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Slavery in Orange County

Enslaved people in the county’s households, farms, courts and university from the first settlements to emancipation in 1865, and the recovery of their graves and names since.

In briefEnslaved people worked the county’s farms, households, courts and university from the first settlements, building Old East and South Building, appearing in the 1790 tax list and the 1860 census count of more than 5,000, and passing through the courts in the Kirkland suit of 1804 and State v. Mann in 1829. Emancipation in 1865 freed about 6,000 people; the recovery of their graves and names, from Margaret Lane Cemetery to the university’s list of 119, has continued since 1987.

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14 works about Slavery in Orange County are indexed here. 5 held at OCPL →

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Horton Grove, the slave quarters built about 1850 at Stagville, in what was then Orange County
Horton Grove, the slave quarters built about 1850 at Stagville, in what was then Orange County

In the chronology

Episodes in this history, in date order. Each has its own page.

The county patrol, 1787–18291787–1829 · 14 events · From 1787 the Orange County court named patrols to watch the movements of enslaved people: patrols for Hillsborough, for the county's districts and, in 1799, for the neighborhood of the University. From at least 1807 the patrols were paid with a tax on each Black poll, and committees of justices drafted rules for them in 1809 and 1813. The court also licensed some enslaved men to carry guns on their owners' land, on the motions of men such as Richard Bennehan and Duncan Cameron, and twice ordered patrollers to give back guns they had taken. In 1829 Chapel Hill's first town ordinance set up a town patrol, and the county was still levying its patrol tax on Black polls. Freedom and free people of color in the county court, 1791–18171791–1817 · 13 events · Freedom from slavery in Orange County passed through the county court, which granted it under wills and petitions and judged the claims of free Black people held as slaves or runaways. In May 1791 it let Anne Hooper, widow of William Hooper, free John for his meritorious service. Over the next two decades it decreed freedom under the wills of James Armstrong, William Freeman and Major Absalom Tatom and on Pleasant Henderson's petition, often with new names such as Samuel Freeman and Tatom. It ordered Jethro Pettiford, a free boy offered for sale, returned to his mother in 1797, and discharged Joseph Lantorn and George Simms, jailed as suspected runaways, once they satisfied the justices they were free.

Other events in this storyline, in date order. See these 239 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Orange County begins with fifty taxable enslaved people When the county was organized its tax lists showed fifty enslaved Black taxables, thirty-five men and fifteen women, a small number for a county of small farms.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 95
  2. Clerk Richard Caswell reports the county's tithables Caswell's return for 1754 counted 950 white taxable polls and 50 Black ones, 35 men and 15 women. At a shilling a poll, the county's share of the provincial tax came to no more than 50 pounds. People: Richard CaswellLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 172
  3. Eight percent of Orange families hold people in slavery In 1755 only 8 percent of the county's families held enslaved people, and the largest holder, Mark Morgan, held six. People: Mark MorganLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 16
  4. The Few family settles on the Eno with four enslaved people and builds a saw and grist mill William Few brought his family from Maryland in the fall of 1758 to 640 acres bought from James Taylor, lying on both sides of the Eno about seven miles east of the county town. Four enslaved people came with them, and Few and his brother James built a saw and grist mill on the river.Search the index · Internet Archive: Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903)
  5. Orange County's 1766 tax return counts 3,324 white and 649 Black taxables The return of taxables for 1766 counted 3,324 white men and 649 Black and mulatto men and women in Orange County, 3,973 taxables in all. These were people liable for the poll tax, not the whole population, and the returns do not show the Black population growing faster than the white.Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 7, pp. 288-289: Return of the lists of taxables for the year 1766 · Also: Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952
  6. Richard Bennehan lists 31 enslaved people for taxes On the 1778 tax list Richard Bennehan of Stagville, one of the largest landholders in Orange County with 4,065 acres, reported 31 enslaved people. Most Orange households of the period held no one in slavery. People: Richard BennehanNC Digital Collections: Historic Resources of Orange County, National Register multiple property documentation form (1993), p. 16
  7. Most Orange enslavers hold fewer than ten people By 1780, 95 percent of the county's enslavers held fewer than ten people and 3 percent held twenty or more.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 16
  8. Hillsborough's count at the end of the war: forty white polls and sixty-seven enslaved people At the close of the Revolution the town listed forty white taxable men and sixty-seven enslaved people between the ages of twelve and fifty, which Nash reads as a population of about three hundred.Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 89
  9. William Hooper divides enslaved people among his children At Hillsborough, William Hooper gave his son Thomas Hogg Hooper a woman named Judah and her child Jack, in place of Tom, a man Robert Hogg had willed to Thomas and whom Hooper had sold to Samuel Campbell for 120 pounds. The same day, to put his children on an equal footing, he made over Pat and her son Alfred to his daughter Elizabeth and sold a girl named Molly to his son William, each transfer completed by handing a silver spoon to James Hogg as trustee. People: William Hooper, James HoggOrange County Register of Deeds: Deed Book 2, pp. 455 and 457 (deed image) · Also: Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867; Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 2/455, with everyone named in it; Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 2/457, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 2/455, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 2/457, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  10. Thomas Lloyd signs his lands and enslaved people over to his sons-in-law To keep his property from confiscation as a Loyalist, Thomas Lloyd conveyed his lands and the people he enslaved to his sons-in-law Daniel and John Hogan for nominal sums and leased them straight back. His property was never confiscated. People: Colonel John HoganSearch the index · NCpedia: Lloyd (or Loyd, Loyde), Thomas
  11. The court names four patrollers for the town of Hillsborough The court appointed Robert McIntire, Martin Cole, James Lunday and William Cummings patrollers for the town of Hillsborough. The patrol watched the movements of enslaved people; in these years the court named patrollers for the town again in 1788 and 1792 and for the St. Mary's, St. Mark's and Caswell districts from 1789.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1787
  12. The court lets John, a man enslaved by William Hooper, carry a gun on Hooper's land On William Hooper's motion through his attorney Jesse Benton, the court allowed John, a man Hooper held in slavery, to hunt with and carry a gun on Hooper's plantation on the Eno about two miles below Hillsborough, to protect Hooper's stock and kill game for his family. People: William Hooper, Jesse BentonMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1789
Show all 239 dated events
  1. The court gives Thomas Burke's executor leave to sell four enslaved people to pay the estate's debts The court gave James Hogg, executor of Thomas Burke, deceased, leave to sell Flora, Cate, Peter and Fran, people held in slavery by the estate, with other perishable property, to pay the debts the estate owed, and to report to the next court. People: James Hogg, Thomas BurkeMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1789
  2. The county tax list counts 36 white polls and 82 taxable enslaved people in Hillsborough town Orange County's 1790 tax list returned 2,272 polls and 406,106 acres across its eight districts, with a separate list for Hillsborough town showing 36 white polls against 82 black polls. William Hooper was charged for 22 of them, John Taylor for 10 and Francis Childs for 5. People: William Hooper, Walter AlvesDocumenting the American South: List of taxpayers in Orange County in 1790
  3. The first federal census counts 2,060 enslaved people in Orange County The first federal census counted 12,216 people in Orange County: 10,055 white residents, 2,060 enslaved people and 101 other free persons. No other Piedmont county held as many enslaved people, and Richard Bennehan (24) and William Hooper (22, in Hillsborough) were the largest holders. People: Richard Bennehan, William HooperLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 95-96
  4. The court gives Anne Hooper leave to free John for meritorious service On the personal application of Anne Hooper, widow of William Hooper, the court found that John, a man she held in slavery, had served his late master and his present mistress faithfully and honestly. It judged that service meritorious and deserving of freedom and gave her leave to set him free. People: William HooperMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1791
  5. A called court discharges Jack, a man enslaved by Absalom Tatom, when no accuser appears A called court of three justices and four freeholders met to try Jack, a man held in slavery by Absalom Tatom. The sheriff called for the presentment, no one appeared, and Jack was discharged. People: Absalom TatomMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: November Term 1793
  6. The court licenses three men enslaved by Richard Bennehan to carry guns On Richard Bennehan's motion, the court ordered the chairman to grant certificates under the act of Assembly for Daniel at the Brickhouse plantation, Frank at Bennehan's Quarter plantation and Ned at his store to carry guns, Bennehan giving bond. The same term it ordered that the guns the St. Mary's District patrollers had taken from people enslaved by Bennehan, William Cain and others be returned to the owners. People: Richard BennehanMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1794
  7. A called court discharges Moses, a man enslaved by William Mangom, when no one proves the charge At a court called in July 1794 to try Moses, a man held in slavery by William Mangom, Barnabas Burrows swore that notice of the trial had been given to Mangom. Moses pleaded not guilty; no one appeared to prove the charge, and he was discharged on payment of costs and jail fees. John Hogg acted as clerk in the clerk's absence.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1794
  8. Enslaved men owned by contractor James Patterson paint the roof of Old East James Patterson, the slaveholding contractor who built Old East between 1793 and 1795, reported in a 1795 letter that several of his own enslaved workers had painted the building's roof. Their names were not recorded. People: James PattersonUNC University Archives (For the Record): Slave Labor and Old East
  9. A jury convicts Isaac, a man enslaved by William Lytle, on a charge the minutes do not name In State v. Isaac, a man held in slavery by William Lytle, a jury of twelve heard Africa, a man enslaved by William Courtney, and Silvia, a woman enslaved by a man whose name the transcription leaves unclear, testify for the State, and found Isaac guilty as charged. The minutes do not give the charge or the sentence. People: William CourtneyMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1795
  10. The court frees Cicero under James Armstrong's will On the petition of John Taylor and Robert Faucit, executors of James Armstrong, the court decreed Cicero, a Black man Armstrong had enslaved, free from slavery under Armstrong's will and the state's laws on freeing slaves, with the rights of a free-born Black man. James Mebane Jr. had cited the executors to show why Cicero should not be sold for the estate; the court charged the costs to him.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1797
  11. The court orders Jethro Pettiford, a free boy of color offered for sale as though enslaved, returned to his mother The court found that Jethro Pettiford, a free boy of color about seventeen years old, had been brought into the county and offered for sale by Adam Marley "as a Slave" (the minutes' words) and had been for some time in the care of William Partin. It ordered Partin to deliver the boy to his mother, Patience Pettiford of Nash County.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1797
  12. The court frees Sam, son of Rachel, and names him Samuel Freeman On the petition of Frances Child and Mary Doherty, children of William Freeman of Bertie County, the court decreed Sam, a man of color living in Orange County, free under Freeman's will. The court found that Freeman had left Sam's mother Rachel and all her children free for her meritorious services. Sam was licensed to go at large with the rights of a free man of color and was to be known as Samuel Freeman.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1798
  13. The court binds Moses, a free Black boy, to potter John Bullock The county court bound a free Black boy known as Moses, sixteen years old that month, to John Bullock until he came of age, to learn the trade of a potter.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1798
  14. The court sentences Bob, an enslaved man, to whipping, mutilation and branding The county court found Bob, held in slavery by William Hunt of Granville County, guilty of breaking into Samuel Dick's house and taking goods. It sentenced him to thirty-nine lashes at the public whipping post, to have his ears nailed to the pillory and cut off, and to be branded on both cheeks, and ordered the sheriff to carry out the sentence between noon and two o'clock that day.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1798
  15. William Courtney mortgages a man named Africa to William Cain William Courtney of Orange County pledged an enslaved man known as Africa to William Cain as security for 200 pounds, the bill of sale to be void if Courtney repaid the debt with interest by the following February 28. People: William Cain Sr., William CourtneyOrange County Register of Deeds: Deed Book 7, p. 321 (deed image) · Also: Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867; Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 7/321, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 7/321, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  16. A free Black distiller works on East King Street as the county counts its Black residents Africa Parker, a free Black man, was running a distillery on East King Street near William Courtney's house in Hillsborough in 1799. The census the next year counted 3,327 enslaved people and 100 free Black people in Orange County alongside 12,222 white residents.Search the index · North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation
  17. Richard Bennehan builds the Stagville house Bennehan built the house he called Stagville. By then he owned about 4,000 acres, worked by 44 or more enslaved people. The same year he joined the university's board of trustees.Search the index · NCpedia: Bennehan, Richard (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)
  18. The court appoints a patrol for the University village The county court appointed John Scott, William Forsyth and Samuel Hayes a patrol for the village and neighborhood of the University.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1799
  19. The court leaves Rachel, Suckey and Billey in Mary Doherty's care while their freedom petition is heard In the petition of Frances Child and Mary Doherty against Robert Freeman to free Rachel, Billey and Suckey, whom William Freeman of Bertie County had held, the court ordered the three to remain in Mary Doherty's custody until the petition was finally heard and decided.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: November Term 1799
  20. William Cain is the largest landowner in Orange County, enslaving 30 people By 1800 William Cain owned 4,417 acres, the most of any landowner in Orange County, and enslaved 30 people at Pleasant Grove, a number he increased to 95 by 1830.Search the index · Open Durham: Pleasant Grove / Hardscrabble Plantation
  21. The court frees Rachel and her children Billy and Sukey, who take the name Joel The court decreed Rachel and her children Billy and Sukey, living in Orange County, free under the will of William Freeman of Bertie County, which had left Rachel and all her children free for her meritorious services. Freeman's son and executor Robert Freeman had failed to answer the petition of Frances Child and Mary Doherty, so it was heard without him. The three were licensed to go at large as free persons of color, to be known as Rachel Joel, Billy Joel and Sukey Joel, and Robert Freeman was ordered to pay the costs.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1800
  22. The court grants Africa Parker, a free man of color, a license at his Hillsborough house for a purpose the minutes do not state The county court granted a license to Africa Parker, a free man of color, at his dwelling house in Hillsborough, and he gave bond with securities. The minutes do not say what the license was for.Search the index · Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1800
  23. A jury acquits Peter, an enslaved man, of murder Peter, held in slavery by Sarah Horton, was tried in the county court on an indictment for murder, pleaded not guilty, and was found not guilty by a jury of twelve.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1801
  24. The court binds James Revill, a boy of color, to Benjamin Kinchen, a man of color The county court bound James Revill, whom the minutes call a boy of color about twenty years old, to Benjamin Kinchen, whom they call a man of color, to learn farming until he came of age.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1801
  25. The court lets Jack and Sam, enslaved by William Cain, carry guns to hunt On William Cain's motion the county court allowed two men he held in slavery, Jack at his plantation on New Hope Creek and Sam at his plantation on Little River, to carry a gun each and hunt in his woods. Cain, with Duncan Cameron as his security, gave a bond of £100 for their behavior. People: Duncan CameronMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1802
  26. The court frees George, Cate, Sally, young George and Jack under Absalom Tatom's will The county court decreed that George, Cate, Sally, her child young George, and Jack be set free, as the will of the late Major Absalom Tatom directed. His executors, Duncan Cameron, John Hogg, Catlett Campbell and Samuel Goodwin, brought the will into court and applied for their freedom on the ground of their meritorious services to Tatom. The court found the services shown and gave the five all the rights and privileges of free-born Black people. People: Absalom Tatom, Duncan CameronMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1803
  27. The court binds Johney Revill, a free boy of color, and three other Revill boys to William Cain The county court bound Johney Revill, a free boy of color who would be thirteen in January, to William Cain to learn farming, and in the next order bound Hubbard, Natt and Macklin Revill to Cain as well, leaving their ages blank. At November Term 1801 the court had bound Nathaniel and MacLin Revill, sons of Barbary Revill, to Jesse Rice.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: November Term 1803
  28. Suit by William Kirkland and others leads to the sale of Hannah and her children Legal proceedings brought by William Kirkland, Catlett Campbell, Jacob Greer and Isaac Mordecai against Robert Bell placed Hannah and her children Jenny and David in the hands of the sheriff. Sheriff Samuel Turrentine sold the three at public auction at the Hillsborough Market House to Duncan Cameron for 200 pounds. People: Duncan Cameron, William KirklandOn These Grounds (UNC Libraries): 1804, Sale of Hannah, Jenny, and David
  29. The court binds Edy Weaver's five children to their mother, a free woman of color The county court bound Tabitha, Major, David, Sally and William Weaver to their mother, Edy Weaver, until they came of age, the girls to learn spinning and the boys farming. At the previous term the court had ordered Sterling Harris to bring Tabitha, Salley and Major Weaver, children of Edy Weaver, a free woman of color, to court to be bound out as apprentices.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1804
  30. The court frees Fanny Smith, a free girl of color, from her master and binds her to her mother On application the court released John Taylor Jr. from his covenant for Fanny Smith, a free girl of color it had bound to him some time before, and bound her instead to her mother, Lucy Smith, until she came of age, to learn spinning.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1806
  31. The court levies a patrol tax on Black polls and pays the patrollers The county court ordered a tax of one shilling on each Black poll to pay the patrols, and allowed £5 each, from the county trustee, to the patrollers it had found entitled to pay for the past year. It added Hugh Wilson to those entitled.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1807
  32. The court binds out seven children of Penny Weaver, a free woman of color The county court bound seven children of Penny Weaver, a free woman of color, to serve until they turned twenty-one: Nancy, born in 1792, to a Roberts whose first name the transcription leaves unread; Lucy to William Roberts; Edith to James Latta; Elizabeth, or Betty, to John Latta; Franky to Edward Harris; Penny to Robert Harris; and Simon, born in 1800, to Duncan Cameron. The six girls were to learn spinning and Simon farming. People: Duncan CameronMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1808
  33. The court sentences Pompey, a Black man, to the pillory and the lash A jury found Pompey guilty on the second count of an indictment and not guilty on the first. The court sentenced him to an hour in the pillory and thirty-nine lashes, and ordered the sheriff to carry out the sentence at once.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1808
  34. The court frees Abram, who is to be known as Abraham Manso On the petition of Pleasant Henderson, the court ordered Abram, a Black man of about forty-one, emancipated and set free, and ordered that he be called and known as Abraham Manso. People: Pleasant HendersonMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1809
  35. The court names a committee to draft rules for the patrols The court appointed Samuel Benton, Abner B. Bruce, James Webb, Frederick Nash and William Norwood to draft rules and regulations for governing the patrols and to report at the next term. At the same term it again levied one shilling on each Black poll outside Hillsborough to pay the patrols and allowed forty shillings each to patrollers for the past year. People: James Webb, Frederick Nash, William NorwoodMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1809
  36. The court frees nine people under Absalom Tatom's will, who take the name Tatom On the petition of the trustees of Absalom Tatom's estate, the court decreed George, Cate, Jack, Sally and her son young George, and Sally's children Jesse, Jim, Patsey and Betsey free. The court found that the first five had done meritorious services and that Tatom had left them and their increase to trustees to have them freed. They were to be known as George Tatom, Cate Tatom, Jack Tatom, George Tatom the younger, Sally Tatom, Jesse Tatom, Jim Tatom, Patsey Tatom and Betsey Tatom, with the rights of free-born Black people. Trustees Will Kirkland, David Ray and Duncan Cameron gave bond that the county would not have to support them. People: Absalom Tatom, Duncan CameronMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1809
  37. The court lets four enslaved men on the Bennehan and Cameron lands carry guns The county court gave leave to carry guns to three men enslaved by Richard Bennehan, Frank Kennon at the store, Humphrey at the Little River plantations and a man at the Brick House whose name the transcription gives as Donom with a query, and to David, enslaved by Duncan Cameron at his Eno plantation. The owners gave bond and security as the law required. People: Richard Bennehan, Duncan CameronMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: November Term 1809
  38. The court orders patrollers to return guns taken from Bennehan and Cameron slaves The court ordered Leonard Laws and George Laws, patrollers in what had been Captain Harris's company, now Duke's, in St. Mary's district, to return to Richard Bennehan and Duncan Cameron six guns they had taken from men the two held in slavery. People: Richard Bennehan, Duncan CameronMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: November Term 1809
  39. Cameron builds Fairntosh east of the Stagville house On land beside Stagville that Richard Bennehan gave the couple at their 1803 marriage, Duncan Cameron began building Fairntosh in 1810, finished the main house in 1811 and added a large wing about 1818 to 1821. Its dependencies included his law office, a chapel and a family burying ground, and he went on to hold more than a thousand people in slavery. People: Richard BennehanSearch the index · UNC Wilson Library, Southern Historical Collection: Cameron Family Papers #00133, biographical note · Also: NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Cameron, Duncan
  40. The court frees Joseph Lantorn, jailed as a suspected runaway, as a free man of color Joseph Lantorn had been held in the county jail on suspicion of being a runaway slave. Brought into court, he satisfied the justices that he was a free man of color; he took the oath of an insolvent debtor, and the court ordered him discharged from confinement.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: November Term 1810
  41. The Strudwick heirs' enslaved people are hired out under Dr. James Webb's guardianship After Col. William F. Strudwick died in 1810, Dr. James Webb managed the estate for his widow and younger sons and hired out the people it held, listing them by name year after year. In 1819 two of those assigned to young Edmund Strudwick, Jim and Nelly, were sold or leased for $533 and $500. People: James Webb, Edmund StrudwickBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 28-29
  42. A jury of slaveholders convicts Joshua, an enslaved man, of murdering Abner Tapp The county court tried Joshua, an enslaved man, on an information charging him with the murder of Abner Tapp. A jury of twelve freeholders who owned slaves found him guilty, and the court sentenced him to be hanged on March 15, 1811, between ten and three o'clock, and ordered the sheriff to carry out the sentence. The next day the court gave Tapp's administrators leave to sell his perishable estate and an enslaved woman named Lydia to divide the estate.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1811
  43. William Kirkland gives four enslaved people to Thomas and Anne Ruffin Out of affection for his son-in-law Thomas Ruffin and his daughter Anne, William Kirkland of Ayr Mount conveyed to Ruffin a woman named Juley, her two children, John and an infant, and a young girl, all of them already in the Ruffins' household. The deed was proved at the Orange County court that August. People: William Kirkland, Thomas Ruffin, Anne Kirkland RuffinOrange County Register of Deeds: Deed Book 13, pp. 574-575 (deed image) · Also: Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867; Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 13/574, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 13/574, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  44. The court spares Sam, an enslaved man, from death under benefit of clergy and orders him branded Tried on an information for burglary, Sam, an enslaved man, was found not guilty of burglary but guilty of grand larceny. Asked why a death sentence should not be passed, he prayed the benefit of clergy, which the court allowed. It ordered him branded on the brawn of the left thumb with the letter T and held until costs were paid. The next day's minutes record that the sentence was carried out in court.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1812
  45. The court levies a patrol tax on Black polls and names patrols in the captains' companies The court ordered a tax of one shilling on each Black taxable poll to pay the patrols. The same day it appointed patrols of two to four men in at least sixteen captains' companies, among them those of Michael Holt, John Graham, James Lapslie, Jehu Bird, William Holt, Richard and John Blackwood and John Kirk, and allowed pay to thirty-two men for patrol service.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1812
  46. The court has the sheriff take two Whittaker children of color from James Thompson The court ordered the sheriff to take into his possession two children of color named Whittaker, then held by James Thompson (son of Thomas), to keep them safely, and to bring them to the next term.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: November Term 1812
  47. The court names Thomas Ruffin and three others to draft rules for the patrols The court appointed Thomas Ruffin, Frederick Nash, William Norwood and Catlet Campbell a committee to draft rules and regulations for the government of the patrols and to report at the next term. The same term it allowed thirty men pay as patrollers, to share the patrol money equally. People: Thomas Ruffin, Frederick Nash, William NorwoodMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1813
  48. The court binds Peter, a boy of color, to John Redmond and requires a bond for his delivery at the end of the term The court bound Peter, a six-year-old boy of color whose mother, Polley Copley, was a white woman, to John Redmond until he came of age, to learn hatting. Redmond had to give bond and security that he would deliver the boy at the end of his apprenticeship.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1814
  49. A jury acquits Ned, an enslaved man, of murdering Robert Grisham The court tried Ned, an enslaved man held by Thomas Holloway, on an indictment for the murder of Robert Grisham. After ordering witnesses for the state subpoenaed overnight, among them Samuel and Benjamin Peelor, Jeany Copley and Rachel Copley, it swore a jury that found Ned not guilty.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1814
  50. Orange County's enslaved people are valued at nearly two thirds of its land The 1815 valuation put the county's enslaved population at $1,216,347 and all its land at $1,917,993.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 97
  51. The court sentences Jim, an enslaved man, to hang for housebreaking and grants his appeal The court convicted Jim, also called James, an enslaved man, of housebreaking, larceny and felony and sentenced him to be hanged on June 28, 1816, between noon and four o'clock. Thomas Snipes, who held Jim as executor of William Ramsey's will, had defended him; both Jim and Snipes prayed an appeal, which the court granted. During the case the court fined William Horner, a state witness who failed to appear, and jailed Burk Walker, charged as an accessory, until he gave security for his good behavior.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1816
  52. The court summons James Forsyth to produce John Whittaker, a boy of color bound to him The court ordered a summons to James Forsyth to bring into the next court John Whittaker, a boy of color bound to him, and to show cause why the indenture should not be cancelled. The sheriff was to take a bond of £250 from Forsyth, void if he produced the boy.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1817
  53. The court releases George Simms, jailed as a suspected runaway, as a free man George Simms, a man of color, had been committed to the county jail on suspicion of being a runaway slave. Brought into court, he satisfied the justices that he was free, took the oath for the relief of insolvent debtors, and was discharged.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1817
  54. The court licenses Sam, the enslaved man who ran Ephraim Cain's Eno plantation, to carry a gun Ephraim Cain told the court that he had no white overseer on his plantation on the Eno, that the place was run by an enslaved man of his named Sam, and that no other enslaved person there held a license to carry a gun. The court granted a license for Sam to carry a gun on that plantation, on Cain's giving bond and security as the law required.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: November Term 1817
  55. George Moses Horton begins selling poems to UNC students By about age twenty, George Moses Horton, enslaved on a Chatham County farm, was carrying fruit to the UNC campus on Sundays, and students began paying him to compose love poems and acrostics. His first printed poem appeared in April 1829, the year The Hope of Liberty was published.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Richard Walser, George Moses Horton, 1798?-ca. 1880 (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)
  56. The court cancels Nancy Whitaker's indenture to Polly Comb and binds her to Henry Thompson Jr. The court cancelled the indenture binding Nancy Whitaker, a free girl of color about thirteen, to Polly Comb, and bound her instead to Henry Thompson Jr. until she came of age, to learn spinning.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1818
  57. The court binds Samuel Strudwick over to the Superior Court for the death of an enslaved woman he whipped Told that Samuel Strudwick had whipped one of the women he enslaved and that she afterwards died, the court, with the consent of Solicitor General Edward Jones, ordered a recognizance taken for Strudwick's appearance at the next Superior Court to answer for killing her. Paoli Ashe, Richard Ashe and John Taylor entered into the recognizance.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1818
  58. Mary Walker is born into an enslaved family held by the Bennehans and Camerons Mary Walker was born to Priscilla, whose mother Aggy had been one of the first enslaved children born on the Bennehan plantation in 1781. Her monument at Mount Auburn Cemetery records her birth in Orange County.Search the index · NC Historic Sites: TrueInclusion, Historic Stagville
  59. The county pays the coroner for the inquest on Bella, held by Samuel Strudwick The court allowed coroner John Faddis five pounds for holding an inquest on the body of Bella, whom the minutes describe as late the property of Samuel Strudwick. The order was issued to Faddis on March 9, 1819.Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: August Term 1818
  60. Drunken students break into a Chapel Hill kitchen and beat an enslaved man On a Sunday three students full of corn whiskey shouted through the village, broke into a kitchen, beat a Black man there and insulted his owner and family. They were suspended for four months.Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 262
  61. An auxiliary Colonization Society is reported active in Chapel Hill The Reverend William Meade reported a thriving Chapel Hill branch of the American Colonization Society, which promoted sending free Black people to Liberia.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 104
  62. The 1820 census counts 23,492 people in Orange County The fourth federal census counted 23,492 people in Orange County: 16,777 white residents, 6,153 enslaved people and 562 free people of color. It listed 7,315 people engaged in agriculture, 483 in manufactures and 43 in commerce.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, January 17, 1821, p. 3
  63. The census counts 806 people in Hillsborough, 343 of them enslaved The 1820 census found 806 inhabitants in the town of Hillsborough: 232 white males, 343 enslaved people, 28 free people of color, and about 200 white females.Hillsborough Recorder, November 22, 1820, p. 3
  64. The Hillsborough Recorder calls slavery a misfortune and urges colonization Editor Dennis Heartt wrote that slavery harmed the state but argued against freeing people to remain in North Carolina. He proposed sending free Black people to Africa at public expense and asked the legislature to act. People: Dennis HearttLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 103-104
  65. Archibald D. Murphey's trustees advertise thirty to forty enslaved people for sale In a notice dated October 30, 1821, James Webb and David Yarbrough, holding Archibald D. Murphey's property in trust, advertised between thirty and forty enslaved people for sale on December 11 at Murphey's Haw River mills, together with his lands. Lefler and Wager call the number unmatched in Orange sale notices, where most sales involved one or a few people. People: Archibald D. MurpheyLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 102 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, November 21, 1821, p. 3
  66. Fanny Evans, a free woman of color, receives a town lot by the Eno A land record gave Fanny Evans and her children Henry and Jane lot 135, a town lot running down to the Eno River. She also owned three lots at West Margaret Lane and Occoneechee Street. Her sons Henry and Wilson Bruce Evans became cabinetmakers in town. People: Henry EvansBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 37
  67. John Faddis warns the public not to trade with the men he holds in slavery Faddis ran a notice in the Hillsborough Recorder naming Jim, Joe, Alfred and Peter and threatening to prosecute anyone who sold them liquor or traded with them without his written leave.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 101
  68. Named enslaved workers build the third story of Old East Bills from William Nichols's 1822 to 1824 enlargement of Old East list enslaved carpenters, bricklayers and laborers including Bob, Henry, Nelson, Allman, Tony, Luke, Isaac and Ned Peek, with their pay due to their owners. One bill from John C. White came to about $395. People: William NicholsUNC University Archives (For the Record): Slave Labor and Old East
  69. Trustee William Polk hires out five enslaved men to build Old West Jourdan, Jim, Stephen, Charles and Joe, men enslaved by William Polk, worked on the construction of Old West, then called New College. By a settlement of May 22, 1823, the university had paid Polk $600 for their labor.Search the index · UNC Libraries, Slavery and the Making of the University: 22 May 1823, "Settlement with Col. William Polk."
  70. The Presbyterian session admonishes two men for trading in enslaved people Hillsborough Presbyterian Church charged William Adams and John Wall with the "unchristian act of negro trading." Adams said he had sold people he held to pay his debts and taken friends' slaves to market with his own; the session admonished both men and did not punish them.Burwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 55
  71. A branch Manumission Society meeting at Trotter's Creek issues an address against slavery Meeting at Trotter's Creek, a branch of the Manumission Society, strong among Orange Quakers, adopted an address calling on citizens to end slavery by consent and to open schools to Black as well as white children.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 104-105
  72. People freed by David Patterson of Orange sail for Liberia Under the auspices of the Colonization Society, the formerly enslaved people of David Patterson left for Liberia in 1825.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 104
  73. Caroline Lee Hentz befriends and tutors the poet George Moses Horton in Chapel Hill While her husband Nicholas Hentz taught languages at the university, Caroline Lee Hentz befriended the enslaved poet George Moses Horton, tutored him in grammar and helped edit his work. She sent some of his poems to the Lancaster Gazette in her Massachusetts hometown, which printed them in 1829. People: George Moses Horton, Nicholas Marcellus HentzSearch the index · The Carolina Story: Caroline Lee Hentz (1800-1856)
  74. Duncan Cameron records tobacco sales of nearly 30,000 pounds Cameron's accounts for 1826 show close to 30,000 pounds of tobacco sold from the Bennehan-Cameron plantations, where the crop was grown with the labor of enslaved people. People: Duncan CameronNC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 12
  75. James Phillips buys Ben and Dilsey, an enslaved married couple, soon after reaching Chapel Hill Soon after he arrived in Chapel Hill, professor James Phillips bought a married couple, Ben and Dilsey. They lived with the family for decades and appear throughout Spencer's letters. People: James Phillips, Benjamin Craig, Dilsey CraigHope Summerell Chamberlain, Old Days in Chapel Hill (1926), scan p. 43
  76. Judge Thomas Ruffin frees Susan Revels from a sale that would have taken her out of the county Superior Court judge Thomas Ruffin, hearing a writ of habeas corpus at his office in Orange County, ruled void Robert Eaton's sale of his claim on Susan (Suky) Revels, a free girl of color about sixteen, to Shadrack Lambert of Guilford County, and ordered Shadrack and his brother Lovick Lambert to release her. Her petition of 24 November, brought through her next friend Thomas J. Faddis, said she had lived with Eaton since infancy under a claimed indenture that was not valid, that he had sold her on the night of 23 November, and that the Lamberts held her and meant to carry her to Guilford and perhaps into slavery. The Lamberts answered that Eaton owed Shadrack a debt and that John Taylor, a Hillsborough lawyer, had told them the transfer was lawful and then drew up the assignment. Ruffin found no lawful indenture shown and held that a master could not sell or assign an apprentice without the county court's leave, least of all to send a free person of color out of the county; she remained subject to being bound out according to law. People: Thomas RuffinMark Chilton, Freedom Bound: Apprenticeship, Racism & Liberation in Orange County, North Carolina 1777 to 1868 (Wandering through the NC Piedmont)
  77. Orange Superior Court tries Jim, Sherod and Harry, three enslaved men The 1828 term convicted Jim, held by Willie P. Mangum, of manslaughter in the death of another enslaved man and ordered 39 lashes. Sherod got 15 lashes for larceny, and Harry was sentenced to death for burglary but won a new trial on appeal. People: Willie P. MangumLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 100-101
  78. Fire destroys the Rev. Elijah Graves's house on Cane Creek The Rev. Elijah Graves's dwelling house on Cane Creek burned on the night of Friday, June 6, and his family narrowly escaped. The paper understood that an enslaved man in the household, unwilling to stay at the place Graves had just moved to, set the fire to force a return to the old one; he was jailed the next day to await trial. People: Elijah GravesHillsborough Recorder, June 11, 1828, p. 3
  79. William Cabe's estate offers his residence and 14 or 15 enslaved people for sale After a sale of Cabe's household goods, stock and crops set for October 22, 1828, a December notice in the Hillsborough Recorder offered his late residence together with 14 or 15 enslaved people. People: William CabeNC State Historic Preservation Office: Cabe-Pratt-Harris House, National Register nomination (OR0656), p. 11
  80. Thomas Ruffin issues the State v. Mann decision Thomas Ruffin of Hillsborough, newly seated on the North Carolina Supreme Court, wrote the opinion in State v. Mann, overturning the conviction of John Mann of Edenton for shooting Lydia, an enslaved woman he had hired, as she fled a whipping. Ruffin held that a master's power must be absolute, and abolitionists later cited the ruling widely. People: Thomas Ruffin, LydiaAfrican American Intellectual History Society, Black Perspectives: Sally Greene, State v. Mann: Lydia's Journey (February 23, 2022)
  81. Chapel Hill forbids enslaved people to hire their own time or live on their own The 1829 town code made it unlawful for an enslaved person to hire out his or her own time or live apart from the direct care of a free white person in Chapel Hill. Those found doing so could be whipped or jailed in the Orange County jail as runaways.Ordinances Passed by the Board of Commissioners for the Town of Chapel Hill (1829), scan p. 6
  82. Chapel Hill orders its white men into patrol companies The first town ordinance divided the white men of Chapel Hill aged 21 to 50, other than the sitting commissioners, into patrol classes. Each captain had to turn out his company two nights a week from 8 or 9 in the evening and report under oath to the magistrate of police, with fines for captains and members who failed.Ordinances Passed by the Board of Commissioners for the Town of Chapel Hill (1829), scan p. 5
  83. Chapel Hill requires written passes for enslaved people on its streets A town ordinance barred enslaved people from the streets, lanes and lots of Chapel Hill on Sundays and between 8 at night and 5 in the morning unless they carried a written pass from an owner or overseer. They also needed written permission to sell anything in town. The patrol could whip offenders or take a one-dollar fine.Ordinances Passed by the Board of Commissioners for the Town of Chapel Hill (1829), scan p. 6
  84. The county court levies a tax on Black polls to pay for the patrol Along with its taxes for county costs and the poor, the August 1829 court ordered ten cents collected on each Black poll to pay the patrol, the county's slave patrol. The court minutes show it levying such patrol taxes on Black polls from at least 1807.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 181 · Also: Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1807
  85. Thomas Clancy advertises Lucy and her five children for sale Pressed for money, Clancy offered a woman named Lucy and her five children, the eldest about thirteen, saying he preferred to sell the family together to a buyer in or near Hillsborough.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 101
  86. James, an enslaved college servant, escapes from Chapel Hill James, who had worked four years as a college servant at the university, left Chapel Hill on the night of November 20, 1829. Samuel M. Stewart, who held him, advertised a $20 reward in the Hillsborough Recorder and thought he was making for Norfolk or Richmond to reach the free states or Africa through the Colonization Society. The University Archives has told his story, which survives only through that notice.UNC University Archives (For the Record): Ran Off from the University, 1829
  87. Fred Hartgrove, a free Black man, holds three enslaved people The 1830 records show Hartgrove holding three people and Lucy Peters, also free and Black, holding one. No free Black resident of Orange held anyone in 1860.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 105
  88. Professor James Phillips hires David Barham from his owner as a college servant In 1830 Professor James Phillips hired David Barham from William Barham to work as a college servant. A university account book page from the same year shows students paying a two-dollar fee to compensate the slaveholders whose people were hired as servants. People: James PhillipsUNC University Archives (For the Record): The Names of the Enslaved People who Built the University of North Carolina
  89. The census finds Orange County's enslaved population at its peak The 1830 census counted 7,339 enslaved people beside 15,918 white residents, a little under 31 percent of the county. The number fell afterward through sales, migration, manumission and the loss of territory to new counties.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 96
  90. Godfrey and Isabella marry at St. Matthew's The Rev. William Mercer Green married Godfrey and Isabella, the first couple in St. Matthew's register of people of color. Their infant son Milton Alexander was baptized there in November 1835. People: William Mercer GreenBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 75
  91. Fannie Breeze is born enslaved in the household of Samuel Breeze Fannie Breeze was born in 1832, enslaved in the household of Samuel H. Breeze, a farmer and member of Pleasant Green Methodist church in what was then eastern Orange County. She joined Pleasant Green before the Civil War and later worked as a midwife along the Eno.Search the index · Pleasant Green United Methodist Church: Our History
  92. Job, later Rev. Job Berry, is baptized at St. Matthew's Job, enslaved by George W. B. Burgwyn, was baptized at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church by William Mercer Green and confirmed the next April. As Job Berry he later led Hillsborough's first Black congregation. People: William Mercer Green, Job BerryElizabeth Keckly Center research database: Job Berry
  93. Duncan Cameron of Orange is elected president of the state Colonization Society Cameron, a leading Orange planter and banker, took the presidency of the North Carolina branch of the colonization movement in 1834. People: Duncan CameronLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 104
  94. James Strudwick Smith buys Harriet, aged fifteen, as Mary Ruffin Smith's maid James Strudwick Smith bought Harriet, fifteen years old by the deed, from William Kell of Orange County to be his daughter Mary Ruffin Smith's maid. The family then lived in Hillsborough and enslaved about thirty people at a time. People: James Strudwick SmithSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, Smith family and early UNC connections
  95. Samuel Hancock goes bankrupt and Dr. James Webb buys his house and the enslaved man Abram In 1834 Samuel Hancock went bankrupt. Dr. James Webb bought the Hancocks' house and lot, their furniture and Abram, a man they enslaved, and rented all of them back to Hancock for $1 a year. People: James WebbSearch the index · NC State University Libraries, North Carolina Architects & Builders: Hancock, Samuel (1784-1848)
  96. Six enslaved women are baptized into Hillsborough Presbyterian Church The Rev. S. J. Price baptized six women held by the Nash, Watters, Scott and Waddell households, and Frederick Nash and William J. Bingham received them as members. In the twenty years that followed under Robert Burwell, the church took in only one communicant of color. People: Frederick Nash, William James Bingham, Hugh Waddell, Robert Armistead BurwellBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 56
  97. Duncan Cameron gives his son Paul C. Cameron forty-one enslaved people Duncan Cameron deeded his son Paul C. Cameron forty-one enslaved people, with any children the women would bear: Gabriel, Mima, Simeon and Sarah in Orange County, and families at the Mill Quarter plantation in Person County, among them Phillip and Jenny and their children Randol, Jim, Ellen, Nancy and Phill. Cameron acknowledged the deed before Justice William Gaston at Raleigh on January 1, 1835. People: Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron, William GastonOrange County Register of Deeds: Deed Book 26, p. 184 (deed image) · Also: Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867; Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 26/184, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 26/184, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  98. Elizabeth Hobbs is brought to Hillsborough in the household of Robert and Anna Burwell When the Reverend Robert Burwell became minister of the Presbyterian church in Hillsborough, he moved his household from Virginia, bringing the enslaved Elizabeth Hobbs, later Keckly. By her own account she was nearly eighteen. People: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly, Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna BurwellEncyclopedia Virginia (Virginia Humanities): Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly (1818–1907), by Jennifer Fleischner
  99. Paul C. Cameron builds Burnside on the foundation of Thomas Ruffin's old house Paul Cameron built the town house he named Burnside on South Cameron Street, on the stone foundation of his father-in-law Thomas Ruffin's earlier house. Enslaved workers from Cameron's Fairntosh plantation built it under his master carpenter Jack, and John Berry laid the brick. People: John Berry, Thomas RuffinSearch the index · Hillsborough Historic District National Register Additional Documentation (2014), pdf p. 24 · Also: NCpedia, Berry, John
  100. Slave trader George Lewis advertises in Hillsborough to buy 100 young people Lewis, a commercial trader visiting the town, announced he would pay cash for one hundred young Black people.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 102
  101. St. Matthew's adds a gallery for Black worshippers under William Mercer Green In 1835, during William Mercer Green's rectorship, a gallery was added to St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough to seat Black worshippers. Green also held monthly services at Duncan Cameron's Salem Chapel, where he gave instruction to enslaved people. People: Duncan CameronSearch the index · St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Hillsborough: From the Abundance of God's Grace: A Brief History of St. Matthew's Parish, 1752-2017
  102. The Recorder prints a county meeting's warning to abolitionists An Orange County meeting adopted a report warning "northern fanatics" not to stir up the enslaved and predicting lasting hostility between the sections if abolitionists pressed on. Its fourteen-man committee included Frederick Nash, William A. Graham, Hugh Waddell, John U. Kirkland, Dr. Edmund Strudwick and the paper's own editor, Dennis Heartt, as a secretary. People: Frederick Nash, William A. Graham, Hugh Waddell, John U. Kirkland, Edmund Strudwick, Dennis HearttBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 49
  103. Henry Harris, held as a suspected runaway, is charged with burning the Orange County jail At the spring term of Superior Court the case against Henry Harris, a man of color charged with setting fire to the county jail, was moved to Caswell County for trial. He had been jailed as a runaway because he could not prove his freedom, and he escaped soon after.Hillsborough Recorder, March 25, 1836, p. 3 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, April 1, 1836, p. 3
  104. William Kirkland dies, leaving Ayr Mount to his widow William Kirkland died in 1836 and left his estate to his wife, Margaret Scott Kirkland; their son John Umstead Kirkland later acquired Ayr Mount from her estate. The inventory taken after his death lists twenty enslaved people, some of whom worked at his store, tannery and other businesses in Hillsborough. People: John U. KirklandSearch the index · NC Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Ayr Mount (OR0002, 1971) · Also: Columbian Repository (Chapel Hill), July 2, 1836, p. 3
  105. Enslaved plasterers, masons and laborers work on South Building's new roof Thomas Waitt's bill for 1837 work on South Building, including its tin roof, lists wages for enslaved plasterers and masons Stewart, Chester, Peter, Calvin and Evans and laborers including Lewis, Tom, Redin, Abraham and Jordan. People: Thomas WaittUNC University Archives (For the Record): Slave Labor and South Building
  106. Juba, an enslaved man, is hanged at Hillsborough Juba, an enslaved man held by Isaac Griffiths, was hanged at Hillsborough under the sentence of the March term of Orange Superior Court, Judge Toomer presiding, which had convicted him of raping a young white woman.Hillsborough Recorder, April 13, 1838, p. 3
  107. Matthew McCauley Jr. deeds five enslaved people to his mother, Martha McCauley By a deed of May 26, 1838, Matthew McCauley conveyed to Martha McCauley a man named Abram, a woman named Patsey, a girl named Sarah, a boy named Ben and an infant boy named Isaac, with a sorrel horse and a bay mare.Search the index · Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867 (abstract of Deed Book 28, p. 112) · Also: Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 28/112, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 28/112, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  108. Job is sold with 25 other enslaved people to Hillsborough merchant Stephen Moore To pay a debt to the Bank of Cape Fear for land bought in Tennessee, Francis Nash Waddell sold Job, later Rev. Job Berry, and 25 other enslaved people to the Hillsborough merchant Stephen Moore. Job probably kept painting for builder John Berry, his wages going to Moore. People: John BerrySearch the index · News of Orange County: Rev. Job Berry's legacy rooted in faith, marriage, education (Betty Eidenier, March 25, 2022)
  109. Orange Superior Court convicts a man of carrying enslaved people out of the state, then grants a new trial At the September 1839 term of Orange Superior Court, a jury convicted a man indicted for stealing enslaved people belonging to Orange County residents and carrying them out of the state, returning its verdict late on the night of Thursday, September 12. The court then granted a new trial, apparently because of a flaw in the indictment.Hillsborough Recorder, September 19, 1839, p. 3
  110. Henry Evans, a free cabinetmaker of color, buys a shop lot on Churton Street Evans paid $265 for old lot 6 on Churton Street, across from the courthouse then being built, and made furniture there, including chancel pieces for St. Matthew's, where he was baptized in 1842. The Bailey map marks his workshop. People: Henry EvansBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 37
  111. Hillsborough counts about 787 people, 333 of them enslaved Reading the 1840 census against William Bailey's sketch map of the town in 1839, the Task Force counted about 787 people in the mapped households: 434 white, 333 enslaved and 20 free people of color. Dr. James Webb's household was the largest, and Dr. James S. Smith held the most people, 41. People: James Webb, James Strudwick SmithBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 43
  112. The Hogan-Rogers House was built on the Hogan plantation on Purefoy Road The two-story frame house on Purefoy Road, on land now owned by St. Paul AME Church, dates to the 1840s or 1850s; the 1992 township survey recorded it as the Lloyd-Rogers House at 1612 Purefoy Road, the only house in the township on a raised basement. A fireplace in that basement led the Preservation Society's director to conclude that enslaved people on the Hogan plantation probably lived and worked there. INDY Week reported in 2012 that many Rogers-Eubanks residents descend from people held on the plantation.INDY Week: Once a home to slaves, the Hogan-Rogers house could be demolished
  113. Three planters grow nearly all of Orange County's cotton The 1840 agricultural census recorded 253,437 pounds of cotton in Orange County, about 90 percent of it from the plantations of Paul Cameron, John Lipscomb and Fendal Southerland in the east of the county, worked by enslaved labor. The county also grew 262,882 pounds of tobacco that year, mostly in the north. People: Paul C. CameronSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Historic Resources of Orange County, National Register multiple property documentation form (1993), p. 24
  114. John Tapp and his young son are killed, and a man he enslaved is jailed for the killings John Tapp of Orange County and his son, a boy of about nine, were attacked on Thursday, February 18, 1841; Tapp was found dead a few hours later and the boy died soon after. A man Tapp held in slavery was arrested that evening and committed to jail for trial.Hillsborough Recorder, February 25, 1841, p. 3
  115. Orange Superior Court convicts the man John Tapp enslaved of killing Tapp's son At the spring term of Orange Superior Court, Judge Pearson presiding, the enslaved man charged with killing John Tapp and his son was tried on the indictment for the son's death, convicted, and sentenced to hang on Friday, April 16, 1841. People: Richmond Mumford PearsonSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, March 11, 1841, p. 3
  116. Dick is executed for the killing of John Tapp and his son Dick, an enslaved man convicted at the last term of the Orange County Superior Court of murdering his enslaver John Tapp and Tapp's young son, was executed under his sentence.Hillsborough Recorder, April 22, 1841, p. 3
  117. Hawfields walls off part of its church for Black worshippers Black members, most of them enslaved, already sat in the end gallery of the frame church. In 1842 part of the west end was partitioned for them as well, and the book says the gallery and that section were often full.Search the index · Elizabeth Scott Carrington (Mrs. George Carrington), Historical Sketch of Hawfields Presbyterian Church (about 1946), scan p. 29
  118. Willie P. Mangum builds Walnut Hall at Red Mountain Willie P. Mangum built Walnut Hall from 1842 to 1845 as an addition to his father's house of about 1800. His wife ran the 600-acre plantation, where Mangum enslaved 20 people in 1850.Search the index · Open Durham: Walnut Hall, Willie P. Mangum House
  119. William Norwood's estate lists Rebecca Ruffin and her daughters When William Norwood died, the inventory of his estate named Rebecca, wife of Judge Ruffin's coachman Jesse, and two of their daughters, Nancy and Julia, among 57 enslaved people. People: William Norwood, Jesse RuffinBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 31
  120. An armed posse captures Tom, a freedom seeker who had hidden for months in the woods east of Chapel Hill According to Kemp Battle's 1907 history of the university, Tom, enslaved by Samuel Morgan, ran away after being sold to a trader bound for the Southwest and hid in a rock shelter in the woods and in a cave on Morgan's Creek. Men with shotguns beat the woods, shot him in the legs and sent him south for sale; the shelter became known as the Robber's Den or Tom's Lair.DocSouth: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), pp. 31-32 · Also: Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912)
  121. People enslaved by William Mercer Green work on the Church of the Atonement Green contributed to the building through the labor of several people he enslaved and a pair of his mules. He also meant to give a kiln of bricks made on his land, but had the fires put out at midnight on a Saturday to keep the Sabbath, and the half-fired bricks, worth about $250, were lost.Search the index · Archibald Henderson, The Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross at Chapel Hill (1938), scan p. 42
  122. Matthew McCauley Jr.'s assignee in bankruptcy sells his land and six enslaved people to John W. Carr After McCauley was declared bankrupt, his assignee conveyed to John W. Carr 450 acres then held by McCauley's mother, Martha McCauley, next to Ilai W. Nunn; 160 acres next to W. H. Merritt; and six enslaved people, Abram, Patsey, Ben, Sarah, Isaac and Charity. People: John Wesley CarrSearch the index · Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867 (abstract of Deed Book 30, p. 239) · Also: Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 30/239, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 30/239, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  123. Green, an enslaved man, is jailed on a charge of robbing and burning Thomas Thompson's house on Cane Creek Green, enslaved by Hugh Wilson, was committed to jail on a charge of setting fire to Thomas Thompson's house on Cane Creek while the family was at church, after taking about sixty dollars from it. At the fall superior court his trial for arson was put off to the next term for want of time.Hillsborough Recorder, June 22, 1843, p. 3
  124. A Norwood and Tillinghast debt settlement prices enslaved people by name To pay what was owed the Bank of Cape Fear, a settlement between J. W. Norwood and Samuel Tillinghast valued an estate at $15,433 by listing each enslaved person, among them Eliza and Manley, with a price. People: John Wall NorwoodBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 7
  125. Hillsborough orders free people of color to prove their freedom and post bond to live in town The town commissioners directed the town constable and the patrol captains to bring before the magistrate of police any person of color passing as free who was not known to be free; anyone who could not show free papers within thirty days was to be jailed. Free people of color settling in town had to give a hundred-dollar bond for good behavior or leave, and an enslaved person found at a grog shop without a written pass could be given up to thirty-nine lashes.Hillsborough Recorder, October 19, 1843, p. 3
  126. Dabney Cosby takes the masonry subcontract for the lengthening of Old East and Old West Chapel Hill contractors Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt subcontracted the masonry of the university additions to Cosby, who put enslaved workmen including the brothers Osborne and Albert on the job. Cosby and the architect Alexander Jackson Davis quarrelled over the drawings, and president David L. Swain asked the Hillsborough builder John Berry to look at the brickwork, which Berry reported was defective. People: John Berry, David L. Swain, Alexander Jackson Davis, Isaac J. Collier, Kendall B. WaittIn the index: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Cosby, Dabney (1779-1862)
  127. Harriet, enslaved by the Smith family in Hillsborough, gives birth to Cornelia after Sidney Smith rapes her Harriet, bought by James Strudwick Smith in 1834 as a maid for his daughter Mary Ruffin Smith, was raped by his son Sidney and gave birth to Cornelia in 1844, while the family's home was in Hillsborough. Cornelia's granddaughter Pauli Murray told the story in Proud Shoes. People: James Strudwick Smith, Mary Ruffin Smith, Pauli Murray, Cornelia Smith FitzgeraldSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, Smith family and early UNC connections
  128. John Newlin and his sons build a cotton mill at Saxapahaw The Quaker Newlins began a spinning mill on the Haw River at Saxapahaw in 1844, using enslaved labor to dig the millrace from a rock dam. The brick mill was ready to produce in 1848, the second cotton mill in the county.Search the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 267-268
  129. Paul C. Cameron sends enslaved people from the family farms to cotton plantations in Alabama and Mississippi Paul C. Cameron bought a cotton plantation in Greene County, Alabama, in 1844 and land for another in Tunica County, Mississippi, in 1856, and sent more than 100 enslaved men and women from the family's North Carolina farms to them.Search the index · UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology, Ancient North Carolinians: Stagville (Orange County)
  130. Superior Court sentences Green and Dick, two enslaved men, to hang At a spring term crowded with capital cases, the Superior Court under Judge Dick convicted Green, enslaved by Hugh Wilson, of arson and Dick, enslaved by Samuel McBroom, of burglary and an assault on a white woman, and sentenced both to hang on April 26. Bradshaw Fuller of Person County was acquitted of passing counterfeit notes on a technical defect, and the editor urged a state penitentiary, arguing that prison would be adequate punishment for the two young men.Hillsborough Recorder, March 21, 1844, p. 3
  131. Green and Dick, enslaved men, are hanged Green and Dick, the two enslaved men sentenced at the spring Superior Court for arson and burglary, were hanged on the day the court had set.Hillsborough Recorder, May 2, 1844, p. 3
  132. Henry, enslaved by William Blackwell, is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to branding On the Thursday of the fall Superior Court, Henry, enslaved by William Blackwell, was tried for murder, found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to be branded. At the request of men learned in the law, the Recorder asked the legislature either to set a specific penalty for manslaughter by enslaved people or to leave it to the judge, and renewed its call for a penitentiary.Hillsborough Recorder, September 19, 1844, p. 3
  133. Frances Devereux deeds Primus to Dr. Edmund Strudwick Five months after her husband died, Frances Devereux of Raleigh deeded Primus to Dr. Edmund Strudwick of Hillsborough. Primus later drove and gardened at the Burwell School and, after emancipation, worked at the Nash and Kollock School as Primus Smith. People: Edmund Strudwick, Frances (Pollock) DevereuxBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 19
  134. Brothers Albert and Osborne, enslaved by Dabney Cosby, plaster the lengthened Old East The additions to Old East and Old West, contracted in December 1844 and finished in 1848, used the labor of Albert and Osborne, brothers enslaved by Dabney Cosby, who plastered the lengthened Old East in 1845 and 1846. Cosby praised Albert's plastering as first-rate work. People: Albert, Osborne, Dabney Cosby, Alexander Jackson DavisUNC University Archives (For the Record): Slave Labor and Old East
  135. Dennis Heartt prints The Poetical Works of George M. Horton Dennis Heartt printed The Poetical Works of George M. Horton, the Colored Bard of North-Carolina at Hillsborough in 1845, with Horton's autobiography prefixed to the poems. It was the second book by Horton, who was still enslaved when it appeared. People: George Moses HortonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: The Poetical Works of George M. Horton (Hillsborough: D. Heartt, 1845)
  136. Trustees bar students from bringing their own enslaved servants to the university After 1845 the trustees prohibited students from bringing enslaved people of their own to Chapel Hill. The university went on hiring enslaved college servants by the year from local slaveholders.Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History: Account book page, 1830
  137. Enslaved workers build and tend the Battle household in Chapel Hill Letters between Lucy and William H. Battle in March 1845 describe enslaved men at their Chapel Hill house: Ben planted shrubs and flowers, Harry worked on the outbuildings and was hired out, and Billy was also at work. The well-house, servants' houses, barn and bath house were built almost entirely by enslaved labor. People: David L. SwainSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Slaves of Faculty and Townspeople (Slavery and the Making of the University)
  138. James Jackson Jr. conveys the services of William Carter, a free bound boy, in a deed of trust with two enslaved men In a deed of trust to James Jackson Sr. as trustee, James Jackson Jr. conveyed two enslaved men, Jack and Ransom, his livestock, grain, provisions and household goods, a still and a set of blacksmith tools, and his right in the services of William Carter, a free Black boy bound to him, whose service the deed puts at about three years.Mark Chilton, Freedom Bound: Apprenticeship, Racism & Liberation in Orange County, North Carolina 1777 to 1868 (Wandering through the NC Piedmont)
  139. Mitchell asks the Burwells to sell his wife Mary Ann with him Mitchell, an enslaved man who had run from his owner, came to Robert Burwell asking that he and his wife Mary Ann, enslaved in the Burwell household, be sold together. He worked at the house for a week; then Burwell told him to go back to his master, and he left on February 17. People: Robert Armistead BurwellElizabeth Keckly Center research database: Mitchell
  140. William Mercer Green pledges fifteen enslaved people and his Bolin Creek land for a loan To secure 2,500 dollars borrowed from John H. Bryan, with David L. Swain and Duncan Cameron as his sureties, William Mercer Green conveyed to William H. Battle in trust his land on Bolin Creek near Chapel Hill and fifteen enslaved people: Jenny, Nancy, Lucy, Frances, Ellen, Celia, Anne, Julia, Rachel, Margaret, Peter, Sam, Aaron, Cain and Robert. If the debt went unpaid, they were to be advertised in the Hillsborough Recorder and sold at Chapel Hill to the highest bidder. People: William Mercer Green, William Horn Battle, David L. Swain, Duncan CameronOrange County Register of Deeds: Deed Book 32, p. 118 (deed image) · Also: Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867; Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 32/118, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 32/118, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  141. Hillsborough tightens its patrol ordinance against enslaved and free Black people The town commissioners repealed the patrol captain's discretion to release or whip enslaved people found off their owners' lots without a pass, and ordered that anyone caught after ten at night be jailed and whipped the next morning unless the owner paid a fine. They also ordered the constable to jail any enslaved or free Black person found drunk in town on a Sunday, the enslaved to be whipped and free people fined two dollars. People: Lemuel LynchHillsborough Recorder, February 11, 1847, p. 3
  142. The Chapel of the Cross is consecrated Bishop Levi Silliman Ives consecrated the Episcopal church at Chapel Hill as the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Designed by Thomas U. Walter for the parish William Mercer Green organized in 1842, it was built of bricks fired by enslaved people at kilns on Green's farm and included a wooden gallery for enslaved worshippers. People: William Mercer GreenSearch the index · The Chapel of the Cross: Parish Archives
  143. James Strayhorn's will names sixteen enslaved people James Strayhorn’s will identifies sixteen people he enslaved.PBS North Carolina
  144. Hillsborough orders its patrol to break up gatherings of Black people The Hillsborough commissioners ordered the town patrol to disperse gatherings of Black people in the streets and to put down rioting, quarrelling and swearing, with fines of up to four dollars for free offenders and up to thirty-nine lashes and jail for enslaved ones. They also told town officers to enforce the bans on shooting in town, galloping through the streets, blocking streets and carrying uncovered fire.Hillsborough Recorder, February 7, 1849, p. 3
  145. Hillsborough forbids Black people to loiter in the streets on Sundays The Hillsborough commissioners unanimously ordained that no free Black or enslaved person could loiter about the town streets on Sunday, punishing enslaved offenders with ten lashes for a first offense and twenty for a second and fining free Black offenders fifty cents and then a dollar. The board also paid for cleaning the town well and putting in a new pump.Hillsborough Recorder, October 10, 1849, p. 3
  146. A free man is jailed in Hillsborough for giving his free papers to an enslaved man The 1850 census taker listed the town jail's inmates with their charges. John McAndless, a free laborer of 22, was held for "giving his free papers to a slave".Burwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 36
  147. Builder John Berry holds 44 enslaved people, most working in his building trade By 1850 the Hillsborough brick mason and builder John Berry held 44 enslaved people, most of them working with him in masonry and construction. Some, including his head carpenter Joseph Nichols, stayed with him after emancipation, and much of the carpentry in Berry's buildings after 1840 was likely Nichols's. People: John BerryNC State Historic Preservation Office: Jeter and Ethel Neville House, National Register nomination (OR3151), p. 14
  148. Enslaved workers build the stone dam at Trimm's Mill near Cedar Grove Enslaved laborers build a large stone dam for Trimm's Mill near Cedar Grove in the 1850s. The dam is all that survived of the mill by 1993.NC Digital Collections: Historic Resources of Orange County, National Register multiple property documentation form (1993), p. 119
  149. The 1850 census lists four enslaved people on Joseph Faucette's farm Joseph Faucette, David's son, grew wheat, corn, oats, potatoes and hay on the home farm and held four enslaved people in one household, a number the nomination calls typical of a yeoman farmer.NC State Historic Preservation Office: David Faucette House, National Register nomination (OR1376), p. 8
  150. The 1850 census records 47 enslaved people on James H. Pratt's farm by the Eno James H. Pratt and his wife Malvina worked a farm of 300 improved and 500 unimproved acres with 47 enslaved people, raising wheat, corn, oats, flax and livestock. People: James H. PrattNC State Historic Preservation Office: Cabe-Pratt-Harris House, National Register nomination (OR0656), p. 12
  151. The Lambert Hall House goes up near Caldwell A two-story frame hall-and-parlor house with a chimney at each end was built near Caldwell in the 1850s, its inside walls lined with wide plain boards. Local informants told the surveyors that dwellings for the people enslaved on the farm once stood in a cluster close to the house.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: Historic Resources of Orange County, National Register multiple property documentation form (1993), p. 55
  152. The census counts 5,244 enslaved people in Orange County The 1850 census found 11,330 white residents, 5,244 enslaved people and 481 free Black people in Orange County. The share of enslaved people had risen sharply since 1790, even though the new Alamance County had taken part of Orange in 1849.NC Digital Collections: Historic Resources of Orange County, National Register multiple property documentation form (1993), p. 22
  153. Hillsborough raises the good-behavior bond for free Black residents to $500 At a called meeting the Hillsborough commissioners amended the town ordinance so that free Black residents had to give bond with security of $500, instead of $100, for their good behavior while living in town. They also ordered the constable to arrest any enslaved or free Black person found drunk: an enslaved person was to receive 15 to 39 lashes unless the owner paid a $2 fine, and a free Black person was to be fined $2, and $5 for each repeat.Hillsborough Recorder, February 20, 1850, p. 3
  154. Hillsborough gives free Black residents five days to post bond or leave town The Hillsborough commissioners amended the town ordinance so that free Black residents, once notified, had five days instead of thirty to give security for their good behavior or leave the town.Hillsborough Recorder, March 13, 1850, p. 3
  155. Robert Burwell pledges Mary Ann and her children against his building debts A deed of trust set out Burwell's debts of $2,500 to the builder John Berry and $800 to the Presbyterian trustees, and offered as security the enslaved seamstress Mary Ann, her four children and any children born to her, and a girl named Ann. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, John Berry, Thomas WebbElizabeth Keckly Center research database: Mary Ann
  156. Hillsborough commissioners drop the paid town patrol for citizen patrol duty The Hillsborough commissioners repealed the ordinance that let the magistrate of police hire two paid patrolmen and made Thomas Faucett town constable and collector. They ordered the clerk to list the men liable to patrol duty so the magistrate could call out a patrol company every week. People: Thomas Faucett, A. C. Murdock, Lemuel LynchHillsborough Recorder, August 28, 1850, p. 3
  157. Orange Superior Court sentences an enslaved man named Ellick to hang At the fall term of the Orange Superior Court, Judge Matthias E. Manly presiding, a jury convicted Ellick, an enslaved man, on a charge of raping a white woman, and he was sentenced to hang on October 18. Hugh Waddell, John H. Bryan and James S. Amis defended him by appointment of the court; the same term ordered thirty-nine lashes for James Mitchell, a free Black man who pleaded guilty to grand larceny. People: Hugh WaddellSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, September 18, 1850, p. 3
  158. Job Berry and Billy Payne begin the congregation that became Dickerson Chapel Dickerson Chapel AME Church dates its founding to 1851, when Job Berry, an enslaved painter and its first pastor, began gathering the congregation with Rev. Billy (William) Payne, enslaved by Dr. Edmund Strudwick. With state law barring Black preachers, they met in homes; the congregation moved into the old courthouse on Queen Street in 1866. People: Edmund Strudwick, Job BerrySearch the index · News of Orange County: Hillsborough church awarded $400k preservation grant (2025)
  159. Paul C. Cameron builds new quarters for enslaved families at Horton Grove In the decade before the Civil War Paul C. Cameron began a building campaign at the family's Horton Grove farm near Stagville. Four of the dwellings built to house families the Camerons enslaved still stand.Search the index · UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology, Ancient North Carolinians: Stagville (Orange County)
  160. Hillsborough hires two paid patrollers and widens the patrol's powers The Hillsborough commissioners adopted a committee plan for a town patrol of two men, each paid at the rate of $50 a year and serving at the board's pleasure, passed an ordinance extending the patrol's powers with arrest fees charged to the persons arrested rather than the town, and had the magistrate of police appoint R. F. Pleasants and A. Murdock as the patrol. People: George LawsHillsborough Recorder, February 26, 1851, p. 3
  161. A blast injures two enslaved men building the railroad near Hillsborough Two enslaved men held by Turner and Jones, contractors building the North Carolina Railroad near Hillsborough, were hurt when a blasting charge they thought had been drawn went off as they redrilled the hole; one was feared to have lost an eye and the other lost a finger. The account shows enslaved labor at work on the railroad's rock cuts in Orange.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, February 18, 1852, p. 3
  162. Ellington Burnett's grave becomes the earliest dated African American burial in the Chapel Hill graveyard A brownstone ledger for Ellington Burnett, 1831-1853, son of Cornelius and Caroline Burnett, is the oldest inscribed stone in Section B, the burial ground used for enslaved people. The section was almost certainly in use earlier, its graves marked only by fieldstones.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, National Register nomination (OR0496), p. 17
  163. An enslaved man is killed with a pair of tongs near Hillsborough An enslaved man held by Capt. John Berry of the Hillsborough neighborhood was killed by blows to the head with a pair of tongs from an enslaved man held by Mr. Hargrave of Chapel Hill; after an examination before Judge Battle the accused was admitted to bail to await a jury trial. People: John BerrySearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, April 6, 1853, p. 2
  164. Hillsborough orders a list of the free Black people living in town Hillsborough's commissioners ordered the town constable to bring to their next meeting a list of all the free Black people living within the town limits.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, April 6, 1853, p. 3
  165. Hillsborough charges free Black and enslaved sellers a dollar a day on public days The Hillsborough town commissioners unanimously ordained that no free Black or enslaved person might sell victuals in town on election days or other public days without first paying the town constable one dollar for each day; the constable was to give a written permit naming the days, keep half the money for enforcing the rule, and pay the rest to the town treasurer.Hillsborough Recorder, November 16, 1853, p. 3
  166. Hillsborough Presbyterian Church sells the people it held in trust for the Witherspoons People once held by John Knox Witherspoon had passed to the church in trust for the care of his ailing daughter. The session refused a sale in August 1852, but after Witherspoon's death it agreed, and part of the money went to Mary Witherspoon. The names of those sold are not recorded. People: John Knox WitherspoonBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 55
  167. Peter Brown Ruffin buys the land that became Margaret Lane Cemetery According to the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, Peter Brown Ruffin, owner of Occoneechee Farm, bought the land now called Margaret Lane Cemetery as a burial ground for people enslaved by him and his neighbor Cadwalader Jones. Plaques placed in 1987 date burials there from before 1852, and it remained a burial ground for Black residents of Hillsborough until 1931.The Alliance for Historic Hillsborough: Margaret Lane Cemetery
  168. The Evans families leave Hillsborough for Oberlin, Ohio Squeezed by laws that stripped free people of color of the vote, the right to preach and schooling, the cabinetmakers Henry and Wilson Bruce Evans took their families to Oberlin, where their sister Delilah Copeland had settled in 1843. Both brothers were jailed there for their part in the 1858 Oberlin-Wellington rescue of a man taken as a fugitive. People: Henry EvansBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 37-38
  169. Sheriff arrests William Hester, wanted for stealing enslaved people The Orange sheriff and a posse arrested William Hester near his home about five miles west of Hillsborough after a chase in which Hester twice aimed his gun at the sheriff. Governor Reid had offered $350 for him on a charge of stealing enslaved people; he was also under indictment for stabbing a Black man in Hillsborough and had forfeited $3,500 bail.Hillsborough Recorder, April 19, 1854, p. 2 · Also: The News (Chapel Hill), January 8, 1920, p. 1
  170. Hillsborough closes its graveyard for Black people to new burials The Hillsborough commissioners prohibited further burials in the town's graveyard for Black people from the next day and named a committee to set apart part of the town common as a new Black burying ground and to look for a site for a White burying ground. People: James C. Turrentine, John J. FreelandSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, June 21, 1854, p. 3
  171. Orange Superior Court sends the William Hester slave-stealing case to Chatham Orange Superior Court removed the case of State v. William Hester, charged with stealing an enslaved man, to Chatham County on Hester's affidavit that he could not get a fair trial in Orange and feared violence if acquitted. The court house was crowded when the case came up. He was tried at Chatham Superior Court the next week. A 1920 Chatham Record reminiscence, reprinted in the News, called him Gillis Hester and named the man he was charged with stealing as Dick, held by John U. Kirkland. It said Hester was convicted at Pittsboro, lost his appeal to the state Supreme Court and was hanged there on May 5, 1855.Hillsborough Recorder, September 20, 1854, p. 2 · Also: The News (Chapel Hill), January 8, 1920, p. 1; The News (Chapel Hill), January 29, 1920, p. 1
  172. Elizabeth Keckly purchases freedom for herself and her son Elizabeth Keckly purchased freedom for herself and her son in St. Louis, after earlier enslavement in Hillsborough. People: George Kirkland, Elizabeth Hobbs KecklyNCpedia
  173. Hillsborough orders its patrol to break up gatherings of Black people before nine At its first meeting the newly elected town board amended the patrol ordinance: patrols were to start at whatever hour after sunset the magistrate of police set, disperse gatherings of Black people in the streets before 9 o'clock, and after that hour arrest any found without a permit. The board also hired the town constable to patrol the streets on Sundays for $25 a year, less 50 cents for each Sunday missed.Hillsborough Recorder, February 7, 1855, p. 3
  174. Five enslaved people are the first baptized into the Chapel Hill Baptist Church The church's first baptisms took place at a new outdoor baptistry by a spring on the McDade place. The candidates were five people enslaved by William Barbee, so the first people immersed into the church in the village were Black. Black members made up about a third of the early church.Search the index · Almonte Charles Howell, A History of the Chapel Hill Baptist Church, 1854-1924 (1945), scan p. 18
  175. Aggie and Martin, an enslaved couple, join the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church Aggie, enslaved by James Watson, and her husband Martin, enslaved by a Freeland household at New Hope, were received as members on a certificate from New Hope Church. The centennial booklet gives them as proof that the church had enslaved members before the war.Search the index · The First Hundred Years: The Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, 1849-1949 (1950), scan p. 20 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, April 24, 1936, p. 3
  176. The Burwells resolve to sell their cook Hannah Hannah, who had come from Virginia with the family and cooked for the school, had been drinking heavily through 1855. Anna Burwell wrote to her daughter Fanny that she had made up her mind: Hannah would be sent to Richmond to be sold. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna BurwellBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 14
  177. Hillsborough's commissioners organize the town patrol into weekly companies Meeting on the evening of Saturday, April 5, the Hillsborough commissioners ordered the town collector to give the magistrate of police a list of every citizen liable for patrol duty, the night watch kept over enslaved people. A committee of the magistrate and three commissioners was to form them into companies, one to be called out each week. People: James M. Palmer, George Laws, Lemuel LynchHillsborough Recorder, April 9, 1856, p. 3
  178. John W. Norwood puts the neighborhood's first Hussey reaper to work In mid-June John W. Norwood began cutting wheat near Hillsborough with a Hussey reaper bought from agents at Norfolk, the first such machine used in the neighborhood. He reported that it cut about fifty acres cleanly over smooth and rough ground alike, and that the enslaved men who worked it had learned it from the printed directions.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, June 25, 1856, p. 2
  179. A sixteen-inch snow and record cold kill three enslaved people in Orange Snow began on the night of Saturday, January 17, fell all day Sunday and lay sixteen inches deep by Monday morning; on Friday morning, January 23, the thermometer at Hillsborough stood at 13 degrees below zero, the worst cold Dennis Heartt had known in thirty-seven years there. Three enslaved people froze to death in the county: one held by Gray Barlee near Chapel Hill, one held by Samuel Thompson of Alamance near Mount Willing, and one held by Mrs. Parish near Hillsborough, who lost his way in an old field on Sunday evening while walking to his wife's house. People: Dennis HearttSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, January 21, 1857, p. 2
  180. Orange Superior Court tries and discharges Jacob, an enslaved man, in the death of James Woods At the spring term of Orange Superior Court, Judge Saunders presiding, Jacob, an enslaved man held by the estate of James Woods, was tried for killing Woods six or seven years before, when Woods had been found dead in the woods near the road and thought thrown from his horse. The case rested mainly on a confession Jacob was said to have made to companions; the evidence was found incomplete and he was discharged.Hillsborough Recorder, March 18, 1857, p. 2
  181. Hillsborough orders jail and a fine for free Black people found drunk and disorderly in town At a special meeting on August 7 the Hillsborough commissioners passed an ordinance that any free Black person seen drunk in the town and disturbing the peace with loud talk, swearing or obscene language should, on conviction before the magistrate of police, serve a month in the county jail and pay a $10 fine. The town constable was told to arrest everyone it covered.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 19, 1857, p. 3
  182. Orange Superior Court sentences Alves, an enslaved youth, to hang for a killing at the Chapel Hill polls At the September term of the Superior Court in Hillsborough, Judge Manly presiding, Alves, an enslaved youth from Orange County, was convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing an enslaved boy from Chatham County at the election near Chapel Hill on August 6, and was sentenced to hang on a Friday in October.Hillsborough Recorder, September 23, 1857, p. 2
  183. Alves, an enslaved man sentenced to death, is baptized at St. Matthew's St. Matthew's register records the baptism of Alves, "a slave under sentence of death," with James Waddell as witness.Burwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 73
  184. The General Assembly lets Emily Hooper, a citizen of Liberia, return to slavery in Chapel Hill A private act allowed Emily Hooper, who had emigrated to Liberia, to come back and live again as the enslaved property of her former owner, Sally Mallet of Chapel Hill.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 104
  185. Washington Duke turns from cotton to tobacco on his Orange County farm After a failed cotton crop, Washington Duke began growing tobacco in 1859 on his farm, then in Orange County, following favorable publicity among Orange County farmers. The farm used the labor of an enslaved girl, Caroline, bought in 1855, and later a leased enslaved man, Jim, who worked in tobacco. People: Washington DukeNC Historic Sites: Washington Duke the Farmer
  186. Orange Superior Court tries Obadiah Christmas for the murder of an enslaved man The Orange Superior Court tried Obadiah Christmas for killing an enslaved man held by Thomas J. Taylor in Granville County in February 1858, a case removed to Person and then to Orange. The jury returned its verdict on Saturday morning, and an appeal to the Supreme Court followed. People: William A. GrahamSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, March 23, 1859, p. 2
  187. Chapel Hill bars Black people from the countryside from gathering in town on tax and election days An ordinance made it unlawful for Black people from the country to gather or linger in the streets of Chapel Hill after 4 p.m. on tax-collecting or election days, and let the town constable whip those who did.Act of the General Assembly for the Better Regulation of Chapel Hill, and the Ordinances of the Commissioners (1859), scan p. 17
  188. Chapel Hill forbids enslaved and free Black people to gather and dance without a license Under the 1859 code no one could allow enslaved people or free people of color to meet and dance in a kitchen or other house without a license from the magistrate of police or two commissioners. The fine was five dollars for each offense.Act of the General Assembly for the Better Regulation of Chapel Hill, and the Ordinances of the Commissioners (1859), scan p. 15
  189. Chapel Hill orders its officers to check the status of Black residents who claim to be free The 1859 code made it the duty of the magistrate of police and the town constable to find out the true condition of every person of color living in the village who claimed to be free.Act of the General Assembly for the Better Regulation of Chapel Hill, and the Ordinances of the Commissioners (1859), scan p. 16
  190. Brick quarters for enslaved people are built at the Mangum House on St. Mary's Road Around 1860 two four-bay brick buildings, likely quarters for enslaved people, and a brick smokehouse were built to serve the Priestly Mangum House on St. Mary's Road. The house later burned, and the Ruffin-Hill House went up near its site in 1877-1878; the quarters still stand at 311 and 313 St. Mary's Road.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 311 and 313 St. Mary's Road, Mangum House Quarters (Ruffin-Hill House grounds)
  191. Census counts more than 5,000 enslaved people in Orange County The 1860 census recorded more than 5,000 enslaved people in Orange County, whose labor sustained the county's farms. At emancipation they made up roughly a third of the county's population.NC Historic Sites: Enslavement at Duke Homestead
  192. Paul C. Cameron holds 470 people in slavery in Orange County The 1860 count listed Cameron of Fairntosh as the owner of 470 enslaved people in Orange, and the joined Bennehan-Cameron holdings ran to as much as 30,000 acres worked by about 900 enslaved people. People: Paul C. CameronNC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 12
  193. Seven in ten free Orange County residents hold no one in slavery In 1860, 70 percent of the free population held no enslaved people. Of the slaveholders, only seven percent held 20 or more, and more than half held fewer than five.NC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 10
  194. F. M. Jordan preaches to enslaved people in the Baptist church basement Rev. F. M. Jordan held services for enslaved people of Hillsborough in the basement of the Baptist church and married and baptized many Black members. One night his hearers gave him so much Confederate money that he carried it home in a handkerchief.Search the index · Pauline O. Lloyd and Allen A. Lloyd, History of the Churches of Hillsborough, N.C., ca. 1766-1962 (1963), scan p. 30
  195. Hillsborough orders its constable to keep Black people off the streets on Sundays and at night The town commissioners made it the town constable's duty, until further orders, to keep Black people out of the streets and lots of Hillsborough on Sundays and at night, and allowed him a dollar a week for the work. People: Charles Loveland CooleyHillsborough Recorder, April 10, 1861, p. 3
  196. Hillsborough requires written passes for enslaved people in town at night and on Sundays The town commissioners made it unlawful for slaveholders to let enslaved people be in Hillsborough away from their own homes between dark and daylight on weekdays, or at any hour on Sunday, without a written pass naming where they might go. Anyone found without a pass was to be committed to the county jail by the magistrate of police until the costs were paid.Hillsborough Recorder, May 1, 1861, p. 3 · Also: Internet Archive: North Carolina Historical Review 25
  197. Hillsborough orders a nightly patrol and a pass rule for Black people on its streets On December 7 the Hillsborough commissioners ordered the magistrate of police to appoint a patrol to go out every night. Any Black person found in the streets between dark and daylight, or on a Sunday except going to or from church, without a pass stating where he was permitted to go was to be arrested and brought before the magistrate of police.Hillsborough Recorder, December 11, 1861, p. 3
  198. A carved brownstone headstone marks Thomas Fletcher's grave in the enslaved people's section Thomas Fletcher, 1838-1862, received a round-topped brownstone headstone with a monogrammed footstone in Section B, as did George, son of Samuel Barbee (no dates). The rough local stone points to a mason cutting gravestones on the side; with Burnett's ledger they are among the few inscribed antebellum markers in a North Carolina slave cemetery.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, National Register nomination (OR0496), p. 10
  199. A posse kills a man who had escaped slavery and hidden near Hillsborough for eight months Several white men went out to capture a man who had fled slavery in Alamance County in May 1861 and had been hiding near Hillsborough with help from a free Black woman and other enslaved people. When he refused to surrender and tried to escape up a chimney, one of the party shot him, and he died within minutes.Hillsborough Recorder, January 22, 1862, p. 3
  200. A special court at Hillsborough condemns five enslaved men for the killings of John Lockhart and Isaac Strowd Under a new state law allowing special criminal terms, Judge Gilliam held a Court of Oyer and Terminer at the Hillsborough court house for prisoners held on capital charges. Two enslaved men, America and Daniel, were convicted of murdering John Lockhart, killed in the southern part of the county on February 17, and Solomon as an accessory before the fact; Lucian and Allen were convicted of killing Isaac Strowd, killed near his home southwest of Hillsborough on February 12. The judge sentenced the condemned to hang on April 10, and Solomon was later granted a new trial.Hillsborough Recorder, March 18, 1863, p. 2
  201. Hillsborough licenses food sellers at the depot and hires a paid town patrol The Hillsborough town commissioners ordered that anyone selling cooked food at the railroad depot pay the magistrate of police two dollars a month, under penalty of a fine for white or free people and a whipping for the enslaved, and, because so many of the men liable to patrol duty were away, authorized the magistrate of police to hire two men to patrol the town for the next month.Hillsborough Recorder, March 18, 1863, p. 2
  202. America, Daniel, Lucian and Allen are hanged at Hillsborough The four enslaved men condemned at the March special court, America and Daniel for the killing of John Lockhart and Lucian and Allen for that of Isaac Strowd, were hanged at Hillsborough on April 10. Solomon, convicted as an accessory in Lockhart's death, stayed in jail awaiting a new trial.Hillsborough Recorder, April 22, 1863, p. 2
  203. Three Black prisoners break out of the Hillsborough jail On the night of May 8 three Black prisoners broke out of the county jail at Hillsborough: Solomon, an enslaved man convicted of murdering his owner, John Lockhart of Flat River, and held for a new trial; a man enslaved by Capt. J. W. Latta; and a free young man who had been living near Raleigh. Sheriff H. B. Guthrie offered $200 for Solomon and $50 for each of the others. People: Hugh B. GuthrieHillsborough Recorder, May 13, 1863, p. 3
  204. Jim, an enslaved tobacco worker leased to Washington Duke, flees toward Union lines Jim, an enslaved man whose labor Washington Duke leased to grow and cure tobacco, ran away with three others in June 1863 trying to reach Union lines. After the war he took the surname Cox and became a tobacco sharecropper in the Durham area. People: Washington DukeNC Historic Sites: Enslavement at Duke Homestead
  205. Hillsborough restricts Black vendors at the depot and in the produce trade Meeting on the evening of Tuesday, August 4, the Hillsborough town commissioners amended their ordinance of March 13 so that the magistrate of police could issue no new licenses for enslaved or free Black people to sell food at the railroad depot, and could license white sellers there only on payment of five dollars a month. They also forbade enslaved and free Black people to buy chickens, butter, eggs or other provisions to sell again, on pain of twenty lashes for the enslaved and a ten-dollar fine for free people, for each offense. People: Dennis HearttHillsborough Recorder, August 5, 1863, p. 3
  206. Enslaved men from Orange County work on the Wilmington fortifications Enslaved men sent by their owners from the district of Orange County's 46th militia regiment worked on the Confederate fortifications at Wilmington. In August the regiment's colonel told the owners to send written orders so that Calvin G. Strayhorn of University Station could collect the pay due for their labor.Hillsborough Recorder, August 19, 1863, p. 3
  207. Emancipation frees about 6,000 people in Orange County, many of whom become tenants and sharecroppers About 6,000 enslaved people in Orange County were freed at the end of the Civil War. Many Black families left for Durham and other towns, while some stayed on the land as tenant farmers or sharecroppers.Orange County Courthouse Mural: Orange County Growth & Development
  208. George Moses Horton leaves Chapel Hill with the Union cavalry The enslaved poet George Moses Horton, who for decades had written verses for students, lived near Chapel Hill until Federal cavalry arrived in 1865. He left with them and went to Philadelphia with a Union officer after the war.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 604
  209. Bricks at the Coachman's Quarters carry the date Dec 5, '65 Two bricks in a small outbuilding near the Burnside stable in Hillsborough carry the hand-cut inscription 'Dec 5, '65', found during the building's restoration after 2003. The owners and descendants connect it to Jesse Ruffin, a coachman once enslaved by Thomas Ruffin. According to family tradition he cut the date to mark the day after the General Assembly ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which formally ended slavery. People: Thomas Ruffin, Jesse RuffinNews of Orange County: 13th amendment commemorated through local coachman's story
  210. The Camerons move a two-story building thought to be slave quarters to Burnside In the late nineteenth century the Cameron family moves a two-story frame building, thought to have been built as quarters for enslaved people, to the southeast corner of the Burnside house at 201 South Cameron Street. It was joined to the main house at the second floor in the 1950s.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 201 South Cameron Street, Burnside
  211. November Caldwell, once enslaved by President Joseph Caldwell, dies November Caldwell (1791-1872), held in slavery by Joseph Caldwell, brought firewood to the students, who were fond of him for his humor. A memorial in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery on the campus honors him. People: Joseph CaldwellNC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 31
  212. Dilsey Craig, enslaved in the household of professor James Phillips, dies Dilsey Craig (1802-1894) and Ben Craig were enslaved by the family of mathematics professor James Phillips and lived in the brick kitchen behind 501 East Franklin Street. Dilsey remained with the family long after freedom, and a memorial marks her in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery. People: James Phillips, Dilsey CraigSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 31
  213. Sidney W. Crabtree starts a farm on land from the Smith plantation A 54-acre farm on Smith Level Road was formed in 1903 from part of the old Smith plantation. Its Triple-A farmhouse and six outbuildings survive, and a graveyard there is thought to hold people enslaved on the plantation.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: Kelly Lally and Ruth Little, Chapel Hill Township Survey Final Report (1992), p. 22
  214. June Spencer Love sets a stone on Dilsey Craig's grave in the Chapel Hill cemetery When June Spencer Love placed grave markers in the Chapel Hill cemetery for her mother, her grandparents, and her uncle Samuel Phillips and his wife, she also put one on the grave of Dilsey, who had been enslaved in the James Phillips household and stayed on as its cook after freedom. Love writes that both June and her mother had looked after Dilsey in her old age. People: Dilsey Craig, James Phillips, Samuel Field Phillips, June Spencer LoveSearch the index · James Lee Love, Recollections (1920-1921), scan p. 276
  215. A Phillips grandchild sets a headstone for Dilsey Craig A small granite headstone was placed over the grave of Dilsey Craig, who died in 1894 after sixty years enslaved, mostly in the household of Professor James Phillips. Its inscription says a Phillips grandchild erected it, and its style suggests the 1930s. People: James Phillips, Dilsey CraigNC State Historic Preservation Office: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, National Register nomination (OR0496), p. 11
  216. The last known burials are made at Margaret Lane Cemetery Margaret Lane Cemetery, begun as a burial ground for enslaved people before 1852, was used until 1931, according to the plaques placed in 1987. The oldest legible stone is for George W. Hill (1844-1900).NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 200 S. Occoneechee Street, Margaret Lane Cemetery
  217. Mary Strayhorn Berry's recollections of antebellum Hillsborough are typed A typed transcription of Mary Elizabeth Strayhorn Berry's "Reminiscences of the Old South" records the names, family ties and skills of many people enslaved by the Strayhorn, Nichols and other Hillsborough families, and her father's store and cobbler shop. People: William StrayhornSearch the index · UNC Wilson Library: Mary E. Strayhorn Berry Papers, 1841-1944
  218. Ben Johnson, born enslaved near Hillsborough, recalls the Klan lynching of Cyrus Guy for a WPA interviewer Interviewed at 85 in Hecktown, Durham, by Federal Writers' Project worker Mary A. Hicks, Johnson said the Ku Klux came for Cy Guy a hundred strong, tried him in the woods and hanged him over the road. He said nobody would touch the body for four days, until the sheriff took it down.Search the index · Library of Congress: Federal Writers' Project Slave Narrative Project, Vol. 11, North Carolina, Part 2 (full text)
  219. Town of Hillsborough restores Margaret Lane Cemetery and dedicates a memorial plaque After a restoration by the Town of Hillsborough, a bronze plaque on a large stone was dedicated at the center of the cemetery listing people known to have been buried there from before 1852 to 1931. It notes that the exact location of most of their graves is not known.Search the index · Documenting the American South, Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina: Margaret Lane Cemetery, Hillsborough
  220. The Class of 2002 chooses a memorial to enslaved people as its class gift UNC's senior class of 2002 decided to give the university a monument honoring the enslaved people who built it and were buried on campus, which a Black Ink writer called the first class gift to give back to those who built the place.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), December 2001, p. 5
  221. A state highway marker for Elizabeth Keckly goes up on North Churton Street in Hillsborough North Carolina highway marker G-115, cast in 2002, stands on North Churton Street at Union Street in Hillsborough. It records Keckly as a Burwell family slave who lived there in the 1830s, bought her freedom in 1855, dressed Mary Todd Lincoln and published her memoir in 1868.Search the index · NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: Elizabeth Keckly 1818-1907 (G-115)
  222. UNC Libraries opens the exhibit Slavery and the Making of the University University archivists mounted an exhibit on the enslaved and free Black people who built and served the early university, including cabinetmaker Thomas Day and poet George Moses Horton. People: George Moses Horton, Thomas DayUNC University Library: Slavery and the Making of the University: Celebrating Our Unsung Heroes, Bond and Free
  223. The Unsung Founders Memorial is dedicated in McCorkle Place The Class of 2002's gift, a black granite table held up by 300 bronze figures by artist Do-Ho Suh, honors the people of color, bond and free, who helped build the university. People: Do-Ho SuhDocumenting the American South (Commemorative Landscapes): Unsung Founders, Bond and Free
  224. Brick memorial holding three recovered gravestones is dedicated at Margaret Lane Cemetery A brick monument designed and built by town employee Sam Dunevant was unveiled at the cemetery entrance, holding three gravestones recovered during earlier restoration, for Daniel Whitted, W. O. Parker and Nancy Wheatting. About fifty people attended, including descendants, and Mayor Tom Stevens spoke. People: Tom StevensSearch the index · Documenting the American South, Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina: Margaret Lane Cemetery Memorial, Hillsborough
  225. University Archives publishes the names of 119 enslaved people who built and worked at the university Drawing on research by archivists, historians and students in Jim Leloudis's fall 2017 History 398 class, the archives listed 119 enslaved people who built and labored at the university from 1795 to 1865, including November Caldwell and David Barham.UNC University Archives (For the Record): The Names of the Enslaved People who Built the University of North Carolina
  226. Hillsborough renames Thomas Ruffin Street as Lydia Lane The Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to rename the street for Lydia, the enslaved woman shot by John Mann in the case Thomas Ruffin decided. All twelve households on the street had petitioned for a new name and had first proposed Hope Lane; Commissioner Mark Bell suggested using Lydia's name, and Commissioner Kathleen Ferguson made the motion to approve. People: Thomas RuffinSearch the index · Chapelboro, 97.9 The Hill WCHL: Hillsborough Approves Removal of Thomas Ruffin From Street Name
  227. Carrboro unveils a truth plaque at the Strayhorn House The Town of Carrboro unveiled a truth plaque at the Strayhorn House, 109 Jones Ferry Road. It records that Toney and Nellie Strayhorn, enslaved in Orange County, were one of the first Black families to settle in Carrboro and built a one-room log cabin there in 1879 after buying thirty acres.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Our Roots Run Deep: Black History in Carrboro

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 31 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Miss Mary's Money

Jones, H. G. · 2014 · McFarland & Co.

H. G. Jones follows the fortune of Mary Ruffin Smith (1814-1885), the unmarried heiress whose Orange and Chatham County lands passed at her death to the University of North Carolina and the Episcopal Church. Chapters profile her grandfather Francis Jones, then trace the bequest through a quarrel among Episcopalians over Price Creek, the Chapel of the Cross and the university's buildings. A December 1885 New York Times report called the gift money; Jones shows it was land. Published by McFarland in 2014, 231 pages.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

✓ Held at OCPL NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Library of Congress Wake Forest Davidson Methodist CH Historical Society

To Free A Family

Nathans, Sydney · 2012 · Harvard University Press

Sydney Nathans's biography of Mary Walker, an enslaved woman from Orange County who escaped to the North in the mid nineteenth century and spent the following decades in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working to free the family she had left behind. Chapter titles trace her flight, her years among Northern friends, a rescue plot, a long silence, and the reunion that gives the book its close. Published 2012 by Harvard University Press, 330 pages with 20 pages of plates, illustrations and maps.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

Reviewed in Choice Reviews Online (2012), Civil War Book Review (2012).

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO WALKER NAT NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Davidson Methodist Wingate UNCSA

Descendants of Matthew McCauley

Neville, David Lindsay · 2001

David Lindsay Neville's genealogy of the descendants of Matthew McCauley (1750-1821), one of the landowners who gave land for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Lloyd and Neville families come into it as well, and Orange County genealogy is its field. Compiled in 2001.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

NC Cardinal

Hogan genealogy: the descendants of Colonel John Hogan and Mary Lloyd Hogan of Orange County, NC and Montgomery County, TN / by Cleo Greer Hogan and Charles Edw

Hogan, Cleo G. · 1998 · C.G. Hogan and C.E. Hogan

Cleo Greer Hogan and Charles Edward Hogan's genealogy of the descendants of Colonel John Hogan (about 1745-1792) and Mary Lloyd Hogan of Orange County, North Carolina, and Montgomery County, Tennessee. Self-published in 1998 in one illustrated volume with various pagings, it follows the family from the Orange County Piedmont to Tennessee.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

NC Cardinal Library of Congress

The Black family in slavery and freedom, 1750-1925

Gutman, Herbert G. (Herbert George), 1928-1985 · 1976 · Pantheon Books

Herbert G. Gutman's 1976 history of African American families from 1750 to 1925, published by Pantheon Books in New York, 664 pages with 38 leaves of plates. Its Orange County connection is the Bennehan and Cameron family plantations, Stagville and Fairntosh: the book discusses the people enslaved by Richard Bennehan (1743-1825) and the Camerons, and follows family ties among them under slavery and after emancipation. Subjects include African American families and enslaved persons in Orange County.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1977), The William and Mary Quarterly (1977), The American Historical Review (1977), Journal of American History (1977), The History Teacher (1977), Political Science Quarterly (1977), Journal of Black Psychology (1978), Journal of Social History (1978), Civil War history (1978), Signs (1978).

NCCU UNC CH Historical Society Library of Congress

The Cameron Plantation in Central North Carolina (1776-1973) and Its Founder Richard Bennehan

Sanders, Charles Richard · 1974 · Sanders

Charles Richard Sanders's short history of the Cameron plantation in central North Carolina from 1776 to 1973 and of its founder Richard Bennehan, whose lands became Stagville and Fairntosh. It covers the Bennehan and Cameron families and their connection with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Published by the author in Durham in 1974, 79 pages with a plate and illustrations.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 929.209 SAN Duke Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Davidson UNC
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The Papers Of Willie Person Mangum

Mangum, Willie Person · 1950 · State Dept. of Archives and History

The papers of Willie Person Mangum, 1792 to 1861, a lawyer, judge and United States senator from the part of Orange County that later became Durham County. Five volumes of correspondence published by the State Department of Archives and History beginning in 1950, arranged by date from 1807 to 1894, with illustrations, portraits and folding maps. A source for antebellum North Carolina and national politics, the Whig Party and the Mangum family.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1951), Journal of American History (1951), The Journal of Southern History (1953), Journal of American History (1953), The Journal of Southern History (1954), The Journal of Southern History (1955), The Journal of Southern History (1957), Journal of American History (1957), The American Historical Review (1957).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO MANGUM SHA NC Cardinal Durham Library of Congress

Map of Orange County, N.C.

Tate, George W. · 1891 · George W. Tate

Facsimile, dated 1940, of George W. Tate's 1891 map of Orange County. It shows towns, roads, railroads such as the North Carolina Rail Road and the Chapel Hill line, residences, schools, churches, mills and mines, with portraits and pictures of buildings in the margins.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC DPLA Library of Congress Library of Congress Digital Collections

Walter Alves papers, 1771-1858, Orange County, North Carolina : also Kentucky and Tennessee.

Alves, Walter, 1768-1819 · 1993 · University Publications of America

University Publications of America issued this two reel microfilm edition in 1993, reproducing the Walter Alves papers of 1771 to 1858 with a printed reel guide. Alves, 1768 to 1819, was an Orange County landowner, and the material runs to real estate investment in North Carolina and Tennessee, Scottish American families, and letters with Richard Bennehan, William Boylan and John Wickham.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

James Pleasant Mason diary, 1876-1893.

Mason, James Pleasant, 1827-1893 · 1876

Fifteen diary volumes kept by James Pleasant Mason (1827-1893) from 1876 to 1893, one linear foot in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 495. The diaries describe farm life and agriculture in nineteenth century North Carolina, the work of Baptist clergy under the Baptist State Convention, and social life and customs in Orange County, which is the diary's local tie.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

Tintype collection, circa 1856-1900.

1856

Nineteen tintypes dated roughly 1856 to 1900 in the North Carolina Collection at UNC. The tintypes include portraits of African Americans in nineteenth century North Carolina, including enslaved people, along with families, the Roulhac family, Henry Speck Harris (1837-1863), Caesar Mills, and a soldier of the 6th North Carolina Infantry of the Confederate army. Commencement at Chapel Hill and the early University of North Carolina supply the local link.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

Mary E. Strayhorn Berry papers, 1841-1944

Berry, Mary E. Strayhorn, 1854-1934 · 1841

About thirty items of Berry family papers dated 1841 to 1944, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 65-z. Mary E. Strayhorn Berry, 1854 to 1934, is the named creator. Topics include military life in Company G of the 27th North Carolina Infantry, bills of sale for enslaved people in Orange County, enslavers in the county, and social life around Hillsborough.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC

Search all 14 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this storyline. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Foundational · NC BIO MANGUM SHA The Papers of Willie Person Mangum Mangum, Willie Person · 1950

    The papers of Willie Person Mangum, 1792 to 1861, a lawyer, judge and United States senator from the part of Orange County that later became Durham County. Five volumes of correspondence published by the State Department of Archives and History beginning in 1950, arranged by date from 1807 to 1894, with illustrations, portraits and folding maps. A source for antebellum North Carolina and national politics, the Whig Party and the Mangum family.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 929.209 NEV The Descendants of Matthew McCauley Neville, David Lindsay · 2001

    David Lindsay Neville's genealogy of the descendants of Matthew McCauley (1750-1821), one of the landowners who gave land for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Lloyd and Neville families come into it as well, and Orange County genealogy is its field. Compiled in 2001.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 929.209 SAN The Cameron Plantation in Central North Carolina (1776-1973) and Its Founder Richard Bennehan Sanders, Charles Richard · 1974

    Charles Richard Sanders's short history of the Cameron plantation in central North Carolina from 1776 to 1973 and of its founder Richard Bennehan, whose lands became Stagville and Fairntosh. It covers the Bennehan and Cameron families and their connection with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Published by the author in Durham in 1974, 79 pages with a plate and illustrations.

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Families, Land & Genealogy →UNC & Campus Life →Farms & Rural Life →Politics & Government →Colonial Orange County →

Picture: Horton Grove, the slave quarters built about 1850 at Stagville, in what was then Orange County. Public domain. Photograph by Turover; via Wikimedia Commons

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