Diving Into. . .

File Box 1, File No. 1.4, Part I.2

Franklin, John Hope. "The Free Negro In The Economic Life Of Ante-Bellum North Carolina, Parts I & II," in The North Carolina Historical Review, Volume XIX, No. 1, July 1942, pp. 239-259; and Volume XIX, No. 4, October 1942, pp. 358-375.

Occupational Restrictions Against Free Negroes

...although a large number of free Negroes made their living peddling, the legislature did not hesitate to put an effective check to it when the movement of free Negroes from place to place became distasteful to them (p. 246).

 Underlying a petition of the citizens of Lenoir County to the Assembly in 1831 was a fear that free Negroes would entice slaves to commit acts of thievery in their county, and that they provided bad morale for slaves. The petitioners also stated that

...free Negroes from New Bern brought in cakes, tobacco, and spirituous liquors to sell... (p. 247).
The outcome was that in 1831 the  General Assembly passed a law

...requiring all free Negro peddlers to obtain a license to sell goods within the limits of their resident county (Laws, 1831-1832, p. 24).

By 1852 the free white population of the state further restricted the laws governing free Negro peddlers; and Franklin gives evidence that by 1860, the only jobs free Negroes  were engaged in were those deemed non-threatening and menial. Few skilled craftsmen were employed, competing for jobs with whites. But the competition for jobs did not end there. The practice of masters hiring out their slaves became common in North Carolina, and provided an additional obstacle for those free Negroes seeking jobs in labor, farming, turpentine and timber...and as  washerwomen, watermen and servants.

The apprentice system which sought to train a skilled workforce seemed to leave free Negroes to change jobs as they became available, and underlying the struggle remained subsistence farming as a means of meeting the family's basic needs.

The young Isaac Carter first apprenticed as a cooper and then a shoemaker may have put those skills to good use in getting extra side-jobs, or in providing for his family's daily needs, or in getting his crop to market; but, nowhere was he ever enumerated on a Census record of having been employed in either of these trades.

Following the Civil War, Isaac's occupation was enumerated as follows:

• 1870: Farm Laborer
• 1880: Field Hand
• 1900: Pensioner
• 1910: House Painter (at 70 years of age).

He died in 1918, just twenty days short of his 78th birthday. His occupation was recorded as Farmer; and, the cause of his death: Old Age.

Diving Into. . .

File Box 1, File No. 1.4.Part II.1

Franklin, John Hope. "The Free Negro In The Economic Life Of Ante-Bellum North Carolina, Parts I & II," in The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. XIX, No. 3, July 1942, pp. 239-259; and Vol. XIX, No. 4, October 1942, pp. 358-375.

Distribution of wealth

As I came to the end of the article, I was reminded of

something I had written in my application for the

NEH Unaffiliated Independent Scholar Fellowship, 2008. . . .

Page 370 displays a table entitled, FREE NEGROES HAVING PROPERTY VALUED AT MORE THAN $2,500, with the commentary,

While this table does not represent the average holdings of the free Negro in ante-bellum North Carolina, it suggests that there was a number of individual cases in which free Negroes rose to a position of economic independence, despite obstacles (p. 371).

The table contains the names, occupations and valuations of estates for fifty-three persons. Below is a table which I created to analyze the raw date within Franklin's work.

Occupation	Number	High	Low	Mean
Baker	1	$2,750	---	---
Farmer	32	20,816	$2,500	$5,601
Barber	2	4,400	3,550	4,025
Farm Hand	2	5,554	3,450	4,502
Cabinet Maker	1	4,000	---	---
Musician	1	3,100	---	---
Carpenter	3	36,000	2,500	14,167
Housekeeper	1	5,500	---	---
Unlisted	4	14,000	2,500	6,425
Confection	1	5,905	---	---
Wheelwright	1	8,150	---	---
Clerk	1	5,000	---	---
Blacksmith	1	2,800	---	---

Most of the free Negroes who owned property were possessors of small estates worth a few hundred dollars or less. . . . Craven County, with 1,332 free Negroes in 1860,had only 179 free Negro property owners. . . (p. 370).

This focus on the exemplary is exactly what I have chosen NOT to include in my work. Our society, made up of average people working side-by-side, is what forms the spirit of community. And, that is what I have chosen to research: the average family, their trials and struggles to form a better community, where family sticks together and neighbor helps neighbor.

Franklin continues. . .

On the whole, a larger number of free Negroes possessed some type of personal property, ranging from silver watches to farming tools. . . . But the poverty of the free Negro group can be seen clearly through this study of the value of the property of the group. They possessed an aggregate wealth of $1,045,643. When one considers that more than 30,000 people had to share in this wealth of slightly more than one million dollars, the realization of their plight is inescapable. The per capita wealth of the free Negroes of North Carolina was only $34 in 1860. Thousands were landless and without any kind of property. 

A second table reports the aggregate value of property owned by free Negroes in North Carolina by county. In 1860, Craven County had an aggregate of real estate valued at $29, 865, and of personal property, $21, 137.

Amanuensis Monday -- creating databases for statistical analysis

When I first began the research for developing a social history of the locale where my husband's ancestors had settled, I worked extensively with Census data. Looking at raw Census schedules, however, is not a practical way to quickly identify patterns within the pages. I wanted to look at specific pieces of information on one page that would eliminate the extraneous. So I created a database which presents only the information I cared to examine. 

Below is a cross-section of my database of the 1910 Census for Township 5, Craven County, NC. The first column records the location: next is a listing of only those persons involved in work of some kind: the third and fourth columns record the type of work engaged: then I made columns for occupation. The first occupation column is farming. . . the second was timber. . . etc.

For this study, I wanted to determine if there was a location where farmers and timber workers were more densely concentrated. This is an area where my husband's ancestors lived. William H. Carter was my husband's grandfather's brother, or my husband's grand uncle. The Georges were my husband's g-grandmother's first cousins, or my husband's first cousins twice removed.

By mapping these statistics on a GIS map from the county tax assessor's office, I am able to reconstruct the beginnings of the social data I need for understanding the workings of a community.