Several free African Americans voted in the North Carolina General Assembly elections in 1701. 
Jack Braveboy, was living in Chowan County before 17 July 1716 when he was presented by the 
court: a negro, Coming into this Government with a woman and do live together as man and wife, 
it is ordered that the sd. Braveboy produce a Sufficient Certificate of their Marryage. 

In 1725 John Cotton was indicted for marrying a "Molatto Man to a White woman," and in 1726 the 
Rev. Mr. John Blacknall was fined fifty pounds for "joyning together in ... Matrimony Thomas 
Spencer and Martha Paule a Molatto Woman". 

Many of those who were free in Northampton County, Virginia, settled in Craven County, North 
Carolina. They were the Carter, Copes, Driggers, George, and Johnston families. They can be 
traced directly back to their seventeenth century Virginia ancestors. Those in the early eighteenth 
century lists of Northampton County, Virginia tithables who immigrated to North Carolina were the 
Allen and Roberts families. 

The descendants of Nicholas and Bungey Manuel, "negro slaves" freed by the 28 October 1718 
Elizabeth City County, Virginia will of Edward Myhill, were in the Edgecombe, North Carolina Militia 
in the 1750s. 

James and Peter Black came to Craven County from Essex County, Virginia, where they had been 
free born. John Heath tried to sell them as slaves to William Handcock, but the Craven County 
Court intervened on their behalf on 21 June 1745. 

Moll, Nell, Sue, Sall, and Will Dove, "Negroes," came to Craven County, North Carolina, from 
Maryland with Leonard Thomas who was trying to keep them as his slaves in September 1749, 
but William Smith travelled to Maryland and proved their claim that they were free born. 

Free African American immigrants were of sufficient number in 1723 that the General Assembly 
received complaints 

Of great Numbers of Free Negroes, Mulattoes, and other persons of mixt Blood, that have lately 
removed themselves into this Government, and that several of them have intermarried with the 
white Inhabitants of this Province.... 
Whilst some North Carolina residents were complaining about the immigration of free African 
Americans, their white neighbors in Granville, Halifax, Hertford, and Northampton Counties 
welcomed them. Their neighbors may have been accustomed to living among free African 
Americans in Virginia; they may have moved from Virginia in company with them; or perhaps 
they were drawn together by the adversities of the frontier. Neighbor depended heavily upon 
neighbor, and whites may have been more concerned with hostile Indians and harsh living 
conditions than they were with their neighbors' color. Whites in some parts of North Carolina may 
have been more concerned with hostile Indians and harsh living conditions than they were with 
their neighbors' color. 

The slave population on the frontier was much lower than in the settled areas of Virginia, so the 
presence of free African Americans would not have posed a threat to most settlers. And several 
of these free African Americans owned slaves of their own. However, land ownership was more 
likely the social equalizer for them and their white neighbors. 

The McKinnie family, originally from Isle of Wight County, Virginia, was one of the leading white 
families in the area around the Roanoke River. Barnaby McKinnie, member of the General 
Assembly from Edgecombe County in 1735, was witness to many of the early Bass, Bunch, 
Chavis, and Gibson deeds. John McKinnie called Cannon Cumbo his friend when he mentioned 
him in his 28 February 1753 Edgecombe County will. Other leading white settlers who sold them 
land adjoining theirs and witnessed their deeds were Richard Washington, William and Thomas 
Bryant, Richard Pace, and William Whitehead. Arthur Williams, member of the General Assembly 
for Bertie County in 1735, and John Castellaw, (brother?) of James Castellaw, a member of the 
Assembly from Bertie County, had mixed-race common-law wives, Elizabeth and Martha Butler. 

On 9 November 1762 many of the leading residents of Halifax County petitioned the Assembly to 
repeal the discriminatory tax against free African Americans, and in May 1763 fifty-four of the 
leading citizens of Granville, Northampton, and Edgecombe Counties made a similar petition. 
They described their "Free Negro & Mulatto" neighbors as persons of Probity & good Demeanor 
(who) chearfully contribute towards the Discharge of every public Duty injoined them by Law.
 
About ten years later a similar petition by 75 residents of Granville County included those of a few 
of the free African Americans of the county: Benjamin, Edward, and Reuben Bass, William and 
Gibea Chavis, Lawrence Pettiford, and Davie Mitchell (negro). 

By 1790 they represented 1.7% of the free population of North Carolina, concentrated in the 
counties of Northampton, Halifax, Bertie, Granville, Craven, Robeson, and Hertford where they 
were about 5% of the free population [Heads of Families - North Carolina, 9-10].Note 9 In these 
counties most African American families were landowners, and several did exceptionally well. 

Edward Carter was the fourth largest Dobbs County landowner with 23,292 acres in 1780.  He was 
head of a Dobbs County household of 8 "other free," one white woman, and 20 slaves in 1790.
Note 10 The Bunch, Chavis and Gibson families owned slaves and acquired over a thousand acres 
of land on both sides of the Roanoke River, and the Chavis and Gowen families acquired over a 
thousand acres in Granville County. 

William Chavis, a "Negro" listed in the 8 October 1754 muster roll of Colonel William Eaton's 
Granville County Regiment, owned over a thousand acres of land, a lodging house frequented by 
whites, and 8 taxable slaves. His son, Philip Chavis, also owned over a thousand acres of land, 
travelled between Granville, Northampton, and Robeson Counties, and lived for a while in Craven 
County, South Carolina. 

Some members of the Gibson family moved to South Carolina in 1731 where a member of the 
Commons House of Assembly complained that "several free colored men with their white wives 
had immigrated from Virginia." Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina summoned Gideon 
Gibson and his family to explain their presence there and after meeting him and his family 
reported, I have had them before me in Council and upon Examination find that they are not 
Negroes nor Slaves but Free people, That the Father of them here is named Gideon Gibson and 
his Father was also free, I have been informed by a person who has lived in Virginia that this 
Gibson has lived there Several Years in good Repute and by his papers that he has produced 
before me that his transactions there have been very regular, That he has for several years paid 
Taxes for two tracts of Land and had several Negroes of his own, That he is a Carpenter by Trade 
and is come hither for the support of his Family.
 
Like the early settlers of the North Carolina frontier Governor Johnson was more concerned with 
the Gibsons' social class than their race. In mid-eighteenth century North Carolina we find wealthy 
mixed race families counted in some years by tax assessors as "mulatto" and in other years as 
white. Jeremiah and Henry Bunch, Bertie County slave owners, were taxed in Jonathan 
Standley's 1764 Bertie County list as "free male Molattors" in 1764, but as whites in Standley's 
1765 Bertie list, and again as "free Molatoes" in 1766. Michael Going/ Gowen was 
taxed in Granville County as white in 1754 and was called "Michael Goin, Mulattoe" in 1759. 

John Gibson, Gideon Gibson and Gibeon Chavis, all married the daughters of prosperous white 
farmers. Some members of the Gibson, Chavis, Bunch and Gowen families became resolutely w
hite after several generations. 

While some free African Americans owned slaves and were accepted in white society, others 
married slaves and socialized with slaves. Hester Anderson, one of those freed in 1712 in Norfolk 
County, was the common-law wife of a slave. She was the ancestor of the Artis family of 
Southampton County, Virginia, and several North Carolina counties. James Revell of Cumberland 
County entrusted his executor with the task of making application to the legislature for his wife's 
freedom [WB C:21].Note 11 

Abel Carter was suspected of aiding a runaway slave. The 14 November 1778 issue of the North 
Carolina Gazette of New Bern advertised a reward for a negro fellow named Smart ... Tis supposed 
he is harboured about Smith River by one Abel Carter, a free Negro, as he has been seen there 
several times. 

However, the majority were small farmers owning a few hundred acres who married other free 
African Americans. Their marriages can be identified from colonial wills and tax lists, and they 
were recorded in the county marriage bonds starting in the late eighteenth century. 

They suffered under the discriminatory North Carolina tax law enacted in 1749 which described
taxables as all and every White Person, Male, of the Age of Sixteen Years, and upwards, all 
Negroes, Mulattoes, Mustees Male or Female, and all Persons of Mixt Blood, to the Fourth 
Generation, of the Age of Twelve Years, and upwards, and all white Persons intermarrying with 
any Negro, mulatto, or Mustee, or other Person of mixt Blood, ... shall be deemed Taxables....
 
Thus, free African American and Native American households can be identified by the taxation of 
their female family members over 12 years of age. Some light skinned people would claim to be 
white to avoid this discriminatory tax, and they would be listed by the tax collector with the 
notation, "Refuses to list his wife". It was in the interest of the tax collector to classify those of 
doubtful ancestry as "Mulatto" since he received a portion of the tax. However, those with some 
political and economic influence like the Bass and Bunch families were often listed as white. 

In addition to the discriminatory tax, poor and orphaned African American children were bound out 
until the age of 21 by the county courts just like their poor white counterparts.Note 12 In July 
1733 the General Assembly received complaints from "divers Inhabitants" that 

divers free People, Negroes, Molattoes residing in this Province were ... bound out until they 
come to 31 years contrary to the consent of the Parties bound out. The said comittee further 
report that they fear that divers Persons will desert the settlement of those parts ... 
The General Assembly ruled that those illegally bound should be released and the practice of 
binding out children to 31 years of age instead of 21 years was to cease.

The children were bound as apprentices in various crafts. Some apprentices were bound "to learn 
the art, trade, and mystery of farming" which may simply have meant working as an unpaid field 
hand; others were trained as coopers, blacksmiths, cordwainers, or other useful occupations. 

The November 1774 Bertie County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions ordered Jemima Wiggins, 
8 years old, and Mary Beth Wiggins, 10 years old, "bastard Mulattos of Sarah Wiggins," bound 
to John Skinner. However, this order was reversed in the May 1775 Court session when Edward 
Wiggins, the children's father, convinced the court 

of the said Skinners ill & deceitful Behavior procuring sd Order.... 

The courts bound out the children of many free African American women because they were the 
common-law wives of slaves, but Doll Burnett argued against the binding of her daughter, Edith, 
in the 28 May 1777 Johnston County Court: 

and the court taking the Conduct Character and Circumstances of the said Doll Burnet into 
consideration & finding no just reasons to apprehend that the said Edith would become a charge 
to this County, Ordered her to be returned to the care of her said Mother again. 

In some instances the indenture laws virtually enslaved a person for life. George Cummins had 
the indenture of his white servant woman named Christian Finny extended by a year and her 
child bound for 31 years by order of the 7 December 1736 Carteret County Court because she 
had a "Mallatto Bastard Child during her service". She may have been the common-law wife of a 
slave for she was charged with having another "Melato" born 10 July 1739 and another on 20 
December 1743. When she applied to the court for her freedom on 9 June 1744, the court ruled 
that she serve for another five months to pay for the cost of the court suit against her. When she 
again applied for her freedom six months later, the court ruled that on checking the record she 
serve another year since she had a "Mullatto Child in the time of her servitude". 

Some unscrupulous masters treated their apprentices like slaves. On 21 September 1742 David 
Lewis brought John Russell, a six year old mixed race boy, into Craven County Court, requesting 
that he be bound to him and promising to Cause to be learned the sd Boy to Read & Write a 
Ledgable hand & teach him or cause to be taught the Shoemakers trade....
 
However, Lewis "made a present of the said boy" to his brother, John Lewis, of Chowan County, 
and his brother sold the boy to Captain Hews of Suffolk County, Virginia. 

Between 1759 and 1786 there were sixteen African American apprentices in Craven County who 
at the completion of their indentures had to petition the court for their freedom. The court ruled in 
the favor of the petitioners in every case.

Caleb Lockalier was bound apprentice to Stephen Kades who assigned him to Francis Kennaday, 
who assigned him to James Oneal, who assigned him to Thomas Hadley, who refused to release 
him from his indenture until ordered to do so by the 27 July 1786 Cumberland County Court. 

John Harris, a white Hyde County carpenter, found guilty of begetting a bastard child by Mary 
Ba_row, a white spinster, was required by law to support her. However, in June 1756 when the 
child was about two months old, the court learned that the child was mixed race. Harris was 
compensated for his expense by binding the child, a "Molatto Named George," to him for 21 
years. 

Robert West, Sr., advertised in the North Carolina Gazette of New Bern on 13 March 1752 for 
Thomas Bowman as if he were a runaway slave: 

Ran away from the subscribers, on Roanoke River, a Negro fellow, named Thomas Boman, a very 
good blacksmith, near 6 feet high, he can read, write and cyper, Whoever will apprehend him shall 
be paid 12 Pistoles, besides what the law allows. 

Almost twenty years later Thomas Bowman was a taxable "free Molatto" in John Moore's 
household in the Bertie County tax list of 1771, 1772, and 1774. 

A South Carolinian advertised in the North Carolina Central and Fayetteville Gazette on 25 July 
1795 for Nancy Oxendine, daughter of Charles Oxendine of Robeson County: 

$10 reward to deliver to the subscriber in Georgetown, a mustie servant woman named Nancy 
Oxendine, she is a stout wench, of a light complexion about 30 years old. It is supposed she has 
been ??els away by her brother and sister, the latter lives in Fayetteville. 

We also find cases where children were willingly bound by their parents to neighbors, friends, 
and relatives. Lovey Bass bound her illegitimate child, Nathan, to her neighbor, George Anderson. 
George Anderson was probably the boy's father. He devised his land to Nathan and his farm 
animals to Lovey Bass but left his wife and children only a shilling each. 

Other apprenticeships were simply a way for a person to acknowledge responsibility for a child's
support. Mary Bibby, a "black" taxable, had a "base born" child named Fanny who was bound 
out to Amy Ingram in Bute County on 13 May 1772. However, Mary had been living in the Ingram 
household for at least ten years prior to this. She and a slave named Charles were "black" 
taxables in Jesse Ingram's household in Gideon Macon's 1761 list for Goodwin's District of 
Granville County, and she and Charles were taxables in the Ingram household in the 1771 Bute 
County tax list of William Person. Mary was Charles' common-law wife according to a 28 June 
1893 letter from a Bibby descendant, Narcissa Rattley, to her children

Some masters took the apprenticeships seriously. In Bertie County on 26 September 1768 
Frederick James, 7 years old, "natural son of Ann James," was bound as an apprentice to John 
Norwood. And about 50 years later on 25 February 1817 we find Frederick James 
able to write his own Bertie County will in good handwriting. 

Free African Americans were also in danger of having their children stolen and sold into slavery. 
In his Revolutionary War pension application on 7 March 1834 Drury Tann declared in Southampton 
County, Virginia, Court that he was stolen from his parents when a small boy by persons unknown 
to him, who were carrying him to sell him into Slavery, and had gotten with him and other stolen 
property as far as the Mountains on their way, that his parents made complaint to a Mr. Tanner 
Alford who was Then a magistrate in the county of Wake State of North Carolina to get me back 
from Those who had stolen me and he did pursue the Rogues & overtook Them at the mountains 
and took me from Them. 

An advertisement in the 10 April 1770 issue of the North Carolina Gazette of New Bern describes 
how the Driggers family was victimized in Craven County, North Carolina: 

Broke into the house ... under the care of Ann Driggus, a free negro woman, two men in disguise, 
with marks on their faces, and clubs in their hands, beat and wounded her terribly and carried 
away four of her children. 

And John Scott, "freeborn negro," testified in Berkeley County, South Carolina, on 17 January 
1754 that three men, Joseph Deevit, William Deevit, and Zachariah Martin entered by force, the 
house of his daughter, Amy Hawley, and carried her off, with her six children, and he thinks they 
are taking them north to sell as slaves. 

One of the children was recovered in Orange County, North Carolina, where the county court 
appointed Thomas Chavis to return the child to South Carolina on 12 March 1754. 

Stealing free African Americans to sell them into slavery in another state was not a crime in North 
Carolina until 1779. However, free African Americans were afforded some protection under the law. 
In 1793 the murderer of John James of Northampton County was committed to jail according to the 
20 March 1793 issue of the North Carolina Journal: 

Last night Harris Allen, who was committed for the murder of John James, a free mulatto, of 
Northampton County, made his escape from the gaol of this town. He is a remarkable tall man, 
and had on a short round jacket. 

Many of the families in this history have at least one member who fought in the Revolutionary 
War. Several moved to South Carolina in the 18th century, and their names appear in the musters 
of the South Carolina Militia in the 1759 Cherokee Expedition. 

This service alongside whites established long lasting friendships. William Bryan, a Justice of 
the Peace for Johnston County, testified in court for Holiday Haithcock in support of his 
application for a Revolutionary War pension on 21 September 1834 explaining that 

Many of the families in this history have at least one member who fought in the Revolutionary 
War. This service alongside whites established long lasting friendships. 

In the times of our Revolutionary War free negroes and mulattoes mustered in the ranks with 
white men ... This affiant has frequently mustered in company with said free negroes and 
mulattoes ... That class of persons were equally liable to draft - and frequently volunteered in the 
public Service. 

And H. Thompson Venable wrote for him to the Commissioner of Pensions in Washington,  the 
case of Holliday Hethcock of N.C. has been suspended merely because he was a free man of 
color. As we understand that several cases of this sort have been admitted, you will oblige us by 
having it admitted. 

Charles Roberson Kee, a leading citizen of Northampton County, testified that he knew Drury 
Walden for more than twenty years and that no man, not James Polk himself is of better moral 
character. 

Many free African American families sold their land in the early nineteenth century and headed 
west or remained in North Carolina as poor farm laborers. This was probably the consequence of 
a combination of deteriorating economic conditions and the restrictive "Free Negro Code" laws. 

Beginning in 1826 and continuing through the 1850s, North Carolina passed a series of restrictive 
laws termed the "Free Negro Code" by John Hope Franklin. Free African Americans lost the right 
to vote and were required to obtain a license to carry a gun. Tensions arising from Nat Turner's 
slave rebellion in nearby Southampton County, Virginia, played a major role in the passage of 
these laws. It is also possible that moves against the African American population helped to divert 
the attention of poor whites from their worsening economic conditions in the 1830s. 

With the whole state literally up in arms over Nat Turner's rebellion, delegates to the General 
Assembly from Newbern called on the Assembly "setting forth the incompetency of free persons 
of color exercising the privilege of voting." Edmund B. Freeman, editor of the Roanoke Advocate, 
a Halifax County Weekly, boldly came to their support in the January 5, 1832 issue: 

It cannot be denied that free negroes, taken in the mass, are dissolute and abandoned — yet there 
are some individuals among them, sober, industrious and intelligent — many are good citizens; 
and that they are sometimes good voters we have the best proofs ... We do think that too much 
prejudice is excited against this class of our population... — but, at the same time, there is a 
class of white skinned citizens, equally low and abandoned, whose absence whould be little 
regretted.
 
If his attitude toward free African Americans was typical of white Halifax County residents, this 
would help to explain why free African Americans made up over 18% of the free population of the 
county in 1810 The editor's backhanded compliment certainly compares well to the sentiments 
of Robeson County residents: 

The County of Robeson is cursed with a free-coloured population that migrated originally from 
the districts round about the Roanoke and Neuse Rivers. They are generally indolent, roguish, 
improvident, and dissipated.
 
Or a northern paper quoted in the 5 January 1832 issue of the Roanoke Advocate complaining 
about "the evils arising from the immigration of free blacks" from other states into Pennsylvania: 

Overun by an influx of ignorant, indolent & depraved popullation most dangerous to the peace, 
rights & liberties of our citizens .... 

John Hope Franklin recorded a famous case in which Elijah Newsom of Cumberland County 
was prosecuted for carrying his gun in the county. However, Halifax County and Robeson County 
appear to have granted gun licenses freely. These licenses were recorded in the county court 
records from 1841 through 1846.

Many of those who left the state were enumerated in the 1840-1860 censuses of Indiana, Illinois, 
Ohio, and Michigan. Some went to Canada and a few to Haiti and Liberia. By 1857 when Henry 
Chavers (Chavis) emigrated to Liberia, life for free African Americans in North Carolina must have 
been truly oppressive. A letter written for him to his friend, Dr. Ellis Malone of Lewisburg in Franklin 
County, describing Liberia sounds like that of a recently liberated slave: 

this Land of Freedom ... a nation of free and happy Children of a hitherto downcast and oppressed 
Race ... I now begin to enjoy life as a man should do ... did my Coloured Friends only know or 
could they have seen what I already have seen they would not hesitate a moment to come to 
this Glorious Country.

By 1870 many of those who remained behind were living in virtually the same condition as the 
freed slaves. In the 1870 census for Northampton County, North Carolina, the most common 
occupation listed for those who were free before 1800 was "farm laborer," the same occupation 
as the former slaves. Some married former slaves, and by the twentieth century they had no idea 
their ancestors had been free. 

Some of the lighter-skinned descendants of these families formed their own distinct communities 
which have been the subject of anthropological research. Those in Robeson County are called 
"Lumbee Indians," in Halifax and Warren Counties — "Haliwa-Saponi," in South Carolina — 
"Brass Ankles" and "Turks," in Tennessee and Kentucky — "Melungeons" and "Portuguese," 
and in Ohio — "Carmel Indians." Several fantastic theories on their origin have been suggested. 
One is that they were from Raleigh's lost colony at Roanoke and another that they were an 
amalgamation of the Siouan-speaking tribes in North and South Carolina. 

Documents from a court case held in Johnson County, Tennessee in 1858 provide a detailed 
description of one such family. They illustrate the extent to which the family was accepted by 
the white community and the extent to which the family history was already clouded by myths 
in 1858. Joshua Perkins, born about 1732 in Accomack County, Virginia, was the "Mulatto" 
son of a white woman. He owned land in Robeson County, North Carolina in 1761, moved to 
Liberty County, South Carolina, and in 1785 moved to what later became Washington County, 
Tennessee. Along the way, succeeding generations of his family married light-skinned or white 
people. They owned a ferry, race horses, and an iron ore mine; ran the local school house, and 
were election officials. However, conditions had changed drastically just prior to the Civil War in 
1858 when Jacob F. Perkins, great-grandson of Joshua Perkins, brought an unsuccessful suit 
against one of his neighbors in the Circuit Court of Johnson County for slander because he called 
him a "free Negro". 

More than 50 witnesses made depositions or testified at the trial. Many of the deponents had
known three generations of the family in North Carolina, South Carolina, or Tennessee. Sixteen 
of twenty-two elderly witnesses who had actually seen Joshua Perkins testified that he was a 
"Negro," describing him as a dark skinned man with sheeps wool and flat nose ... [Ibid., deposition 
of Nancy Lipps]. 
black man, hair nappy ... Some called Jacob (his son) a Portuguese and some a negro [Ibid., 
deposition of John Nave, 88 years old]. 

Knew old Jock (Joshua) in North Carolina on Peedee ... right black or nearly so. Hair kinky ... like 
a common negro [Ibid., deposition of Abner Duncan, 86 years old]. 

However, eighteen witnesses for Perkins testified that Joshua Perkins was something other than 
"Negro" - Portuguese or Indian.Note 20 They said little about his physical characteristics and those 
of his descendants. Instead, they argued that he could not have been a "Negro" and been so totally 
accepted by his community: 

dark skinned man ... resembled an Indian more than a negro. He was generally called a 
Portuguese. Living well ... Kept company with everybody. Kept race horses and John Watson 
rode them [Ibid., deposition of Thomas Cook, 75 years old]. 

mixed blooded and not white. His wife fair skinned ... They had the same privileges [Ibid., 
deposition of Catherine Roller, 80 years old]. 

Hair bushy & long - not kinky. Associated with white people ... Associated with ... the most 
respectable persons. Some would call them negroes and some Portuguese [Ibid., deposition of 
John J. Wilson, about 70 years old]. 

He was known of the Portuguese race ... Four of his sons served in the Revolution ... Jacob and 
George drafted against Indians ... they came from and kept a ferry in South Carolina [Ibid., 
deposition of Anna Graves, 77 years old]. 

They kept company with decent white people and had many visitors[Ibid., deposition of Elizabeth 
Cook, about 71]. 

I taught school at Perkins school house ... they were Portuguese ... associated white peoples, 
clerked at elections and voted and had all privileges [Ibid., deposition of David R. Kinnick, aged 77]. 

Some who testified in favor of the Perkins family had never seen Joshua Perkins and seemed to be 
genuinely confused about the family's ancestry: 

I was well acquainted with Jacob Perkins (a second generation Perkins). A yellow man - said to 
be Portuguese. They do not look like negroes. I have been about his house a great deal and 
nursed for his wife. She was a little yellow and called the same race. Had blue eyes and black 
hair. Was visited by white folks [Ibid., deposition of Mary Wilson]. 

One of the deponents, 77 year old Daniel Stout, explained very simply how people of African 
descent could have been treated well by their white neighbors: 

Never heard him called a negro. People in those days said nothing about such things [Ibid., 
deposition of Daniel Stout]. 

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