In 1868, Robert Hilliard Farmer and Haywood White were among 11 “d—d black Radicals” crammed into a tiny jail cell, threatened, given meagre portions of over-salted meat and deprived of water, and viciously beaten because they would not support the Democratic party. White’s cry, under torture, that he had already sworn an oath to support the Constitution and the Union hints that the men may have been members of the Union, or Loyal, League, which formed across the South during Reconstruction to mobilize freedmen to register to vote and to vote Republican. About ten days before this story broke in the Raleigh Standard, Bill Grimes, local president of the League, had been jailed in Wilson for allegedly burning down the house of a white man who had shot a black man named David Ruffin.
New-York Tribune, 19 September 1868.
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- Robert Hilliard Farmer
- Haywood White
On 14 September 1869, Haywood White, son of Benj. and Selie White, married Martha Daniel, daughter of Dennis and Exie Daniel, in Wilson County.
In the 1870 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farm laborer Haywood White, 26; wife Martha, 17; son Robert, 11 months; and Noah Tyson, 21, farm laborer.
Perhaps, in the 1880 census of Jamesville, Martin County, N.C.: laborer Haywood White, 40; wife Martha, 30; and sons Alexandria, 15, and Elisha, 12.
On 13 April 1910, Haywood White, 60, of Black Creek township, married Luetta Oggins, 40, of Black Creek township, at White’s house.
In the 1910 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: laborer Haywood White, 65, and wife Rosetta, 37. Haywood reported having been married three times; Rosetta, twice.
Haywood White died 14 March 1914 in Black Creek township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 22 November 1840 in South Carolina; was married; and worked as a farmer. B.S. Jordan of Wilson was informant.
