Carpenter Jerry Bullock escaped from an Edgecombe County plantation to join the United States Colored Troops in Washington, North Carolina, in June 1864. He was not a young man — 41 — and was already married with children, but dutifully served in Company E of the 37th U.S.C. Infantry.

A dozen years after his death in 1877, Bullock’s widow Martha Bullock applied for a widow’s pension, which was granted.

On 1 October 1901, Martha Bullock gave another statement about her husband and her life after his death. By then, she was living in Suffolk, Virginia:

“On this 1 day of Oct., 1901, at Suffolk, county of Nansemond, State of Va., before me, T. H. Gault, a special examiner of the Bureau of Pensions, personally appeared Martha Bullock, who, being by me first duly sworn to answer truly all interrogatories propounded to her during this special examination of aforesaid claim for pension, deposes and says:

“I am 63 years of age; housekeeping, and I reside as stated above.

“I am in receipt of a pension of eight dollars a month as the widow of Jerry Bullock who served during the War of the Rebellion in Co. E, 37 U.S.C. Inf., & who died about 23 years ago near Elm City, Wilson Co., N.C.

“I do not know what he died of. Moses Morris, Tom Gray Dixon, Hardy Dixon, Wiley Gray Dixon all knew my husband well.

“My husband was treated during last illness by Dr. Gardiner.

“My husband was about six feet tall, was light complexioned, had black hair & eyes & prior to enlistment was a carpenter.

“My husband was the son of Josh Bullock a white man. His mother was an Indian woman. My husband never went under any name except that of Jerry Bullock.

“I was raised a slave and belonged to the Peacocks of Wilson, the same county that I was born in. My husband was from Edgecombe Co., N.C.

“My father was Bob Holland. My maiden name was Martha Peacock & I was married under that name. I was never married before I married my husband.

“He had been married two or three times before we were married. Mary K. Applewhite was one of his wives & they separated. I know he had another named Sarah who belonged to a man named Bynum, but they separated & then we married.

“We had no ceremony. Colored people those days had no ceremony. He got consent of my owner & we announced ourselves as husband & wife.

“That was several years before the war. I was only about 15 years of age when we were married, but at that time he was going on pretty well in age. After our marriage we lived right on in Wilson Co. till War commenced. After War had been going on some little time my husband went to Wash. N.C. & joined the union army. Was there 3 years. He received his discharge at Wilmington, N.C. and then he went to Portland, Me., where he remained seven months.

“He said he wrote me when he was in the army but I never received any of the letters. My husband came to see me once while he was in the army. He was then on a 30 day furlough and the Regt. was then at Goldsboro, N.C. He wore a blue uniform when at home on furlough.

“After he came from Maine we remained in Wilson Co. till he died. He died in 1/2 mile of Elm City. I have had nine children, seven are alive.

“Betty my youngest was a baby when my husband died. I have never remarried since my husband died.

“Jolly Taylor visited me for several years after death of my husband. He went to Kansas when the colored people went in such numbers years ago. Taylor married some 14 or 15 yrs. ago.

“Taylor lived a mile & a half from Elm City. He never boarded in same house with me. Mr. Taylor visited me up to time of his marriage. Yes, he visited me pretty often.

“I admit that at times we had sexual relations and he used to spend the night with me but we were never married. I never had any thing to do with him after his marriage, though at times he continued to visit me. I never had any children by Taylor. No, I never went under Taylor’s name.

“Taylor was very good to me and at times gave me things — gave me money at times & at other times would give me a dress or change like that.

“I was very poor when Taylor visited me and it was my poverty that drove me to having sexual relations with him. I needed money to help me along as I had five little children and those days I had no pension.

“Taylor is principal man who used to visit me though Willis Mordecai also at times came but he had a wife so I finally made him quit coming.

“Mr. Woodward got my claim for me. I paid him fifty dollars when I received my first payment. I got $180 first payment & gave Mr. Woodward $50 out of that amount.

“My vouchers are executed by Mr. Hozier. He charges 40 cents for each voucher. He always swears me. I have never furnished my pension papers.

“From death of my husband till I moved here 2 years ago I lived right at Elm City, N.C.

“I have fully understood questions & answers have been correctly recorded.”

Martha (X) Bullock

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A few thoughts about Martha Bullock’s testimony:

• Joshua K. Bullock was a well-known and wealthy enslaver in the Town Creek area of lower Edgecombe County. Martha’s testimony implies, but does not state explicitly, that Joshua was Jerry Bullock’s enslaver as well as biological father.
• Jerry’s mother, unfortunately, is not named. Jerry was born in the early 1820s, and his mother perhaps around 1800. She may have descended from the Tuscarora or Cotechney people who lived in what is now lower Edgecombe County.
• Jerry Bullock’s serial marriages highlight the importance of not assuming that all children listed in a household in the 1870 census were the biological children of both (or even either) parents.
• Jerry Bullock and Martha Peacock are not listed in the cohabitation registers of either Wilson or Edgecombe Counties.
• The Peacocks lived in the Stantonsburg area. Bob Holland’s surname suggests a link to white Hollands who lived in the Black Creek area. His name also suggests that he had a different enslaver than his wife and children, which was common.
• Jerry Bullock’s decision to join the Colored Troops at his age and family status hints at a deep commitment to the necessity of enslaved people playing an active role in fighting for freedom. (And doing so openly, as his uniform wear reveals.) His decision to spend an additional seven months after discharge nearly 800 miles away in Maine is less explicable.
• Martha Bullock likely experienced deep embarrassment when pressed about the nature of her relationships with Jolly Taylor and Willis Mordecai after her husband’s death and the lengths to which her poverty drove her.
• Commonly, black veterans and their widows sought the help of white people to assist them with applying for pensions, which required substantial reading and writing skills. Some were flat cheated out of the money owed them. Others, like Bullock, paid the equivalent of about $1800 — a fortune — to men like the Woodard brothers, whose families had already been enriched by the labor and bodies of generations of enslaved people.
• Martha Bullock then paid five percent to Mr. Hozier, whoever he was, to basically cash her check.

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