In October 1866, more than 100 representatives of North Carolina’s Equal Rights Leagues gathered in Raleigh for a convention. Some, like future United States Congressman James E. O’Hara of Wayne County, had been born free. Most, however, were little more than a year into emancipation.
The convention’s minutes show that Wilson County sent Ensley Hinnant and Thomas Farmer to the conference.
At the October 4 afternoon session, Thomas Farmer of Wilson spoke up to say that “the people has suffered greatly from injustice, but things begin to wear a bright future.”
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Ems Hinnant and Kate Reil registered their 11-year marriage with a Wilson County justice of the peace in 1866.
In the 1870 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farm laborer Emizel Hinnant, 30, and Harriet, 19, Tamer, 11, Henderson, 13, Mary, 7, Dennis, 8, and Joseph, 1.
On 29 February 1870, Jeff Powell, son of Calvin and Penny Powell, married Carolin Hinnant, daughter of Emsly and Ally Hinnant, at Zilla Locus‘ in Wilson County.
On 20 February 1895, Gray Hinnant, 42, of Oldfields township, son of Martha Williamson, married Tama Hinnant, 35, of Oldfields township, daughter M. and Alley Hinnant, both deceased, at the residence of Thamar Hinnant.
Henderson Hinnant died 7 August 1934 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was 49 years old; was born Wilson County to Enzly Hinnant and Carolina Hinnant; was married to Margaret Hinnant; and lived on Route 3, Kenly.
Two adult African-American men named Thomas Farmer appear in the 1870 census. It is not clear which, if either, was the conventioneer.
Just last week, the incomparable David Cecelski blogged about the unveiling of a state historical marker commemorating the Equal Justice League branch in the Edgecombe County’s Red Hill community in 1866. Cecelski spoke at the ceremony and, in the complete absence of information about Wilson County’s chapter, his words help us understand Hinnant and Farmer’s revolutionary work. To those who made the day possible, Cecelski said, “Through all your efforts, you remind us, at a time when we need reminding, of a time and a place when people who had next to nothing, who were only months out of slavery, and who were surrounded by a thousand perils, found the courage, faith, and determination to fight for a better world for their children and for us all.”
