trade.
  • L.D. Farmer — Larry Dew Farmer (1818-1887). Farmer appears in the 1850 census of Edgecombe County. By 1860, Farmer lived in the Town  of Wilson and reported to the censustaker that he owned $32,350 in personal property, most in the form of enslaved people.
  • Delpha Wiggins — Delphia Wiggins appears as a 22 year-old in the household of her kinsman Larry D. Farmer in the 1850 census of Edgecombe County. The timing of her sale of Joshua, shortly after her 21st birthday, suggests he represented her share of inheritance from her father Blake H. Wiggins, who died in 1828. She had no use for a teenaged farmhand, and the best prices were down south.
  • Moye & Adams — Wyatt Moye and Robert S. Adams were partners in this slave-selling firm, which was based in Aberdeen, Mississippi.

Documents reproduced at www.familysearch.org.

Witnesses to divorce.

Haywood Freeman, Sidney Freeman, Nettie M. Vick, Hagar Edwards, and Mary Ward were called as witnesses to the divorce action filed by Charles H. Smith against his wife Virginia Smith.

Haywood and Sidney Freeman were the father and brother of Joseph Freeman, who was named as one of the men with whom Jenny Smith allegedly committed adultery. Hagar Edwards’ home in Greene County was the site of an alleged tryst. The focus of Nettie Vick and Mary Ward’s anticipated testimony is not known.

Three witnesses requested that their witness fees be paid over to someone else — in two cases, the man for whom they testified, Charles H. Smith himself. At a minimum, this request would raise an eyebrow today.

“please pay to C.H. Smith what is due me as a witness in his case”

“please pay to C.H. Smith the amount due me as a witness in his case”

Nettie M. Vick requested that her fee go to her brother W. Henry Vick. (Samuel H. Vick was another of her brothers.)

“please pay to Henry Vick the amount due Nettie Vick Witness of C.H. Smith case”

Eason vs. Edmundson: a dispute over the sale of seven enslaved people.

I have read hundreds, maybe thousands, of records documenting the lives of enslaved African Americans, many in my own family. I am fairly inured to the trauma that reading these documents inflicts — but not always to the trauma they record. The court pleadings I received from The Race and Slavery Petitions Project got under my skin in an unexpected way. They are a rich source for those seeking to reconstruct family history — names, ages, and family relationships, labor assignments. But they also reek of the casual odiousness of chattel slavery — enslavers squabbling over the sale of human beings, speculating on the monetary value of “this species of property,” splitting families.

Below, a summary of the dispute detailed in files 21284116 and 21284312. Read with care.

In 1830, Abner Eason was struggling with debt and feared that his property—specifically, seven enslaved people—would be seized to pay what he owed. In February of that year, he borrowed $500 from Wright Edmundson, signing a promissory note to repay that amount.

In May 1830, according to Eason, Edmundson requested further security for the loan. He proposed that Eason mortgage several enslaved individuals and, in exchange for this lien, Edmundson offered Eason an additional $300, with a twenty percent discount on the repayment. Eason agreed.

In early August 1830, per Eason, Edmundson asked for direct custody and control over the enslaved individuals to allow them to work and pay off the interest on the loan.

On 27 August 1830, Eason executed a deed of sale to Edmundson, transferring five enslaved people for $975.

Received of Wright Edmundson nine hundred dollars and seventy five dollars as payment in full for the following Negroes, slaves, to wit, Sampson a man aged nineteen, Nancy a woman ages twenty four years and her three children to wit Phereby a girl aged five years, Chainey aged four years, Lonon a boy aged three years, and I do by these presents warrant and defend the right and title of the said Negros unto the said Edmondson, his heirs and assigns against the claim or claims of all others, and I do also warrant the said negros to be sound and healthy and slaves for life. I[illegible] which I have here unto set my hand and seal, August 27th, 1830 A. Eason Witness M. Thomas Jas. B. Tartt

Later that month, Edmundson reported that Nancy feared her two other sons, Henry and Sherrod, might be sold to a slave speculator. Edmundson offered to take Henry and Sherrod in exchange for one of his own enslaved women, Milly, and to pay Eason $240 to compensate for the difference in value. At that time, Henry and Sherrod were valued at approximately $500, while Milly was valued at $260. Eason accepted the offer.

Over the next eleven years, Nancy gave birth to six more children. Eason repeatedly tried to repay the debt—with interest—and get all the people back, including Nancy and her children. Edmundson refused to return them, insisting the deal had been a permanent sale.

In 1841, Eason petitioned the court to enforce his original understanding of his arrangement with Edmundson — that this was a mortgage, not a sale. He asked the court to require Edmundson to return Sampson, Nancy, and her children to him once he repaid the money and to account for any profits Edmundson may have made from their forced labor over the years. Wyatt Moye and A. Speight signed as sureties to pay court costs and judgments if Eason lost his suit.

In the answer filed in court, Wright Edmundson outlined a very different story. He claimed that he purchased the five enslaved people from Eason for $1375, which “in truth was twenty five dollars more than the value of said negroes as valued by a negro speculator James Tart,” then a resident of Alabama, who wanted to purchase them but would not pay more than $1300. The sale, Edmundson claimed, was never meant to be conditional. Rather, it was “absolute and bona fide and intended to convey to [Edmundson] the absolute property in said slaves without any reservation.” There was no agreement that Eason could “redeem” the five upon payment of the purchase price with interest.

Edmundson further countered that several months before his purchase, Eason had borrowed “five or six hundred dollars” and, to secure payment, had conveyed to Edmundson Samson and Sherrod (or Sherrod and Henry.) A few months later, Eason, “of his own accord,” offered to sell Edmundson Samson, Nancy, and her three children. The sale price was offset by the loan amount — $975.

Three days later, Eason told Edmundson that Eason’s wife “wanted a negro girl to wait in the house.” Eason agreed to trade Sherwood [Sherrod],  age 9, and Henry, age 8, to Edmundson for Milly, age 13, plus cash. (The values of the children were assessed by Abner Eason’s “father-in-law” [actually, stepfather] James Scarborough, who had since died.)

In the eleven years since, Edmundson had been “in the peaceable adverse possession of said slaves claiming & using them as his own….” He denied any fraud or deceit.

A postscript on Edmundson’s answer, written in a different hand, further states: “Girl Milly in the valuation was estimated at $175 which price this defendant [Edmundson] had given a few days before at public auction. She was 12 years old & very likely & is now the mother of some children & belongs to J.C. Knight.”

In 1843, in response to an amended pleading filed by Eason, Edmundson answered with additional details. Eason, Edmundson asserted, had been “exceedingly troubled by the idea of a public sale where the slaves might be bought by several persons & separated from each other and carried away by speculators.” Edmundson had agreed to pay a fair price for five people, three of whom were children, and the oldest of them only 5.

Jesse C. Knight bought Milly for about $200 not long after she was swapped for the two boys. Knight still owned her, and she had had several children.

Since 1830, Nancy had given birth to five more children — Alfred, Rose, Calvin, Nanna, Ann, and Howell. Fereby had had a daughter Lucinda, and Chainey, a son Arnold.

Edmundson was not sure Eason had been honest about the ages of the enslaved people. If Sherwood and Henry were actually 9 and 8, “they were very badly grown.” Further, the ages of Fereby and Chainy were “utterly inconsistent with both nature and fact.” Nancy had Fereby, Chainy, and London “after the common and usual intervals of birth,” i.e. every 1-2 years. Before Fereby, Nancy had given birth to Sherwood and Henry, and before them, she had two other children, one then in Asa Daniels’ possession and the other in Garry Simms’. If Fereby were 10 (in 1830) and Nancy were 25, Nancy must have had her first child at age 9 or 10. [Except the bill of sale stated Fereby was 5. Per stated ages in the documents, Sherrod/Sherwood was born about 1821; Henry, about 1822; Fereby, about 1825; Chainy, about 1826; and London, about 1828. The “usual intervals” would place the births of Nancy’s eldest two children circa 1817-1820. This is still terribly young if Nancy were born circa 1805. Note also that Nancy bore at least 10 children who survived into at least early childhood. Neither Eason nor Edmundson mentioned their father or fathers.]

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I have not been able to identify Samson, Nancy, or any of Nancy’s children and grandchildren after Emancipation.

I can identify, however, the men who exercised control over their lives.

  • Abner Eason — Abner Isaac Eason was born about 1808 to Abner Eason and Martha Tartt Eason. He inherited two enslaved men (or boys), Abraham and Samson, from his father, who died in 1819. (The will also provided that young Abner would receive Nance and her child Venus after Martha Eason’s death. Nance is possibly the Nancy above.) Martha Tartt Eason married James Scarborough after her husband’s death. Abner I. Eason lived and operated a store in extreme southeastern Edgecombe County, in the vicinity of today’s Saratoga. He appears in the 1850 slave schedule of Edgecombe County with one enslaved person, a 35 year-old woman.
  • Wright Edmundson — Edmundson owned a plantation on what is now Highway 58 between Wilson and Stantonsburg. His house is still standing. More to come on his tangled estate proceedings.
  • Wyatt Moye — A former Edgecombe County sheriff, Moye sponsored the legislation that created Wilson County in 1855. He was partner in the slave-trading firm Moye & Adams and appears in the 1850 slave schedule of Edgecombe County with 16 enslaved people.
  • A. Speight — Arthur Speight appears in the 1840 census of Greene County, N.C., with 49 enslaved people. After his death in 1848, his sons Abner and Arthur D. Speight sued their kinsman Abner Eason for debts owed their father.
  • James Tartt — James B. Tartt, a relative of Eason’s mother, migrated to Alabama in the late 1820s, though he continued to conduct business in lower Edgecombe County for at least a decade — including speculative purchase of enslaved people to sell in the booming markets of the lower South.
  • James Scarborough — James Scarborough’s plantation lay just west of Saratoga, and his house, too, stands. He is known to have enslaved at least twenty people.
  • J.C. Knight — Jesse Cooper Knight lived near Tarboro in an area that remained Edgecombe County after the creation of Wilson County. He is listed in the 1850 slave schedule of Edgecombe County with 42 enslaved people. His 1856 will distributed among his wife, children, and grandchildren dozens of enslaved people: Little Ned, Hannah, Peter, Dick, Siah, Yellow Jerry, Ralf, Rachel, Handy, Rose, Betsey, Harriett, Winny, Big Henry, Harry, Nat, Glasgow, Little Jerry, Matt, Ann, Jack, George, John, Cato, Toney, Alfred, Bob, Big Ned, Daniel, Dave, Hilliard, Adeline, Milly, Luke, Tom, Alice, Margaret, Little Henry, Cherry, Amanda, and an unnamed and unnumbered group purchased from the estate of Bennet B. Lawrence in Nash County.
  • Asa Daniels — probably the Asa Daniel listed in the 1830 census of Greene County with 6 enslaved people.
  • Garry Simms — Geraldus Simms, known as Garry. He is listed in the 1830 census of Edgecombe County with 2 enslaved people (and 5 unnamed free people of color in his household); in the 1840 census of Edgecombe with 7; and in the 1850 with 11. He was killed in 1857 at his home in Wilson County by drunk acquaintances.

The court file in Eason vs. Edmundson runs more than 125 pages and includes dozens of depositions and statements from witnesses. These documents suggest that there had already been a judgment executed against Eason’s enslaved people, and Eason struck a deal to “sell” them to Edmundson — at an inflated price — in order to buy them back when his finances improved. They also offer a glimpse of the workings of slavery in what would soon be Wilson County. More to come.

Edmundson claims ownership.

“Underwritten by a ‘We the People’ grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Race and Slavery Petitions Project was a cooperative venture between the Dr. Loren Schweninger’s Race and Slavery Petitions Project and the Electronic Resources and Information Technology Department of University Libraries at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The Project offers a searchable database of detailed personal information about slaves, slaveholders, and free people of color. Designed as a tool for scholars, historians, teachers, students, genealogists, and interested citizens, the site provides access to information gathered and analyzed over an eighteen-year period from petitions to southern legislatures and country courts filed between 1775 and 1867 in the fifteen slaveholding states in the United States and the District of Columbia.

“The Race and Slavery Petitions Project contains detailed information on about 150,000 individuals, including slaves, free people of color, and whites, extracted from 2,975 legislative petitions and 14,512 county court petitions, as well as from a wide range of related documents, including wills, inventories, deeds, bills of sale, depositions, court proceedings, amended petitions, among others. Buried in these documents are the names and other data on roughly 80,000 slaves, 8,000 free people of color, and 62,000 whites, both slave owners and non-slave owners.”

Here’s document set 0686 (Accession #21284312): “Edgecombe County, North Carolina. In February 1830, Abner Eason borrowed $500 from Wright Edmondson,” signing a note for payment. In May 1830, Eason recalls, Edmondson asked him to put a lien on ‘Certain negroes,’ including Sampson, Nancy and her three children Fereby [Phereby], China [Chainy], and London to secure the note, offering him an additional $300 discounted at 20 percent. In early August 1830, Eason recalls, Edmondson told him to give him a ‘right to his negroes & let him have them to work & pay the interest on the money.’ In late August 1830, Eason recalls, Edmondson said that Nancy was afraid that her two children, Henry and Sherrod, would be sold to a speculator, and Edmondson proposed that the boys be exchanged for his slave Milly and he would pay Eason $240, the boys being worth about $500 and Milly $260. To all this Eason agreed. More than a decade later, Eason seeks to pay his debt and retrieve his slaves but Edmondson claims ownership. Eason brings suit.”

I immediately recognized Abner Eason and Wright Edmondson as slaveholding men who lived in the Saratoga-Stantonsburg area and requested a copy of the file. Many thanks to Project Director Richard Cox, who responded quickly with this file and a related one. More to come!

State vs. John Smith.

To stave off responsibility for caring for poor women and their children, unwed mothers were regularly brought before justices of the peace to answer sharp questions about their circumstances.

On 28 April 1875, Ettie Baker admitted to Wilson County justice of the peace T.J. Meacham that she had given birth to a child whose father was John Smith. Meacham ordered that Smith be arrested and taken to a justice to answer Baker’s charge.

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  • Ettie Baker

Probably, in the 1870 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farm laborer Ephraim Baker, 51; wife Margarett, 45; Bitha, 17, and Pricilla Baker, 15; Elias Williamson, 18; and Etta, 12, Pinah, 10, Louisana, 7, Needham, 5, Margarett, 3, and Benjamin, 2 months.

  • John Smith

Bastardy Bonds, 1866, Miscellaneous Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

The streets of East Wilson.

Over the course of two days in October 1982, Jim Peppler took nearly 300 photographs in Wilson on behalf of the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense Fund. Peppler was on hand to document the fight by African-American citizens to secure representation on the Wilson County Board of Commissioners in Robert D. Haskins et al. v. The County of Wilson, North Carolina, et al. Though his photos were taken decades after the period covered in Black Wide-Awake, several of his streetscapes would have been more familiar to a Wilsonian of 1945 than of 2025, and I share them here.

  • the 500 block of East Nash Street, looking west

This block is nearly unrecognizable now. The three-story building at right is the Odd Fellows building, built in 1894 by Samuel H. Vick.

  • A street off Maury Street, looking toward the railroad

This unpaved lane — in 1982! — is most likely Gay Street. Can anyone confirm?

  • Ash Street, looking toward Darden Alley

All the houses on the west side of Ash Street are long gone. Though vacant, most of the houses on the east remain. The shrubbery, however, has disappeared. The sign midway down the block marked the site of Calvary Holy Church (at 118 Ash Street, a building now housing Antioch Outreach Church Ministries.)

This and related images are mislabeled “Ash Street” in the collection. Instead, they are scenes of Church Street, which runs for only one block, parallel to Nash Street. Only three houses remain on the street, all now abandoned.

Church Street today, per Google Maps Streetview.

Top: plaintiffs Jasper E. Williams, Roy Atkinson, Milton F. Fitch Sr., Roland Edwards, and Rev. Talmage A. Watkins. Bottom: attorney G.K. Butterfield Jr., lead plaintiff Robert D. Haskins, attorney Milton F. “Toby” Fitch Jr.

Peppler, Jim, “Photographs of plaintiffs and cooperating attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) who participated in the legal case Haskins v. County of Wilson in Wilson, North Carolina,” 1982-10-09/1982-10-10, Alabama Department of Archives and History, http://digital.archives.alabama.gov/cdm/ref/collection/photo/id/37888.

 

The Kents try to get their land back.

Brothers Elbert and Ned Kent are the forefathers of most African-American Kents from Wilson County’s Lucama area. Both were born enslaved in neighboring Johnston County to Lightfoot Sanders. Elbert Kent’s mother was Angeline Kent. Ned Kent’s possibly was was Angeline Kent, but may have been named Abbie. In 1902, the Kent brothers sued in Johnston County to regain their father’s 19 acres of land.

In short, the Kents alleged that Lightfoot Sanders died in 1887, leaving widow Wealthy Sanders and two sons (Wealthy’s stepsons) Elbert and Ned Kent. After Wealthy Sanders died, the Kent brothers took possession of the land and rented it out. In 1898, Harrison and Henrietta Avera took control of the property. (See the complaint below.)

The Averas responded that Lightfoot and Wealthy Sanders had bought the land together in November 1871 from J.B. Dunn; that Wealthy worked and contributed to the purchase; and that the parties intended for the deed to be made in the name of both Sanderses. However, by accident, it was made out to Lightfoot Sanders only. Wealthy Sanders executed a will in February 1896 leaving the 19 acres to her daughter (the Kent brothers’ stepsister) Henrietta Avera.

A judge found that the Kents and Henrietta Avera (and her husband) each owned one-half the property and ordered it sold and the proceeds to be divided. Henrietta Avera was to receive the 1903 rents from the property and pay the 1903 taxes. The land sold at auction on 30 January 1904 for $180.

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North Carolina, Johnston County

In the Superior Court, Feb Term 1903

Elbert Kent and Ned Kent
vs
Harrison Avera and Henrietta Avera

Complaint

The plaintiffs complaining of the defendants allege:

I. That Lightfoot Sanders, dec’d, was at and before his death seized in fee simple of the following described land and premises:

Beginning on a stake standing on North side of Sander’s Branch in Bettie Burnette’s line and runs with her line N 3 E. 65 poles to a stake her corner; thence as her line N 88 W 54 poles to a stake Jno. W. Pool’s corner, thence his line S 3 W 52 poles to a large ditch, thence as the ditch N 75 E 10 poles, thence N 62 E 16 poles, thence S 70 E 10 poles, thence S 83 E 12 poles, thence 150 E 5 poles to the beginning point containing (19) acres. See Registry of Johnston Co., Book E. No 3 – page 354 and said Lightfoot Sanders was at the time of his death in possession of said land and premises.

II. That when said Lightfoot Sanders died, he left surviving him a widow Wealthy Sanders who lived upon and occupied the land described in paragraph I of this complaint as his widow during her lifetime.

III. That upon the death of said widow Wealthy Sanders these plaintiffs entered upon said land took possession of said land and premises and rented same to Quinnie[?].

IV. That on or about 28th day of Jan. 1887 Lightfoot Sanders died intestate leaving surviving the plaintiffs his only children and heirs at law.

V. That on or about Jan. 1st 1898 the defendants entered into possession and are now in possession of said land and premises without leave of the plaintiffs or any right or title thereto and do now unlawfully withhold possession thereof from the plaintiffs.

Wherefore plaintiffs demand judgment:

1st. That plaintiffs recover possession of the land and premises

2nd. For the sum of Fifty Dollars as rents for detaining and withholding said land and premises from the owners

3rd. For such other and further relief as plaintiffs are entitled to

4th. For the cost of this action.

E.S. Abell and Wellon & Morgan Attys for Plaintiffs

Elbert Kent one of the plaintiffs being duly sworn says that the facts set forth in the foregoing complaint are true of his own knowledge except as to those matters therein stated upon information and belief and as to those matters he believes it to be true.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this Feb. 16th 1903   Elbert (X) Kent
W.S. Stevens C.S.C.

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  • Lightfoot Sanders

In an 1863 assessment of enslaved property directed by North Carolina’s Confederate government, Lightfoot, age 46, appears in a list of people enslaved by Ashley Sanders, Avera’s district, Johnston County.

In 1866, Lightfoot Sanders and Welthy Sanders registered their 11-year cohabitation with a Johnston County clerk of court.

In the 1870 census of Smithfield township, Johnston County: Lightfoot Sanders, 54, farmer; wife Weltha, 50; and Jack Tomlinson, 75, pauper.

In the 1880 census of Smithfield township, Johnston County: Lightfoot Sanders, 65, farmer, and wife Wealthy, 70.

  • Elbert Kent

On 1 November 1868, Elbert Kent, son of Lightfoot Sanders and Angeline Kent, married Rebecer Kent, daughter of Rebecer Creach, in Wilson County.

In the 1870 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farm laborer Elbert Kent, 25; wife Rebecca, 23; and Mary, 1.

In the 1880 census of Beulah township, Johnston County: laborer Elbert Kent, 36; wife Rebecca, 29; and children Mary, 10, Rufus, 9, Saraha, 7, Flourens 6, Martha M., 4, and Pharrow, 1.

In the 1900 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farmer Elbert Kent, 55, widower, and children Joseph, 18, Albert, 15, Bettie, 8, Rebecca, 7, and Isaiah, 4; plus daughter Martha Barnes, 23, widow, and her children Rebecca, 4, and Joseph, 2.

  • Ned Kent

In the 1880 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer Ned Kent, 25, wife Liddy, 24, and children Isaac, 4, Cassanda, 3, and Jane, 2.

In the 1900 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer Ned Kent, 46, wife Lydia, 43, and children Cassanda, 22, Gennie, 18, George, 17, Roscoe, 15, Frederick, 13, Charley, 11, Clara A., 10, Bud, 8, Louisa, 6, Narcissa, 4, Percy, 2, and Franklin, 1.

In the 1910 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: on the path leading to Raleigh Road, farmer Ned Kent, 56, wife Liddie, 51, and children Casandy, 32, Charley, 21, Clara, 20, James W., 18, Louisa, 16, Narcissus, 14, Percy, 12, Franklin, 10, and Ada, 7.

In the 1920 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer Ned Kent, 59, wife Liddie, 58, children Frank, 20, and Ada, 18, and grandson Willie, 1.

In the 1930 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer Ned Kent, 71; wife Liddie C., 69; son Percy, 32; and grandchildren Percy C., 9, Leda F., 8; David N., 5, and Willie, 12. Ned’s farm was valued at $4500.

In the 1940 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer Ned Kent, 74, wife Liddie, 83, and grandsons Willie, 21, Carnell, 19, and Daniel, 16.

Ned Kent died 22 July 1940 in Springhill township. Per his death certificate, he was 85 years; was married to Lydia Kent, 84; was a farmer; and was born in Johnston County to Elbert Sanders [sic] and Abbie Sanders of Johnston County. He was buried at the home place; Earnest Hinnant was informant.

The 31 heirs of Harriet Wilkinson Barnes, part 1.

Harriet Wilkinson Barnes died in Wilson in 1916. She was survived by her husband Austin Barnes and a slew of nieces and nephews, but left no will. This set of documents related to the disposition of her property — a house and lot at what is now 702 East Green Street — is among the most astonishing I’ve ever encountered.

The lot was auctioned pursuant to court order. George H. Edmundson bought it for $1550 and requested that the deed be made out to his parents Jerry and Zillie Edmundson. Distributing the proceeds of the sale, however, required that Harriet Barnes’ heirs be identified, and W.H. Lee, a court-appointed referee, conducted an investigation that is breath-taking not only for the effort it represented for so small a reward, but for the range of matters it touched upon — slavery, fractured families, Exoduster and other migration, repeat naming patterns. Not to mention surprise witnesses and the fallibility of memory and family stories. In the end, the referee produced a report which, though flawed, outlines three generations of descendants of a woman who was born into, and barely outlived, slavery.

The petition and order of sale are below, and the referee’s report starts on page 459.

I’m going to try to summarize his findings, but I urge you to peruse the document for yourself. The referee interviewed the family of Harriet Barnes’ former enslaver, as well as numerous relatives, to determine which of Barnes’ siblings’ descendants had legitimate claims to her estate. An annotation of the named parties will need a follow-up post. There’s just too much.

First, Harriet Bynum was the daughter of Edna Bynum, who “was a slave woman owned by Mrs. Elizabeth Bynum or her husband.” There was no clear evidence as to the identity of Edna Bynum’s husband, but all their children were born prior to 1 January 1868 (which, apparently, was when Edna died.) Those nine children, including Harriet, were Louis Bynum, Arnold Bynum, Isaac Bynum, Ben Bynum, George Bynum, Sylvia Bynum Best, Chanie Bynum Mitchell, and Mary Bynum Dupree Bynum.

Also, as Harriet Bynum and her second husband, Austin Barnes, had no children, he was not entitled to inherit property she brought to the marriage.

The conclusions re Harriet Barnes’ brother Louis Bynum

Louis Bynum died leaving six children — Lawrence Bynum, Rennie Bynum Farmer, George Bynum, Isabella Bynum Best, Ida [Ada] Bynum Aycock, and Teda Bynum Bynum. Per George Bynum — an 81 year-old man who lived near Saratoga, had also been enslaved by Elizabeth Bynum, but was no relation to Harriet — Louis never married.

The referee relied on evidence in a letter received by John Edwards [the husband of one of her nieces, but who was the letter from?] to conclude that Lawrence Bynum was dead; that he had lived with Rachel Newsome, but never married her; that “he left here many years ago and went to Arkansas”; and that his many children — James C., Louis, Charlie, Lawrence Jr., Mary, Rachel, and Ada, who lived in Scott, Arkansas — were “illegitimate.” Louis’ son George Bynum of Mount Olive, N.C., and his daughter Isabella Best of Stantonsburg also gave testimony about their uncle. (The report refers to them incorrectly as Lawrence Bynum’s children. The substitution of “Lawrence” for “Louis” appears to happen several times in the first paragraph of page 460, as when the referee discounts George’s testimony about having a brother named Scott Bynum who had not been heard from in 28 years.)  [The referee’s conclusions were incorrect several ways. First, we’ve met the Lawrence Bynum family. Lawrence Bynum married Edna Bynum in Wilson County in 1878; they migrated to Lonoke County, Arkansas, with their elder children. Second, Louis Bynum very much had a son Scott. Census records establish his children (and their approximate birth years) as George (1859), Ada (1860), Scott (1862), Marenda “Rennie” (1863), Pet (1865), Isabella (1867), Charles (1869), and Tedy (1871). ]

Rennie Bynum married Robert Farmer and died before 1916. Her surviving children were Nealy Farmer Edwards of Stantonsburg; Maggie Farmer Brown of Stantonsburg; Ida Bynum Hall of Stantonsburg; Katie Farmer Hall of Stantonsburg; Hattie Farmer Wynn of Dudley [Wayne County, N.C.]; Robert Farmer of American Expeditionary Forces, France; and Bessie Farmer Brown of Stantonsburg. [Personal note: my grandmother’s first cousin, Mildred Henderson, married Katie Farmer Hall’s son Louis Hall. Louis Hall founded a vault company in the 1950s that is now a third-generation operation. When I began researching gravestone artist Clarence B. Best, I spoke with Louis Hall Jr., who told me his father had taken over Best’s business when he retired in the early 1970s. I had no idea that Louis Hall and Clarence Best were cousins. See below.]

The conclusions regarding her brother Arnold Bynum

Per Louis’s son George Bynum and Clarence Best, Arnold Bynum died without children.

The conclusions regarding her brother Isaac Bynum

Isaac Bynum was deceased. Per George Bynum, Isaac had a son Ben Bynum. Per witness Calvin Bynum, Isaac “left here 30 or 40 years ago.” As neither Ben nor any other descendant had put in an appearance, the referee determined Isaac Bynum had no descendants who were heirs at law.

The conclusions regarding her brother Ben Bynum

More confusion, as Ben Bynum is described as “son of Lawrence” rather than son of Edna Bynum and brother of Harriet Barnes. Further, the referee noted that the evidence he received was contradictory. George Bynum of Saratoga said Ben was one of Lawrence Bynum’s children [sic]. George Bynum of Mount Olive (Louis Bynum’s son) said Ben Bynum’s descendants were not related to him. A white man named B.A. Scott testified that a Ben Bynum who belonged to Elizabeth Bynum married a woman named Charlotte, who had been enslaved by Scott’s father. Calvin Bynum, age 69, son of Moses Bynum and averred first cousin of Edna Bynum’s children, who had been enslaved by the same family as Edna, said Harriet Bynum’s brother Ben Bynum married Charlotte Scott. “He says that his father, Moses, always told him that this Ben Bynum was a brother of Harriett, and that Harriett was a daughter of a sister of this father.” Other witnesses claimed to be Ben Bynum’s children and said they had visited Harriett and called her “aunt,” and she recognized them as her nieces and nephews, and Ben always claimed Harriett as his sister.

The referee concluded that Ben Bynum, deceased, was Harriett Barnes’ brother and his children were her heirs at law. They included Riley Bynum of New Bern, N.C.; George Bynum of Bonnerton, N.C.; W. Randal Bynum and Ida Bynum of Royal, N.C.; Lina White of Greenville, N.C.; and Mary Jane Jackson of 421 Green Street, Wilson.

The conclusions regarding her brother George Bynum

Per George Bynum of Saratoga, this George Bynum died in childhood.

The conclusions regarding her sister Sylvia Bynum Best

Per Robert E. Bynum, son [actually, nephew] of Eliza [sic; Elizabeth] Bynum, who had enslaved Edna and her daughter Sylvia, Sylvia had been married and had a child named Ben Best, born before the Civil War. Ben Best was deceased, leaving children Jenetta Newsome, Junius Best, Ollie Best, and Clarence Best. (Who had their own legal representative in this matter — attorney E.J. Barnes.) George Bynum of Saratoga and John Edwards testified that Sylvia had two more children, Lou Ellis and Cora Deans, born out of wedlock after the Civil War.

The referee concluded that Ben Best’s children were entitled to their grandmother’s share as heirs at law, and Ellis and Deans were not entitled to anything. [Clarence Best was the well-known grave memorial cutter featured in multiple posts here.]

The conclusions regarding her sister Chanie Bynum Mitchell

Chanie Bynum married a Mitchell and had two children — Fannie and John Mitchell — who were believed to be living.

The conclusions regarding her sister Mary Bynum Dupree Bynum

Again, contradiction among witnesses and confusion created by the referee’s sloppiness. (He calls Mary “Annie” at one point.) The petition to sell Harriet Barnes’ land stated Mary was married to a Dupree, but George Bynum of Saratoga said she married Hack (or Jack) Bynum. Clarence Best testified that Annie [sic; Mary] Dupree married Sam Ward, “went South about ten years ago and has not been heard from.” Isabella Best said Mary Bynum first married a Dupree and had two children, Ben and Sam. Ben migrated to Arkansas; Sam lived and died near Wilson. No known children for either. But: after witness testimony concluded, “a negro man came in who claimed to be Ben Dupree, the son of Mary Bynum by her first marriage.” Ben Dupree testified that he had moved to Leesburg, Florida, many years before; that he had lost touch with his brother Sam Bynum [sic; Dupree]; that he had come to “see about it”; that he had found that his brother had died; and that his brother had seven living children — Ed, 21, Mary, 18, Sam, 13, Minnie Bell, 12, Sallie, 9, Maggie, 8, and Bennie Dupree, 6. Having been fetched, Ed Dupree confirmed that he and his siblings were Sam Dupree‘s children, and Sam had died five years earlier. Ben Dupree also stated that his mother Mary had married Jack Bynum and had two or three children; that about thirty years after Mary died, the children “left and went to the far South or South-west”; and that they had not been heard from since, and no one knew if they were living or dead. The referee thus concluded that Ben Dupree and Sam Dupree’s seven children stood to share Mary Bynum’s share of Harriet Barnes’ estate.

“These parties are negroes,” the referee stated, “and many of them without Counsel.” He acknowledged that the strict rule of procedure had not been followed in collecting evidence from witnesses who testified in multiple hearings and lived in various places around the state of North Carolina, “but I have collected the facts from any and whatever sources available, calling witnesses whenever it was learned that their personal knowledge might throw some light upon case pertaining to the relationships of the parties ….” He then broke down the interest to which each person was entitled, ranging from 1/20 to 1/175. Even if the full $1550 from the sale of Harriet Barnes’ lot were available — which it wasn’t, as court costs had to be paid — the payouts would have ranged from $77.50 down to $8.85.

Wilson County, North Carolina, Property Settlement Records 1905-1923, http://www.familysearch.org.