Slavery and the War in WNC

8/14/2019 Slavery and the War in WNC

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Presented by: Slideshow by:


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When were the first slaves

in Western North Carolina?


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DeSoto came through WNC, crossing the French BroadRiver, in May 1540 with over 600 soldiers.

Many of these soldiers were slaves from northernAfrica, Spain, Portugal and Cuba.The next known presence of slaves in WNC was in1785 when Samuel Davidson moved to Swannanoa

with his wife, baby and a female teenage slave.


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How many slaves lived

in Buncombe County?


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In 1860 there were 1,103Slave Inhabitants


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Who were

some of thelargest slaveowners?


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The largest slave owner wasNicholas Woodfin who owned 120 people

that lived in 15 dwellings.

The other largest slave owners included

Patton, McDowell, Merrimon,Gudger, Baird and Vance.

Images from NC Collection,Pack Memorial Library
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.woodfin-nc.gov/pages/images/nicolos-woodfin.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.woodfin-nc.gov/pages/history.html&usg=__VotxBXw3ccBRNTIq2fIBqlQigh0=&h=176&w=150&sz=6&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=IP9zsrvSlTB8rM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=85&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522nicholas%2Bwoodfin%2522%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG


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How do you know

how many slaves there were?


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A national censusis taken every ten

years. Here is apage from the 1860census called theslave schedules

where slaveowners are listed in

the first columnand slaves are

represented in thesecond column

with hash marks.

Image from NC Collection, Pack Memorial Library


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Also, slave sales

were recorded inthe court house as

property deeds.This is an 1848

slave deed fromBuncombe Countyand it documentsthe purchase of a

14-year old girlfor $500.

Buncombe County Court House


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Pack Square isthe site of

Ashevilles firstcourthouse.

Slavepunishmentsand slave

imprisonment

also tookplace there.


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What kind of work did slaves do?

Did they grow cotton andtobacco in WNC?


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No, due to the topography in WNC, there was verylittle large-scale farming such as cotton,

tobacco or rice production.


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The largest uses of slave labor were forroad and railroad building,

mining,hotel industries,

factory work such as hat or rifle makingand the maintenance of a family home.


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Slave labor

helped buildthe Buncombe

Turnpike.



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Hotels were also operated on slave labor.People worked as chefs, blacksmiths, trail guides, and

house keepers. This is a picture of the

Eagle Hotel in Downtown Asheville.

Image from

NC Collection,

Pack Memorial

Library


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Were slavesallowed to gather?


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Slaves were required to have a pass if they left thepremises of their employment.

They could be put in jail or whipped if they were foundsomewhere without a pass.


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South Asheville Cemetery on Dalton Street inKenilworth dates back to the early 1800s.

The McDowell family allowed African Americans to

bury their dead there. There was somecongregating allowed for burials.


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Slaves were members of their owners churches.At least in some instances, they were allowed

to gather for worship.

After 1865, many of these membersformed their own separate churches such as

Hopkins Chapel AME, above (from Central United Methodist)and St. Mathias Episcopal (from Trinity Episcopal).


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What happened if slaves ran away?


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An ad from the Asheville Times

Look out for therunaways!!

Abolitionism!!!

$150 REWARD

November 12, 1857

Image from NC Collection,

Pack Memorial Library


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Did all the slaves live togetheror did each owner have a place

for their slaves?


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In general, slaves lived close to where

they worked. Sometimes this was asingle dwelling next to the owners

home. Other times, this was a

neighborhood or community near theirownerand/or their work.


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For example, the Patton family lived on Main Street(now Biltmore Avenue) in a house called The Henrietta.


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The Henrietta stood near where theFrench Broad Co-Op stands today(in the lot to the left of the Co-Op)


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The slaves lived behind the house in a community withat least 15 houses, near what is now South Charlotte

Street. Many of them worked at the Eagle Hotel on Main

Street which was owned by the Patton family.


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Today The Fine Arts Theatre is locatedabout where the Eagle Hotel once stood.


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Sarah Gudger was born intoslavery in 1815 and lived inReems Creek and Oteen.

Her testimony is recorded inthe Federal Writers Project

called the Slave Narratives...

I never knew what it wasto rest. I just worked all the

time from morning till late

at night...work in the field,

chop wood, hoe corn, till

sometime I felt like my

back would surely break. I

did everything except split

rails. You know, they split

rails back in those days.

Well, I never split rails.


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What were some of the things that

happened during the Civil War?


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North Carolina was the last state in theconfederacy to secede from the Union.After the bombardment on Fort Sumter(near Charleston, South Carolina) on

April 12, 1861, Lincoln called onNorth Carolina to send troops

to put down the rebellion.


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On April 15, when word arrived of Lincolns summons,Zebulon Vance, born in Reems Creek, was pleading for

the preservation of the Union with his arms upraised.

When my hand came down

from that impassionedgesticulation, he said, itfell slowly and sadly by the

side of a secessionist.

In 1862, Vance was elected governor of North Carolina.


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Patton Camp on Charlotte Street was the site ofdrills during the Civil War.


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During the Civil War an armory was built to make rifles.The armory was largely run on slave labor.


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Hunger, more than battles, was the biggest problem forpeople in Asheville during the Civil War.

One day dear old Mammy came up and said

Mistis, we have only a little meal in the house and

all this large family of white and black to feed what

shall we do? Mother replied Betsey I have done

my best, I can do no more, the Lord will provide.My Mother said she could not now possibly feed

the Negroes who were not absolutely necessary to

the comfort of the family; they should go to their

emancipators for help.

Katherine Polk Gale

Recollections of Life in the Southern

Confederacy, 1861-1865, in the Gale and Polk

Family Papers #266, Southern Historical

Collection, Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill.


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Were there any free

people of color in WNC?


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In 1860, there were some 30,000 Free People of Color in NorthCarolina. The vast majority lived in urban areas, along the border of

Virginia and on the coast. In the 1850 Buncombe County Census there

were 9 families listed as Free People of Color...

J.M and Eliza Edney(Maria, Susan, Harbin and Sophia)Learda Wilson(Leandra and Becky)

Mary Baird(Henry)Austin and Becky Dockins(Thomas, Robert, Ivanna, and Rebecca)James and Barbara Wilson(Carolina, Jackson, William, Jane,

Henrietta, Janet, Isaac, Margaret, Sarah, and William)Benjamin and Nancy Dockery(George, Jess, Isaac, Solomon,

Elizabeth, and Wilbur)William and Elizabeth Gilliam(William, Bid and Mary Cousins)Sally Childress(Marilda)William and Mary Hammonds(Andrew, Sarah, John Wesley, Martha,

Alexandre, Miranda, Minerva, William, and Josh)


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Were there any battles fought in

WNC? What were their significance?


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Mostly people from

here went somewhereelse to fight, likeChickamauga inChattanooga.

There is alarge monument next

to the courthousecommemorating the

battle.


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At the very end of the war there was The Battle ofAsheville. The ramparts of the walls are located in

the Botanical Gardens in Asheville.


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Did African Americans in WNC

fight for the confederacy?


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Some men who were slaves went withtheir owners to battle to care for them just as

they cared for them at home cooking theirmeals, mending their clothing, and

caring for their animals.

Sam Cope went to war withJames Walton Patton.


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The Northern army of Stoneman, led by GeneralGilliam, marched on Asheville on April 26, 1865.They were also known as the army of liberation

because slaves across the south fell in line with thesoldiers and fled their home communities.


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Stonemans Army marched up Main Street(now Biltmore Avenue)


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The following day the troops began to file by; theypassed just in front of our lawn; you, with the restof the children accompanied by your nurses, went

to a point where you could have a view of them inpassing...It took a long while for these troops topass. After they had all gone, it was discoveredthat your Aunt Emilys two nurses, with several

other Negroes in the neighborhood, had joinedforces and gone off with the Yankees. Poor old

Mammy and Altimore were terribly mortified andgrieved at the evidence of ingratitude; but werealized it was the beginning of the general

emancipation which would cause a completerevolution in our lives. Katherine Polk Gale

Recollections of Life in the Southern Confederacy,

1861-1865, in the Gale and Polk Family Papers

#266, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library


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What happened to

African Americans after the War?

With his wife Margaret Isaac Dickson bought the slave


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With his wife Margaret, Isaac Dickson bought the slavecommunity from Thomas Walton Patton

and built Dickson Town

Special Collections atHiden Ramsey Library,

UNC Asheville


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Isaac Dickson and his nephew James Wilson, leftMargaret Dickson, right

Images from Special Collections at

Hiden Ramsey Library, UNC Asheville


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The graves of Isaac Dickson and James Wilsonin Riverside Cemetery


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Some African Americans left with Stoneman's

Army of liberation when it marched throughAsheville in April 1865 to start a new life in

other places in the United States.

Other African Americans stayed in their

mountain communities and continued toprovide the types of labor and skills they had

provided before the War ended.


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In Asheville, just west of Pack Square,

Oscar Eastmond operated theFreedman's Bureau.

The Freedmans Bureau

was an arm of the WarDepartment and

supervised all relief andeducational activities

relating to refugees andfreedmen, including

issuing rations, clothing

and medicine.

This drawing from Harper's Magazine in 1868 shows


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This drawing from Harper s Magazine in 1868 showsAfrican American property-owning men registering to

vote two years after the end of the war. The sketchshows what is now the south side of Pack Square.



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Throughout the following years, AfricanAmericans added to the infrastructure of the

community by building schools...

AllenHomeSchool


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Churches...

Hopkins Chapel

Berry Temple


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Businesses...

View ofEagle

Street


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The YMI Cultural Center hascelebrated African Americanculture and diversity in the

community since 1891

And community organizations. Many of theseorganizations still stand today, including the YMICC.

Commissioned by GeorgeVanderbilt in 1892, the

structure was built by andfor the several hundred

Negro craftsmen who helpedconstruct the Biltmore

House. It became known asthe Young Men's Institute or

YMI. Today, the YMI Cultural

Center is the most enduringAfrican-American socio-

cultural institution inWestern North Carolina andserves as a unifying voicefor community concerns

Documents

Slavery and the War in WNC