enslaver

Oldfields enslavers.

The 1860 slave schedule is the only known surviving, contemporaneous list of the men and women who enslaved black people in Wilson County. It is not a list of the enslaved themselves, as none are named in that census. Rather, the schedule described people by “color” (black or mulatto), sex, and age.

Organized by township, this series will set forth these enslavers, the number of people they held in 1860, and the ages of the youngest and oldest people held. Where possible, I will also name people known to be enslaved by each person. They may or may not correspond to people described in the 1860 slave schedule. The paucity of such identifications is heartbreaking, and I continue to search.

Oldfields district was the southeast corner of Nash County prior to 1855. The 1860 slave schedule lists 47 enslavers in this section of Wilson County, the largest of whom — Bartley Deans, who traded enslaved people as a little sideline — held 44 people in bondage. Other than Deans, Oldfield township’s slaveholders were yeoman farmers, not plantation owners.

Phebe Boykin — 3, ages 1 to 62 years

Garry Williamson — 8, ages 8 months to 31 years

Bartley Deans — 44, ages 1 month to 55 years

  • Hester, Jerry, Bunyan, Sithey, Zilley, Mosey, Hack, Ben, Isaac, Molley, Patty, Matey and her youngest child Amos, Creasy and her youngest child June, Mendy, Linda, Charity, Pashey, Lear and her child John, blacksmith Harry, Mingo, Virgil and Rachel and their children Henry and Louis, Thaney, Jason, Nisey, Louisa and Edmund, Darkes, Rhuben, Peter, Silvey and her children Louisa and Piety, Bryant, Ransom, Joseph, James, Randel

Stephen Boykin — 10, ages 8 months to 55 years

  • Anthony, Nancy, Rose, Henry, Chaney, Thom, Jason

Willie [Wiley] Deans — 11, ages 2 months to 33 years

William Haynes — 1, age 14 years

Jesse Haynes — 2, ages 11 and 36 years

Bithel Haynes — 1, age 5 years

Jethro Harrison — 1, age 20 years

Bennett Flowers — 5, age 4 months to 70 years

Temperance Eatmon — 2, ages 18 and 22 years

Elizabeth Simpson — 1, age 65 years

Bennet Bullock [Jr.] — 1, age 45 years

William Peele — 5, age 3 to 30 years

Henry Stott — 6, ages 1 to 40 years

Nancy Flowers — 3, ages 7 to 90 years

Adam Flowers — 1, age 9 years

Alfred Thompson — 5, ages 10 to 75 years

Alfred Thompson, in trust — 9, ages 1 to 35 years

Benjamin Parker — 3, ages 1 to 25 years

Arthur Thompson — 4, ages 1 to 38 years

Hilliard Boykin — 8, ages 1 month to 33 years

Williamson Fulghum — 1, age 16 years

Dempsey Peele — 2, ages 1 and 32 years

Bryant L. Bunn — 1, age 35 years

John Morris — 3, age 3 months to 21 years

Theo Parker — 9, age 2 to 37 years

Stephen Peele — 1, age 17 years

James Boyett — 8, age 2 to 28 years

William Taylor — 7, age 6 to 80 years

Jarman Eatmon — 6, age 1 to 25 years

Thomas Eatmon — 1, age 50 years

Hackney High — 1, age 26 years

Ephraim Davis — 1, age 7 years

Peter Eatmon — 4, ages 11 to 30 years

John Peele — 1, age 50 years

Alison High — 1, age 26 years

Richmond Boykin — 2, ages 14 and 21 years

Stephen Morris — 1, age 56 years

Thomas Mercer — 2, ages 1 and 18 years

Josse Peele — 3, ages 7 to 50

Selitia Eatmon — 5, ages 7 to 60

John B. High — 6, ages 3 months to 28 years

Levi Bailey — 11, ages 1 to 60 years

Needham Bailey — 4, ages 3 to 27 years

Alfred Boykin — 5, ages 7 to 26 years

Robert Simpson — 1, age 70 years

Joyners & Gardners enslavers.

The 1860 slave schedule is the only known surviving, contemporaneous list of the men and women who enslaved black people in Wilson County. It is not a list of the enslaved themselves, as none are named in that census. Rather, the schedule described people by “color” (black or mulatto), sex, and age.

Organized by township, this series will set forth these enslavers, the number of people they held in 1860, and the ages of the youngest and oldest people held. Where possible, I will also name people known to be enslaved by each person. They may or may not correspond to people described in the 1860 slave schedule. The paucity of such identifications is heartbreaking, and I continue to search.

Here we have a combined Joyners & Gardners district, which were part of Edgecombe County prior to 1855. The 1860 slave schedule lists 76 enslavers in this section of Wilson County. The largest were Robert Bynum and James Reddick Barnes:

William G. Sharpe — 9, age 3 to 39 years

Rolin [Rowland] Wiggins — 1, age 75 years

D.W. Barnes — 7, age 1 to 26 years

Jesse Farmer — 5, age 12 to 34 years

Thomas H. Bridgers — 13, age 3 months to 34 years

Bartley Williams — 3, age 3 months to 21 years

Hardy Barnes — 11, age 9 months to 40 years

Augustin Farmer — 9, age 1 to 35 years

John Batts — 1, age 8 years

William Thomas — 7, age 6 to 61 years

Hilliard Thomas — 9, age 10 to 74 years

John B. Batts — 7, age 2 to 55 years

William D. Farmer — 9, age 3 to 50 years

A.J. Williford — 3, age 14 to 50 years

J.H. Barnes — 15, age 1 to 30 years

Thomas G. Dixon — 4, age 5 months to 38 years

Henry Dixon — 2, ages 16 and 37

  • Anny

John J. Sharpe, in trust — 6, age 1 to 45 years

Hansel Wells — 3, age 1 to 45 years

Harris Winstead — 6, age 5 to 25 years

Willie Wells — 1, age 20 years

Catherine Armstrong — 5, age 6 to 53 years

Caroline Armstrong — 2, age 18 and 24

James G. Armstrong — 7, age 6 to 52 years

George W. Armstrong — 6, age 7 to 28 years

John Wilkins — 14, age 2 months to 37 years

W.H. Williams — 1, age 27 years

Nancy Ruffin — 1, age 20 years

James Pender — 14, age 1 to 66 years

Joseph W. Taylor — 1, age 50 years

J.J. [Joseph J.] Pender — 25, age 6 months to 75 years

John G. Williams — 9, age 8 to 63 years

Elizabeth Flowers — 3, age 12 to 20 years

E.H. Flowers — 2, age 1 month and 16 years

Willie G. Barnes — 13, age 9 months to 50 years

  • Quinny, Harry, Scilla and her child

Joseph L. Petway — 1, age 60 years

Franklin Bridgers — 1, age 11 years

Milly Bridgers — 24, age 6 months to 50 years

John Bridgers — 9, age 2 months to 45 years

Holiway Ethridge — 1, age 47 years

Benjamin Sharpe — 15, age 1 to 42 years

Martin Thomas — 8, age 3 to 60 years

David Sharpe — 5, age 5 months to 26 years

Elizabeth Barnes — 10, age 10 months to 60 years

James W. Barnes — 14, age 3 months to 33 years

James J. Taylor — 30, age 8 months to 55 years

Mary A. Rountree — 7, age 8 to 50 years

Hartwell Williford — 4, age 8 to 45 years

Elizabeth Williford — 6, age 5 to 23 years

Benjamin Edwards — 1, age 14 years

A.J. Pender — 12, age 9 months to 16 years

Sallie Gill — 1, age 65 years

D.W. Barnes, in trust — 1, age 18 years

James Woodard — 14, age 4 to 68 years

Hiram Forbs — 10, age 6 months to 35 years

James S. Barnes — 14, age 1 to 51 years

Stephen Cherry — 7, age 9 months to 35 years

W.W. Batts — 7, age 6 to 62 years

Martha Batts — 5, age 16 to 60 years

Elisha Robbins — 5, age 16 to 45 years

Jesse Pitman — 3, age 13 to 55 years

John Carter — 1, age 3 years

Willie Walston — 1, age 50 years

William Skinner — 6, age 1 to 48 years

W.W. Flowers — 1, age 18 years

Martha Thorn — 1, age 16 years

D.W. Barnes, in trust — 4, age 3 to 26 years

Milliann Eason — 4, age 1 to 26 years

William Woodard — 19, age 10 to 65 years

Calvin Woodard — 18, age 2 to 60 years

James R. Barnes — 41, age 1 to 60 years

James R. Barnes, in trust — 32, age 9 months to 55 years

James S. Woodard — 14, age 1 to 35 years

Moses Farmer — 24, age 1 to 60 years

Elizabeth Woodard — 10, age 12 to 60 years

Robert Bynum — 46, age 1 month to 52 years

Notes from Mississippi: Wyatt Moye.

Among the documents I perused at Aberdeen’s Evans Memorial Library were local historian John Rodabough’s newspaper columns from the 1970s. Densely detailed and wide-ranging, Rodabaugh’s articles did not shy away from chronicling Monroe County’s roots as a center of Mississippi’s slave trade.

Let me remind you: Wyatt Moye (1793-1862) lived in Greene and Edgecombe Counties in the general vicinity of Stantonsburg. He served as Greene County sheriff for a while, then as an Edgecombe County legislator, where he sponsored legislation to create Wilson County. He was also a slave dealer. Working with other men from Edgecombe County, Moye was a trader and factor, moving “excess” or troublesome Black people from the Upper South to the Lower, where vast cotton fields awaited them.

The photograph of Wyatt Moye’s house, above, makes plain the abundant wages of human trafficking. In his 14 March 1972 “Port of Aberdeen” column, Rodabough described the house as “[t]he finest raised cottage of antebellum Aberdeen.” “The first floor was brick. The main floor above it was frame with a hipped roof. Brick piers supported the gallery of the main floor. A staircase rose from the walkway to that level. The floor of the lower porch was brick. Inside center halls bisected four rooms on each floor.”

As to Moye himself, Rodabough wrote, “Wyatt Moye was a partner in the banking firm of Cunningham, Moye & Co., which flourished in Aberdeen in the 1850’s. After his first wife’s death, he remarried in 1858 “and put his house up for sale. He moved to Memphis.”

Moye was also a director of Mississippi Mutual Insurance Company, which was incorporated in 1850. Among the lives it insured were those of enslaved people — to the benefit of their enslavers. Per Rodabough’s 31 August 1972 column: “In 1855 this firm was two doors from the northwest corner of Commerce and Locust Streets. On September 20, 1858, they purchased the building of Cunningham, Moye & Co., located [at] the present site of the western third of the First National Bank.” “Cunningham, Moye & Company was formed January 11, 1854, with a cash capital of $200,000. The firm was comprised of William R. Cunningham, Wyatt Moye, Robert S. Adams, and Moses J. Wicks.”

The Yazoo Democrat, 2 February 1853.

The I. Y. Johnson Home (Moye-Johnson) on the corner of Canal and Hickory Street in Aberdeen, Mississippi, built in 1855 by Wyatt Moye; Rodabough (John E.) papers, Special Collections Department, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State University Libraries (electronic version).

Dick Pender and Joshua Barnes.

From the obituary of General Joshua Barnes, Zion’s Landmark, vol. 24, no. 3, 15 December 1890:

“A great benefactor as well as a special friend of so many individuals, General Barnes, in the 78th year of his age on the 13th day of October, 1890, at the residence of his son in law, Mr. A. Branch of Wilson, lingering only a few weeks, after a second attack of paralysis, with no indications of pain, gently breathed out the last of his mortal existence.

…

“He spent his entire life in this community — was aggressive in style, turning up things rather than waiting for them to turn up; and in spite of his liberality and charitableness, this world’s goods continued to accumulate around him; and although in consequence of the late war his loss in slaves and other property was immense, he was nevertheless left in possession of a handsome estate.

…

“Early in life he embraced the Primitive Baptist doctrine … [and] about 14 years ago at Toisnot Bridge near Wilson, by Elder P.D. Gold and Elder Wm. Woodard and Dick Pender, the faithful colored janitor, he together with his brother Wm. Barnes Jr., were immersed. Considering his weight some 250 pounds, that he was so helpless his entire left side still being paralized, and that he had to be baptized in an invalid’s chair, the baptism was considered a most remarkable one. …”

……

  • Dick Pender — Pender was sexton of Wilson Primitive Baptist Church.

The estates of Aaron Ward, Aaron Ruffin, and Warren Ward. (And a raised eyebrow.)

In 1883, the Clerk of Wilson County Superior Court served notice on Dr. David G.W. Ward to make settlements in the estates of three African-American men for whom he served as administrator. The estates were tiny and should have been handled quickly and simply, but Ward apparently had failed to tie up the matters. In response, Ward asserted that none of the estates had assets sufficient to pay his claims as administrator and asked to be released from his duties.

Under state law, estate administrators were entitled to a small percentage of the value of the estate as compensation. Not uncommonly, of their volition or under pressure, poor or unlettered people signed over administration rights to people who better understood the probate process. However, Aaron Ward, Warren Ward, and Aaron Ruffin were landless farmers whose estates ordinarily would not have gone through probate at all. Their families would have simply divided up their personal property, paid off sharecropping or rent obligations, and gone on with life.

How did Dr. Ward come to be involved in these matters? Did he have a prior relationship with the families? Ward owned more than a thousand acres straddling the Wilson and Greene County lines and enslaved dozens before the Civil War. Warren Ward is listed near him in the 1870 and 1880 censuses. Aaron Ward named a son Wyatt, as had D.G.W. Ward, who named his son after his close associate Wyatt Moye, former sheriff, county founder, and slave trader. Had Dr. Ward enslaved these men? Did he leverage his prior command over their lives to urge their families into legal proceedings that allowed him to pick over their meager assets?

In February 1875, Cherry Ward signed over rights of administration to her husband Aaron Ward’s estate, and D.G.W. Ward was appointed administrator after posting bond with his business partner Francis Marion Moye. Ward reported to a Probate Court judge that Aaron Ward had died without a will; that his estate was worth about $500; and his heirs were his widow and children Green, Hannah, Wyatt, Nathan, Jesse, Merriman [Marion], and Adril [Aaron]. The document above is found in Aaron Ward’s estate file — eight years after his death. There is no document showing distribution of his assets to his heirs.

In March 1878, after widow Rachael Ruffin signed over rights of administration, D.G.W. Ward reported to a Probate Court judge that Aaron Ruffin had died without a will; that his estate was worth about $300; and his heirs were Dallas Ruffin, Clara Lane, Mary Artis, Jane Thompson, and, crossed through, Warren Ward. (He did not list widow Rachael Ruffin.) Shortly after, Ward requested and was granted permission to sell Ruffin’s personal property for cash. Ruffin’s estate file contains no record of a final settlement for his heirs.

On 1 February 1881, Sarah Ward relinquished her right to administer her late husband Warren Ward‘s estate and “recommend[ed] D.G.W. Ward as a suitable person to take the same.” Dr. Ward was duly appointed and posted notices to Warren’s debtors and creditors at two general stores in Stantonsburg, Ward & Moye [his business with F.M. Moye] and D. Hill & Company.

Court-appointed commissioners assessed Warren Ward’s property and allotted his widow 200 pounds of bacon and ten barrels of corn. He had no land. Ward’s estate file contains no record of a final settlement with his heirs.

——

  • Aaron Ward

In 1866, Aron Ward and Cherry Moye registered their ten-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace.

In the 1870 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farm laborer Aaron Ward, 46; wife Cherry, 30; and children Green, 12, Wyatt, 11, Hannah, 8, Nathaniel, 4, Jesse, 3, and Marion, 2.

In the 1880 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: Cherry Ward, 40; sons Green, 21, Warot, 18, Nathan, 13, Jessie, 12, Marion, 9, and Aaron, 6; and grandson Edward White, 2.

On 17 February 1880, Hannah Ward, 18, and Warren Barnes, 20, applied for a marriage license, but did not complete or return the document.

On 14 January 1881, Green Ward, 24, son of Warren [sic] and Cherry Ward, married Hattie Kornegay, 23, daughter of Robert and Kezy Kornegay, in Swift Creek township, Pitt County, N.C.

On 5 October 1882, Wyatt Ward, 22, son of Aaron and Cherry Ward, married Kisire Kornega, 21, daughter of Robert and Kisire Kornega, in Saratoga township, Wilson County.

On 29 December 1889, Wyatt Ward, 28, of Saratoga township, son of Aaron and Cherry Ward, married Emma Aycock, 19, of Saratoga township, daughter of Sam and Jane Aycock, in Saratoga township, Wilson County.

In the 1900 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Wyatt Ward, 37; wife Emma, 37; and children Jesse, 17, Georgianna, 13, John, 9, William, 7, and Hattie, 5.

In the 1900 census of Williams township, Lonoke County, Arkansas: farmer Green Ward, 49; wife Hattie, 50; daughters Marion, 15, Ada, 13, Hattie, 11, Cora, 9, Blanchie, 8, Sallie, 5, Birtha, 3, and Minie, 3 months; and mother Cherry, 75, nursing.

In the 1910 census of Williams township, Lonoke County, Arkansas: farmer Green Ward, 51; wife Hattie, 51; and daughters Cora, 17, Sallie, 13, Bertha, 12, and Minnie, 8.

Wyatt Ward died 6 September 1922 in Saratoga township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was 55 years old; was born in Wilson County to Aaron Ward; was married to Ann Ward; and was a farmer. Jesse Ward was informant.

  • Warren Ward

In the 1870 census of Speights Bridge township, Greene County: Warren Ward, 38, farm laborer; wife Sarah, 45; son Larance, 10; and Thomas Holoway, 21.

In the 1880 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: Warren Ward, 53, farmer; wife Sarah, 52, washing; and Manda, 8, Henry, 7, and Lawrence, 19.

  • Aaron Ruffin

I have not found Aaron Ruffin’s family.

Estate Files of Aaron Ward (1875), Aaron Ruffin (1878), and Warren Ward (1881), North Carolina Wills and Probate Records 1665-1998, [database on-line] http://www.ancestry.com.

The children of the estate of Thomas Williamson.

In an earlier post, we examined the will of Thomas Williamson and the sale after his death in 1856 of 16 boys and girls he had enslaved.

On 16 May 1859, nine men bought the children at top dollar:

Williamson lived in what is now far southwest Wilson County. These 16 children, some just toddlers, were pulled from their mothers, fathers, and siblings, and sold across three counties. It breaks my heart that I can trace only one of the children forward into freedom.

  • John T. Barnes purchased Nathan, 8, Denick, 7, Dillicy, 10, and Carolina, 7.

In the 1860 census of the Town of Wilson, Wilson County, John T. Barnes, 29, is listed as the sheriff of Wilson County. He claimed $5000 in real property and $18,000 in personal property. He was living in the household of Jesse H. Adams and presumably owned farmland out in the county. The bulk of his personal property would have been comprised of enslaved people, but I have found no record of their names.

  • W. Swift purchased Ben, age 7, for $800.00, and Harriet, age 9, for $950.00.

Wesley Swift is listed in the 1860 census of the Town of Wilson with his wife and daughter. Though no occupation is ascribed to him, he is listed with $6000 in real property and $30,000 in personal property. In the slave schedule the same year, he claimed 12 enslaved people.

  • Garry Fulghum purchased Amos, 5, and Catherine, 3.

Garry Fulghum does not appear in the 1860 census, but was a 16 year-old living in his parents’ household in Nash County (in the section of the county that would soon become Oldfields township, Wilson County).

  • Wright Blow purchased Joe, 5.

In the 1860 slave schedule of the district east of the Neuse River, Johnston County, North Carolina, Wright Blow claimed 12 enslaved people, including a six year-old boy who likely was Joe. In the federal census, Blow was described as a merchant with $1800 in real property and $12,225 in personal property.

Joe was the son of Charity, who went to Mourning Williamson Peele under the terms of Thomas Williamson’s will. Joe was reunited with his mother after Emancipation, and the family appears in the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Charity Blow, 32, domestic servant, and children Joseph, 18, Lenday, 9, Thomas, 3, and Lucind, 1. By the late 1880s, Joe Blow was serving as constable of Wilson township.

  • James Boyette purchased Allen, 3.

In the 1860 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: James Boyette, 53, farmer, who claimed $2900 in real property and $9500 in personal property.

  • John Wilkins purchased Bethea, 8.

Of three John Wilkinses in the area in 1860, the most likely is the John Wilkins listed in Joyners & Gardners district, Wilson County, with $2400 in real property and $14,750 in personal property. In the 1860 slave schedule, he claimed 14 enslaved people. I have not been able to identify them by name.

  • Joshua Barnes purchased Chaney, 7.

Father of Wilson County General Joshua Barnes enslaved dozens and dozens of Black people. He claimed in $79,000 in personal property in 1860, and the slave schedule shows him with 66 enslaved people housed in ten dwellings on his plantation.

  • William Ricks purchased Renner, 5.

In the 1860 census of Collins township, Nash County, farmer William Ricks, 32, claimed $2000 in real property and $15,650 in personal property. I have not been able to identify the people he enslaved by name.

  • Ransom Hinnant purchased Dizey, 5.

Ransom Hinnant was an enslaver of relatively modest means, appearing in the 1860 census of Kirbys district, Wilson County, with a very precise $2023 in real property and $5487 in personal property. I have not been able to identify any of the people he enslaved by name.

  • A.J. Taylor purchased Lyddey, age 2.

Forty-two year-old farmer Alsey J. Taylor appears in the 1860 census of Bailey district, Nash County, owning $25,000 in real property and $42,850 in personal property. He appears in the slave schedule of Sullivants district with 35 enslaved people housed in ten dwellings. I have not been able to identify them by name.

The David Williams house.

David Williams is best known for his work in the state legislature with General Joshua Barnes create Wilson County from parts of Edgecombe, Nash, Johnston, and Wayne Counties. Williams’ house was in Edgecombe County during his lifetime, but a boundary adjustment in 1883 shifted it into Wilson. His enormous plantation sprawled into both counties, however.

The David Williams house, 1980. It has since been demolished.

Per the National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination Form for Upper Town Creek Rural Historic District, prepared by Kate Ohno in 1982, the house was built between 1845 and 1860. “This square two-story double-pile Greek Revival house is typical of the kind of plantation house popular with the prosperous planters of this area during the fifteen years before the Civil War.

Detail of ceiling medallion, 1980. “The most outstanding feature of the interior is, however, the elaborate plaster ceiling medallions and cornices. The hall boasts the most elaborate round medallion, while the parlor has a simpler round one and an elaborate plaster cornice.”

Despite the dozens and dozens of number of people David Williams enslaved, I have only been able to identify a handful by name. The 1830 will of Drewry Williams, which entered probate in 1831, included bequests to son David of a “Negro girl by the name of Rose one Negro boy by the name of Amos and one Negro man by the name of George.” David Williams was also bequeathed a one-third interest in three enslaved people — Pink, Nan, and Peter — after the death of his mother.

In the 1850 federal slave schedule of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, David Williams is listed with 17 enslaved people.

In the 1860 federal slave schedule of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, Williams reported an astonishing 128 enslaved people, making him one of the largest slaveholders in the area. The quarters on his plantation included 20 houses, none of which was standing at the time the house was nominated for the historic register.

On 13 August 1866, Preston Williams and Betty Petteway registered their 15-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace. W.D. Petway was a close neighbor of David Williams, and the couple may have been enslaved on their adjoining plantations.

In the 1870 census of Joyners township, Wilson County: farmer Preston Williams, 46; wife Bettie, 34; and children Samuel, 17, Warren, 14, Rose, 11, William, 6, and Virginia, 2. On 18 August 1870, Dicey Petway, daughter of Bettie Williams, married Red[mond] Braswell, son of Preston Wilson, at Joyners township. [Braswell was the surname of another slaveholder who lived near Williams and Petway.]

A Google Maps aerial showing the former site of the David Williams house at A. (William D. Petway’s house was located at B. The Edgecombe County line runs parallel to and a couple of hundred feet east of Orchard Road.

The William D. Petway house.

We’ve met William D. Petway here (advertising the sale of several enslaved people) and here (placing an ad for a runaway enslaved man). His home and plantation lay near and across the boundary with present-day Edgecombe County in Wilson County’s Upper Town Creek Rural Historic District.

William Davis Petway house, 1980.

Per the National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination Form for Upper Town Creek Rural Historic District, prepared by Kate Ohno in 1982:

“The oldest house in the district is the William Davis Petway house. Petway was born on October 1, 1799, and was the son of Major Micajah Pettaway, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and Mary Sugg. Major Pettaway was a prominent planter and in July 1819, he deeded 435 acres on the north side of Poplar Branch to his son. It seems likely that this tract formed the core of Petway’s holdings and was most likely the tract upon which he built his home. He married Cinderella Cromwell, daughter of Elisha Cromwell, prior to 1823. Petway continued to add to his landholdings in the 1820s, receiving 112 acres from the division of his father-in-law’s estate and other tracts adjacent to his property. By the time of this death on October 18, 1858, he owned in excess of 2,270 acres.

The parlor mantel of the Petway house.

“Petway was involved in business and civic matters as well as in farming. He served as sheriff of Edgecombe County from 1835 until 1851. He was also associated in the mid 1850s with W.M.G. Sharp and John T. Sharp in a mercantile business which also sold liquor at Joyner’s Depot [Elm City]. By 1850 Petway was in the turpentine business. He employed four male laborers and produced $800 worth of turpentine and other pine products annually. Petway was an extensive farmer as well. In 1836 he purchased the real property in his father’s estate amounting to 1,364 acres. By 1850 he owned 2,400 acres of which 500 acres were cultivated. Although his real property was valued at only $7,381 he owned forty-eight slaves in 1850. … [Petway’s listing in the 1850 slave schedule of Edgecombe County actually credits him with 49 slaves. Curiously, 43 were reported as women or girls, and only six as men or boys (and none of these above age 18). This is an improbable ratio that suggests a recording error.]

“Petway died intestate in 1858 leaving his widow and seven children ….

“The home tract thus came under the managements of Cinderella Petway for nearly 13 years. At first the plantation prospered; in 1860 Mrs. Petway is listed as a sixty-year old farmer owning real property valued at $25,000 and personal property valued at $16,000. She owned only fifteen slaves due to the division of her husband’s slaves among his heirs. Six slave houses (no longer extant) were on the property. Her son Oliver, age twenty, lived with his mother as well as Ezra Bullock, a farm overseer, and a white female domestic servant. Oliver’s personal property, including slaves, was valued at $18,000 and his slaves were probably used to cultivate and maintain the home tract occupied by him and his mother. …” [Senda Petway appears in the 1860 census of Edgecombe County with women and girls ages 50, 40, 28, 27, 18, 7, 2, and 1, and men and boys ages 70, 45, 28, 19, 8, 7, and 4. Son O.C. Petway claimed women and girls ages 40, 25, 18, 5, and 5, and men and boys ages 50, 13, 8, 8, and 1.]

The Petways enslaved dozens of people, but the surname is now uncommon in Wilson County. I have not been able to identify by name anyone William D. Petway enslaved except freedom-seeker Miles.

The historic district nomination form includes a map pinpointing the Petway house on State Road 1414.

That road is now White Bridge Road, and the Petway house and its outbuildings have been demolished.

A close-up of the site:

Photos courtesy of nomination form, above; aerials courtesy of Google Maps.

A guide to the wills and estate records of Wilson County enslavers.

Wills and estate records contain some of the most useful material for researchers of enslaved people. Here, a running list of enslavers’ wills and estate records featured in Black Wide-Awake.

Wills

Detail from 1860 federal slave schedule of Wilson County, North Carolina.

Estate records