USA > North Carolina > Edgecombe County > History of Edgecombe County, North Carolina > Part 16
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The overseer came up within 20 or 25 feet of the screw without being observed by the slave, dismounted, and hastily got over the fence into the screwyard. He walked directly to the cotton screw, gun in hand, where the slave was standing, engaged in throwing cotton, and ordered him to come down. The slave took off his hat in an humble manner and came down. Mr. Baxter spoke some words to Will, which were not heard by any of the three negroes present. The slave immediately began to run. He proceeded about fifteen steps when the overseer fired upon the slave, sending the whole load in the negro's back.
The wound caused by the shot was sufficient to have produced death, but the slave continued to make off through a field, and after retreating about 150 yards in sight of the overseer, was pur-
1 A device for packing cotton.
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sued by two slaves directed by Mr. Baxter, who said, "He could not go far." The overseer himself, laying down his gun, mounted his horse, and having directed his foreman, who had just come up, to pursue the prisoner also, rode around the field and headed off the wounded slave. Mr. Baxter soon dismounted and pursued the negro on foot, and as soon as the slave discovered he was blocked, he changed his course to avoid the overseer, and ran in another direction towards the woods. The overseer, however, soon over- took him and collared him with his right hand. In the mean- time the negroes ordered to pursue the slave came toward the slave and the overseer.
They were ordered by Mr. Baxter to seize the wounded slave. One of them attempted to lay hold of the negro, who had his knife drawn, and the left thumb of the overseer in his mouth. When he came up, Will struck at the slave with his knife, but missed him and cut the overseer on the thigh. In the scuffle which fol- lowed between Will and Mr. Baxter, the overseer received a wound in the arm which occasioned his death.
Soon after the overseer let go his hold on Will, who ran towards the nearest woods and escaped. Mr. Baxter did not pursue the slave, but he ordered the negroes to do so, but soon recalled them. When they returned, Mr. Baxter was sitting on the ground bleed- ing, and as they came up the overseer said, "Will has killed me; if I had minded what my poor wife said, I would not have been in this fix."
In addition to the wound on his thigh, Mr. Baxter had a slight puncture in his chest about skin deep, and a wound about 4 inches long and 2 inches deep on his right arm above his elbow. The loss of blood occasioned the overseer's death, and he died in the evening of the same day. In the meantime, the slave went to his master and surrendered himself, and the following day was ar- rested. When the negro was informed of the death of the over- seer, he exclaimed, "Is it possible?" and appeared to be much affected by the report.
The case was immediately called by the court. The jury hesi- tated to prove Will guilty of felony and murder on the indict- ment specified and charged against him by the court. The jurors were altogether ignorant of the law, since there was no precedent in the case. They requested the advice of the court upon the
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matter. In the meantime, Judge Darnell claimed the slave was guilty of "feloniously killing and slaying" Mr. Baxter, and prom- ised the sentence of death from the special verdict which had been made by the jury. The slave appealed to the Supreme Court. B. F. Moore, a reputable lawyer, living on Fishing Creek, interceded for Will and defended his case in the Supreme Court. It was conceded that Baxter occupied the place of master, and, in his capacity of overseer, was invested with all the authority of owner, in the means of rendering the prisoner subservient to his lawful commands. With this concession freely made, it was be- lieved that if the shot of Mr. Baxter had proved fatal, he would have been guilty of murder, and not of manslaughter. The in- strument used and the short distance between the parties were sufficient to produce death, and nothing but the want of malice could have deprived the act of any features of murder.
It was then proved that Baxter had loaded his gun and pro- ceeded to the cotton screw with the intent to shoot the slave if the latter should run. It was clear then that if Baxter's shot had been fatal, he would have been guilty of murder and not of man- slaughter. This was manifest from the evidence of his whole conduct, and particularly so from the fact of his directing the foreman to walk behind at a distance. If he had armed himself for defense, expecting a conflict with the prisoner, he would have summoned aid and kept men at his command ready for encounter. It became evident to the defendant's mind that the purpose of the shooting had actually been formed and time had been given him for reflection. The argument by Mr. Moore on behalf of Will was therefore as follows: First, that if Baxter's shot had killed the prisoner, Baxter would have been guilty of manslaughter at the least. Second, this position being established, the killing of Baxter under the circumstances related was manslaughter on the part of the prisoner.
The public mind was rapidly perverted .by the opinion that any means might be resorted to in order to coerce the perfect submission of the slave to his master's will, and that any resist- ance to that will, reasonable or unreasonable, lawfully places the life of a slave at his master's feet. Mr. Moore attempted to draw the line, if there was any, before the jury, of the lawful and un- lawful exercises of the master's power in Edgecombe County.
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The decision in the case of State v. Mann was used as a prece- dent. This case left the slave where his life was spared, under the slender guardianship of the "frowns and execrations" of a moral community against cruelty. Judge Henderson had for- merly fixed the true boundary of the master's power. "It ex- tends," he says, "to securing the service and labors of the slave, and no farther." He furthermore declared that a power over the life of the slave was not surrendered by the law, because the possession of such a power is always necessary to the purposes of slavery, and that his life was in care of the law. The previous laws, similar to those which subsisted in older slave countries, which declared the relation of master and slave, and had been practiced in the county since its formation, was no longer believed to be intended to cover the entire relation between master and slave. On the contrary, the idea of perfect submission of the slave was in accordance with the policy which should regulate condition of life, whenever it existed.
It is safe to say that Mr. Moore did not, however, argue so much from the point of law-which if it had been interpreted literally, would have been decidedly against him-as he did the irresistible force of public opinion. That force was that time setting in a countercurrent against the use of absolute power. It must be depreciated and stopped or absolute power would be clearly proved necessary to the ends of slavery. The courts of the country began to receive the light and to foster the enlightened benevolence of the age, by interpreting the powers that one class of people claimed over another, in conformity, not with the spirit that tolerated the barbarian who was guilty of savage cruelty, but with that which heaped upon him the frowns and depreciations of the community. When one views the proceedings of the early courts and the sentences of the people, one cannot but help ad- mitting that while the courts were lauding the Christian benevo- lence of the times, manifested by the humane treatment of the slaves, they were engaged in investigating to what possible extent the master might push his authority without incurring civil responsibility.
From this viewpoint Mr. Moore made his plea one of a moral nature. "I am," he said, "arguing no question of abstract right, but I am endeavoring to prove that the natural incidents of
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slavery must be borne with because they are inherent to the con- dition itself; and that any attempt to restrain or punish a slave for the exercise of a right, which even absolute power cannot destroy, is inhuman and without the slightest benefit to the secur- ity of the master or to that of society at large."
"If," continued Mr. Moore, "the deceased had been resisted, a great degree of force might have been used, and the law would not have been scrupulous in determining the excess. If he had been chastising the prisoner in the ordinary mode and death had ensued, it would have been nothing more than an unfortunate accident. But the prisoner was neither resisting the master nor did the calamity grow out of an attempt to chastise. It is confi- dently contended that a master has not by law of the land the right to kill his slave for a simple act of disobedience, however provoking may be the circumstances under which it is committed; that if a slave be required to stand and he run off, he has not forfeited his life. This is conclusive, if the law will never justify a homicide except it be committed upon unavoidable necessity, and will excuse no one, except it be done by misadventure or so defendendo. There is no principle of criminal law which will justify or excuse the death that has been caused through the provocation of the passion alone."
Moreover, it was shown by Mr. Moore that the prisoner was shot in the act of making off from his overseer, who was prepared to chastise him. A master's authority to apprehend the slave was conceded by the court not to be greater than that of a con- stable or a sheriff to arrest for misdemeanor; and a constable could not kill in order to prevent an escape of one guilty of that kind of offense. The law had such a high regard for human life that it instructed the officers to permit an escape rather than kill. If the officer acted illegally, by abusing his authority or exceeding it, resistance unto death was not murder. Consequently, if the master had greater authority to apprehend his slave than a law officer had to arrest under a precept for a misdemeanor, he surely did not have a greater authority than a sheriff, acting under a precept, had to arrest a felon. Here the law again shows its deep regard for human life and its detestations to kill a felon, a murderer, or traitor unless his escape be inevitable. "And in every instance in which one man can be justified in killing
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another, the abuse of his power makes him guilty of man- slaughter." An officer, therefore, having the right to kill a felon in order to prevent his escape, and having done so when the escape might have been prevented by more lenient means, was guilty of manslaughter. This necessity remained to be proved by Mr. Moore, for it was never to be presumed. No such neces- sity appeared in the finding of the jury. In legal contemplation, therefore, it did not exist.
The prisoner was thus looked upon as in the aet of disobedience and not resistance, between which there was a vast difference. The deceased then must have exceeded his authority according to the evidence and the defendant was guilty of manslaughter only. The slave simply slew his overseer, after having been dangerously shot, pursued and overtaken. The tamest and most domestic brute would doubtless have done likewise. Was the victim now to be a sacrifice offered to the policy which regulated the relation of slavery among our fathers? May we say that the momentum of feeling, acting through the juries of the county and the spirit of the legislature at Raleigh, that the interests of society were at stake and demanded a permanent settlement of the extent of a master's authority ?
By a timely and judicious administration of the law, in rela- tion to this subject, the courts did much to formulate a sound public opinion. They used the opportunity afforded by their situ- ation in a most happy manner. The condition of the slave was rapidly advancing under the new kind of enlightenment and in- spiring civilization. The negro and the white were now, by the decision returned in Will's case, placed under the very same law. Will was declared guilty of manslaughter.
A very interesting phase of the slave system in the county was the method of ascertaining the age and value of the slaves. When- ever a slaveholder was desirous of learning the age of his slave,1 he carried the slave before the grand jury convened at the County .Court and the court pronounced the age of the slave.
Quite frequently slaves were slain both accidentally and pre- meditatedly. In either case the slayer if detected was responsible to the owner for the value of the slave killed. Men who were
1 It was necessary to know the age of slaves in order to determine the selling price of said slave, the value being fixed by the age, etc.
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familiar with certain slaves were summoned as a jury to estimate the value. George Sugg, a farmer living on his farm in the eastern part of the county, was called upon in 1806 to estimate the value of a slave killed upon an adjoining farm. The slave was a runaway and belonged to Mr. Mace. He was robbing the citizens in the vicinity of Little River, now Fishing Creek, when William Mace, a manager for his father, went in search for the slave. Mr. Mace tarried at Little River approximately five days, but not finding the slave was about to return home. On his way back he visited Mr. Toole's slavequarters, a slave owner, in the night. A light was observed within, but it was put out in a mo- ment. Mr. Mace went in and blowing up a light saw the slave, Tom, and recognized him. The slave, on being discovered, at- tempted to secape. Mr. Mace called to him to stand, threatening to shoot him if he did not, but the slave ran off, upon which Mr. Mace shot him with a pistol that he held in his hand. It was the design of Mr. Mace to shoot over the negro's head in order to frighten him, but some of the shots hit and killed him in- stantly. The court passed the opinion that the negro was worth fifty pounds.
In the valuation of a slave, his behavior and power of work- manship were always taken into consideration by the courts. Our record of the prices of slaves is very incomplete and almost with- out any effect. The first records we were able to find were in 1775, but no record was given of the selling price.
Ten years later John Ford sold one negro man to Jeremiah Hilliard for 180 pounds. It is inferred from this price that it was apparently the same ten years previous. In 1788 one negro boy about eight years sold in Tarboro for forty-five pounds, or $107.00. Joseph Buns sold a negro woman in 1788 for sixty pounds to John Dew, and at the same a negro girl, sixteen years old, was sold to a Virginia planter from Edgecombe County for ninety pounds. A year later negro boys about sixteen or seventeen years old sold for 120 pounds each.
In 1790 John Dew sold the negro woman back to Buns for fifty pounds. Girls about eleven years old brought seventy pounds in the slave market in Tarboro in 1790. These are some of the estimates of slave prices in the early history in the county. Later
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slaves brought 100 pounds per head. Richard Blackledge, of Tarboro, sold a negro boy about thirteen to sixteen years, 4 feet 8 inches high, for 200 milled dollars.
Halifax traders made frequent trips to Edgecombe for slaves to start a slave market. Jacob Barrow, of Halifax, purchased slaves at Tarboro in 1789 at a normal price of 120 pounds, and in 1792 negro men at the age of forty-five brought 100 pounds, about the same price as in 1790.
In 1794 a negro woman and child brought 200 Spanish milled dollars, and numerous other negroes brought about the same price.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century slaves brought a good price. In 1801, at open court, Bennett Barrow, a slave trader, sold to John .Davidson six slaves, as follows: A woman named Millery and her three children named Harmon, Jim, and Molley, and another woman named Nelly and a child named Sam for 400 pounds. Some further evidence can be obtained from the following figures : In 1803 one negro boy sold for $125 current money, another boy sold for $475, still another woman and her child brought $400, silver dollars. In 1807 a negro woman fifteen years old and her child sold for $375, and a negro girl ten years old for $135 current money. The physical condition of the slave and the early cultivation of cotton may have been the reason for 80 many enormous changes in prices. Moreover, the ability a slave had for work, trade, etc., determined in many instances the price of his body. One negro man who was a blacksmith and a good workman brought $1,000 in Tarboro in 1818, and in 1854 a rough carpenter, about twenty-three years old, sold for $2,000.
Toward the middle of the nineteenth century slaves were esti- mated by "piles" or quantities. The record gives an account of a pile of negroes as follows : Moll, Suckey, Sally, Maria, Molly, Austen, Daniah, one negro woman twenty-three years old and infant child, negro girl and negro boy, one negro man nineteen years old, one negro woman and two children, and a negro fellow thirty years old, a negro boy fifteen years old, and girl fifteen years old, sold for the sum of $5,111.
Another method was resorted to in the estimation of the value of slaves. It was not, however, the most accurate one. Frequently masters would become short of funds and be unable to pay their taxes promptly, and slaves were sold at public auction at the
12
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court house to justify the sheriff for the taxes of the master. In 1838 an incident of this kind occurred when a negro girl was sold to the highest bidder for $177. Again in 1843 a negro man was sold to B. F. Moore, of Fishing Creek, at a public auction in default of taxes for one dollar. This was not a fair sample of the value of slaves, and must have been sold primarily to bring the cost of taxes levied.
The peculiar life of the slave is interesting from the viewpoint of character, socially and religiously. Only now and then, ac- cording to old slaveholders' records, was a slave found truthful, faithful, and entirely honest in dealing with labor and articles. Cunning and deception became necessary, inevitable habits. The old trick played on the master by turning a huge pot, the mouth upon the floor of the master's residence in order to deaden the noise while the negroes danced, was considered a part of the slave's right. It was not fair to expect anything else of them.
The main cause of certain necessary restraints in the slave's liberty came in 1859, in the form of John Brown's raid. The press began to urge masters throughout the State to curtail the large freedom enjoyed by the negroes. Consequently Edgecombe passed a regulation forbidding negroes to assemble in groups between sunset and sunrise. Upon this event came the agitation for a new movement advocated by a book called "The Impending Crisis of the South," published in New York in 1857, but did not take effect until the time of John Brown's raid, by Hinton Rowan Helper, a native of Rowan County. This book was a compilation of statistics intended to prove that slavery was an economic curse. In addition it contained sentiments usually expected from aboli- tion quarters in the North. The slave owner naturally rejected the literature and the cause against abolition propagandism.
The marriage of the slaves was a matter of little concern. The masters of the contracting parties must first consent to the union. That being arranged, the groom sought the bride, offered her some toy, a brass ring or beads, and if his gift was accepted, the mar- riage was considered made. If the couple ever separated, the present was always returned. Separation occurred often, and at times against the will of the parties. "If the woman bore no chil- dren in two or three years," says Bricknal, "the planter obliged them to take a second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth husband or
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bedfellow-a fruitful woman amongst them being much valued by the planters and a numerous issue esteemed the great riches in the county." The children belonged to the owner of the mother, and the planter took pains to bring them up properly.
Although slaves were permitted to marry among themselves, after 1787 no slave was allowed to marry or cohabit with any free negro without permission of the master of the slave in writ- ing and the sanction of two Justices of the Peace.
The slaves showed great jealousy among themselves on account of their wives and mistresses.
The slaves owned by the first settlers were very few, but these settlers who succedeed them had large numbers. Accustomed to settling down on little farms on the outskirts of civilization, the early farmers found it hard to become absorbed into the larger life of a settled community. It has most often been his fate to recover from nature a rim of forest land, and then giving that up to some "worldly habitant of civilized life," move on toward the West. This was a frequent occurrence in Edgecombe County in the early period. Before the county was declared an organized district, and existed merely as a precinct, many people who occupied their little holdings during the seventeenth century sold them early in the eighteenth and sought other lands for a song and dance along the frontiers. The newcomers were men of means, and usually brought their slaves with them. Men like Elisha Battle, Willie Jones, and Isaac Sessums and others came to the county with money and slaves to buy up the cheap lands. There is one in- stance where a man from Virginia bought eleven adjacent planta- tions. On these plantations on which small farmers had formerly lived, there now lived a large planter with his family and a large number of slaves. Hence a gradual change of the social life as this economic process went on.
The coming of these rich owners mark the change from the sys- tem of a few slaves to that of many. The same process was facilitated in the opening up of the turpentine industry. Here the slaves were profitable, and large numbers of them were taken to the high tracts of long straw pine which lay back from the low grounds of Swift and Fishing Creek and Tar River.
There is no phase of a subject on which there is more incom- plete and unsatisfactory records than on the subject of the re-
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ligious and social life of the slaves. The early writers said that the slaves in the colony, hence in the several counties, except in rare cases, were undoubtedly pagans. From all indications after the introduction of slavery the people seem to have been content that they should have remained such. Indeed, if we may believe such contemporary evidence that has come down to us, the whites did not care very much if they themselves were pagans.
The one central fact that leads to the indifference to religion on the part of the whites was the thought of the illegality in hold- ing a Christian in bondage. The right and power of enslaving the negro seems to have been based on the fact that he was a pagan. If such was the case, would not conversion enfranchise him? It was in view of this feeling that the Lord Proprietors declared in the fundamental constitution, "Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man's civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves as well as for others to enter themselves and be of what church or profession any of them shall think best, and thereof be as fully members as any freeman. But yet no slave shall hereby be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all things in the same state and condition he was in before."
This law was a piece of skillful manipulation on the part of the Lords Proprietors. It gave an emphatic religious freedom to the slave, and at the same time gave a concealed compromise to prevent an agitation and uprising of the slaves. There seemed, however, to have been, in spite of this law, a fear of allowing slaves to be baptized in a religious rite. The law might have been used successfully to protect the planters, should a case have arisen over the point in question, and yet it left an element of risk in it that made the planters unwilling to allow the conver- sion of the negroes.
The conditions that followed these circumstances is clearly seen from a statement of E. C. Taylor, a clergyman of the English Church, who on a tour in 1765 writes that he went to Edgecombe County on a preaching tour. That there being no minister there at the time, the Reverend John Burgess, the first English preacher in the county, having resigned previously, he did not have much success. He baptized in three days 159 whites and four black
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infants. There is no intimation in the reports of Reverend Burgess that he was ever interested enough in the slave to attempt baptizing him.
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