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Slaves, Free People of Color, and Firearms in North Carolina, 1729

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Slaves, Free People of Color, and Firearms in North Carolina, 1729 The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts POLITICS, LABOR, AND REBELLIONS REAL AND IMAGINED: SLAVES, FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR, AND FIREARMS IN NORTH CAROLINA, 1729-1865 A Dissertation in History by Antwain K. Hunter © 2015 Antwain K. Hunter Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2015 The dissertation of Antwain K. Hunter was reviewed and approved* by the following: Anthony E. Kaye Associate Professor of History Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee William A. Blair College of the Liberal Arts Research Professor Director of the Richards Civil War Era Center Lori D. Ginzberg Professor of History and Women’s Studies K. Russell Lohse Assistant Professor of History David Mc Bride Professor of African American Studies and African American History David Atwill Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies Director of Graduate Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT For much of North Carolina’s history its General Assembly sought to strike a balance between the undeniable utility of black people’s armed labor and the threat that gun-toting black people were thought to pose. Masters equipped their slaves with firearms much like many other tools and many citizens turned to the Assembly to undertake measures to ensure that this armed labor did not compromise white people’s safety or property. The state’s legislature dictated the terms under which masters could arm their slaves and while some slaveholders defiantly used armed African-descended laborers as they wished most white people believed that armed slaves should be kept under a responsible white person’s control. Further, many white people harnessed free people of color’s subordinate armed labor. Since free people of color used firearms to feed themselves much as many white people did the legislature regulated free people of color’s gun use, in effect claiming mastery over them. The Assembly gave white people wide discretion through their county courts to manage the armed slaves and free black people in their communities. Slaveholders, court officials, and petitioners all played roles in the decision making processes about which free or enslaved black people could be entrusted to legally bear arms. More important than the ways that white people harnessed black North Carolinians’ armed labor, free and enslaved black people’s firearm use was incredibly valuable to their own families and communities. People of color’s armed labor provided a means through which they could more easily provide for and protect themselves and other members of their respective communities. Armed black laborers held a great deal of labor potential that was iv incredibly valuable for whomever controlled their labor whether that was themselves, their slaveholders or employers, or even municipal authorities. Armed black people’s utility coupled with the latent threat that some people believed that it held and this delicate situation ensured that people of color’s firearm use would remain a contentious topic for North Carolinians and their competing personal and public interests from the colonial era through to the end of the Civil War. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ............................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... vii Introduction: A Reconsideration of Black North Carolinians’ Firearm Use from the Colonial Era to the Civil War........................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 North Carolina’s Race-Based Firearm Laws in Theory and Practice ..................... 12 Chapter 2 Unfree Black People, Firearms, and the Violation of Law ..................................... 52 Chapter 3 Black North Carolinians’ Armed Labor .................................................................. 100 Chapter 4 Free North Carolinians of Color, Their Communities, and the State ...................... 132 Chapter 5 Confederate North Carolina and Armed Black Men’s Wartime Labor ................... 169 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 216 Appendix White North Carolinians’ Petitions to the General Assembly ................................ 221 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 232 vi LIST OF TABLES Table I-1. The Population of Select North Carolina Towns and Their Respective Counties .. 8 Table 4-1. White Craven County Residents Connected to the Pettiford and Moore Families’ Indictments and Trials (1849-1850) ................................................................ 147 Table 4-2. Craven County Firearm Licensees, 1850-1854 ...................................................... 154 Table A-1. The 1828 Craven County Petitioners Against Black People’s Gun Use ............... 225 Table A-2. The 1835 Craven County Petitioners Against Black People’s Gun Use ............... 228 Table A-3. Select Population Statistics from the 1840 Craven County Census ...................... 230 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The dissertation is in many ways a collaborative project. I was fortunate to have been a part of a great community of scholars at Penn State and elsewhere who took an interest in my work, encouraged me, and freely offered their support. I could not have completed this project without their patient and generous assistance. I also thank my family for their unconditional love and support and hope that they enjoy reading this project as much as I have enjoyed the creative process. I am deeply indebted to several organizations and individuals for financial support, without which this project could not have been completed. The North Caroliniana Society generously supported me via the Archie K. Davis Fellowship and Jason Tomberlin was especially helpful during my research at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The College of Liberal Arts at Penn State provided ample funding through the Edwin Earle Sparks Fellowship in the Humanities. I must also thank Lovalerie King and the Africana Research Center’s staff for the Humanities Dissertation Fellowship Award which provided assistance for my final year of writing. I am forever indebted to Armand K. Hunter for unhesitatingly providing timely support at various stages of this project. Finally, Steven and Janice Brose have supported me throughout my time at Penn State and I am very thankful for their generous assistance, interest in my work, and kind words. I received excellent research support during this project. Eric Novotny was a friendly and knowledgeable resource at the Pattee and Paterno Libraries at Penn State. Both the staff and student workers at the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina were very helpful on my visits to their institution and very generous with their viii time. The archivists and support staff at the North Carolina Department of Archives and History were welcoming and incredibly knowledgeable about their impressive collections and the city of Raleigh. I also must thank Iris Hunter, Auriel K. Hunter, and Caitlin Domagal for volunteering as research assistants on my various archival trips. It has been a pleasure and honor to work with the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center’s affiliated faculty, graduate students, and staff. I especially thank Sean Trainor, Katie Falvo, Kelly Knight, Andrew Prymak, Will Bryan, Alfred Wallace, Chris Hayashida-Knight, Lauren Golder, Matt Isham, Emily Seitz-Moore, Rachel Moran, Barby Singer, Tim Wesley, and David Greenspoon for their comments and support at various stages of this project. Susan Cooke-Weeber, Colleen Harrigan, Jessica M. Johnson, William Sturkey, and Sasha Turner also deserve many thanks for supporting this endeavor in various ways. I am also grateful for the generous and patient support of my dissertation committee, Bill Blair, Lori Ginzberg, David McBride, K. Russell Lohse, and especially my advisor Tony Kaye. They have been incredibly valuable resources through my comprehensive exams, research, and tedious writing process. I am fortunate to have such a rigorous scholar as an advisor and academic model and I am thankful for his challenge to always do better. I will always be indebted to my entire committee for their assistance. This dissertation is of course imperfect and I take full responsibility for any errors in analysis and interpretation, as well as any typographical or factual errors. Introduction: A Reconsideration of Black North Carolinians’ Firearm Use from the Colonial Era to the Civil War Many white North Carolinians in the colonial and antebellum eras believed that armed slaves presented challenges to public safety but they also recognized that these subordinate laborers could provide invaluable labor if equipped with firearms. The North Carolina General Assembly extended its blessings for the state’s local communities’ mediation of the tensions between the utility and danger of black peoples’ gun use. Firearms were imbued with a great deal of social weight and violent potential but this did not change the fact that the weapons were on a very basic level simply tools. As such these black Southerners’ firearm use cannot be understood outside of the labor potential that they embodied. Enslaved laborers used
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