Artisans in the North Carolina Backcountry

University of Kentucky UKnowledge United States History History 2014 Artisans in the North Carolina Backcountry Johanna Miller Lewis University of Arkansas, Little Rock Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Lewis, Johanna Miller, "Artisans in the North Carolina Backcountry" (2014). United States History. 129. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/129 Artisans IN THE North Carolina Backcountry This page intentionally left blank Artisans IN THE North Carolina Backcountry JOHANNA MILLER LEWIS THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Copyright © 1995 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lewis, Johanna Miller, 1961- Artisans in the North Carolina backcountry / Johanna Miller Lewis. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 978-0-8131-5609-5 1. Material culture-North Carolina-Rowan County-History-18th century. 2. Artisans-North Carolina-Rowan County-History-18th century. 3. Rowan County (N.C.)-Sociallife and customs. I. Title. F262.R8L44 1995 975.6'71-dc20 94-43855 This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Tables ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 Artisans and the Backcountry 5 2 The Early History and Settlement of Rowan County 17 3 The Development of Rowan County, 1753-1759 34 4 The Commercial Development of Rowan County, 1759-1770 58 5 Moravian Artisans on the Wachovia Tract, 1759-1770 77 6 Women Artisans in Rowan County 94 7 Artisans, the Regulator Crisis, and Politics in Rowan County 113 Appendix A Andrew Kremser's Indenture 139 Appendix B Edward Hughes's Last Meeting with the Moravians 141 Appendix C Definitions of Craftsmen and Terms 142 Appendix D Moravian Artisans on the Wachovia Tract, 1753-1770 144 Appendix E Rowan County Artisans, 1753-1770 146 Appendix F Road Building in Rowan Count)', 1753-1770 153 Appendix G CourtAccount of Robert Johnston and His Cow 154 Notes 155 Bibliography 178 Index 191 Illustrations follow page 76 This page intentionally left blank Tables 1 Artisans in Early Rowan County Settlements 25 2 Apprentices in Rowan County, 1753-1770 45 3 Rowan County Artisans in 1759 55 4 Rowan County Artisans in 1770 74 5 Women Artisans in Rowan County 98 6 Rowan County Artisans Involved in the Regulator Crisis 125 7 Artisan Arrival Dates in Rowan County 126 8 Rowan County Artisans who Served as Constables, 1753-1770 133 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments There may be only one author's name on this book, but its creation was really a collaborative effort. Researching and writing can be a lonely expe rience, but colleagues, family, and friends supported me for the duration. In this instance, duration means almost a decade over which Rowan County artisans began as a paper, turned into a dissertation and then a few articles and papers, and finally evolved into this book. The majority of research for the dissertation and the book was supported by grants from the Early American Industries Association, the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia, the Commonwealth Center for the Study of American Culture, the History Department at the College of Wil liam and Mary, Old Salem, Inc., and an Archie K. Davis Fellowship from the North Caroliniana Society. That financial support (along with gifts from my parents and in-laws) made it possible for me to do research at the North Carolina Division of Archives and History in Raleigh; the Southern His torical Collection and the North Caroliniana Room in the Wilson Library in Chapel Hill; the Moravian Archives, Southern Province, the Siewers Room of Gramley Library at Salem College, Old Salem, Inc., and the Mu seum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem; and the McCubbins Collection in the Local History Room of the Salisbury Public Library. I thank the staff at all of those institutions for their assistance. For feeding me and giving me a place to stay during my innumerable trips to North Carolina, I want to thank Norvell and Mary Miller, Helen Hagan, Della Carlton, Carl and Lee Thorne, Michael Hammond and Rebecca Hendrickson, Ed and Sue Hendricks (and Chris and Lee), and Jon and Beverly Sensbach. I have learned that doing the research is the easy part; formulating one's thesis and writing it in understandable form are the hard parts. Fortu nately, many people have guided me along the way, and their opinions and advice have been most helpful. On my dissertation committee I would like to thank John Selby, Thad Tate, and Tom Sheppard at the College of William and Mary, and Michael Hammond, then of Old Salem. On getting from the dissertation to the book, I am indebted to the keen insight and xii Acknowledgments suggestions of Jeff Crow, Dan Thorp, Warren Hofstra, Jean Russo, and Daniel Vickers. My colleagues at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock encouraged me (especially Stephen Recken, Michelle Fontaine, and Harri Baker), but having another colonial historian around was a true luxury and Charlie Bolton's comments and observations were instrumental to the final product. lowe my largest debt to Jim Whittenburg; this book is as much his as it is mine. He suggested the topic to me, he supervised the dissertation, and he has read every draft of the book. Even more amazing, somewhere along the line we became fast friends in the face of adversity. And finally, none of this would have happened without Michael. He knew, better than anyone, that having gone to Salem College and Wake Forest, I felt enveloped by Rowan County and the Wachovia Tract person ally and historically. Not only has he read (and listened to) every draft; his love, support, encouragement, enthusiasm, and knowledge have made it all worthwhile. Introduction This book looks at artisans in Rowan County, North Carolina, during the third quarter of the eighteenth century. As a backcountry county, one west of the "fall line," colonial Rowan County contained some fairly populated areas to the east and the unsettled frontier to the west. In examining the craftsmen and their place in the social, economic, and political world of Rowan County, this study encompasses some of the most important and popular topics in the recent historiography of early America: artisans, the frontier, and the debate over self-sufficiency and capitalism in rural America. For every direction this inquiry might have taken, the thesis is decep tively simple: far from being abandoned to their own survival skills in the great colonial wilderness, the inhabitants of the North Carolina backwoods patronized a small, but growing, population of artisan-farmers who sup plied their clientele with basic necessities and even luxury goods that local merchants and their ties to the trans-Atlantic economy could not satisfac torily produce. Perhaps the impact of this study lies not in its depth or attention to one issue, but in its portrayal of the role the artisan played in the everyday life of Rowan County. Such a portrayal allows the discussion of the presence of professional artisans in the rural South, the participation of backcountry businessmen in local, regional, and international trade networks, and the nature of the economy and the standard of living on the eighteenth-cen tury frontier. Although Rowan County artisans seem to lack many of the characteris tics of other artisan groups that have been studied (they are not urban, they do not have an overwhelmingly cohesive political consciousness, and they are not faced with the economic consequences of changes in the orga nization of labor), these inadequacies may add up to the most distinguish ing characteristic of all: they are "typical" artisans at work during the for mative years of American history. Additionally, artisans working in a less economically developed area such as Rowan County probably played a more direct role in maintaining their customers' standard of living than 2 Artisans in the Backcountry did artisans working in large urban areas with fully developed market economies. In a more focused context, examining all of the artisans of Rowan County will explore how the Moravians, one of the only groups of artisans in the southern backcountry previously written about, fared against their competition. The traditional interpretation of artisans in the colonial southern backcountry is brief and succinct: outside of those practicing the most ba sic crafts there were no artisans. This book seeks to revise that interpreta tion by exploring the role and experience of artisans in the settlement and early development of Rowan County, North Carolina, from 1753 to 1770. Research gathered from court records, deeds, wills, private records, and the voluminous records of the Moravians contradicts the earlier assump tions of historians; artisans were among the first settlers in Rowan County, and their development paralleled the growth of the county. In the early 1750s, a handful of artisans produced objects that the small groups of set tlers needed to survive and create new lives in the backcountry.

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