Amelia Green, a Free Woman of New Bern by Jan Parys
Devastated by the Tuscarora War, 1711–1713, New Bern settlers needed help. They were aided by immigrants from England, Switzerland, the German Palatinate, and France. Slaves also arrived from Africa, and African slavery became a source of labor. Many godly people like the Quakers wanted emancipation for everyone so they helped the slaves obtain freedom.
Like most African-Americans Amelia Green wanted freedom from slavery for her family after she bought it for herself. Amelia petitioned the NC legislature successfully to free her family members. Amelia bought her freedom from Robert Schaw, a plantation owner in the Wilmington, NC, area. He was married to Anne Vail of the New Bern Vail family. Amelia’s children were listed as mulatto indicating they had a white father. There was a local Wilmington area planter named Richard Green and Richard is the name of her first son.
In her September, 1796 petition to the Craven County courts, she stated that all but two of her children, two daughters, had been able to acquire their own freedom by “the fruits of their own industry and meritorious behavior.” In 1796 she tried to emancipate her sixteen year-old daughter, Princess Ann Green. Five years later, she petitioned to emancipate her daughter Nancy Handy and talked of her own aging and not expecting to live much longer.
She lived twenty years longer and saw family members become owners of both real estate and human property. Amelia Green was a remarkable woman who lived in New Bern, North Carolina after she was free.
She became a landowner and the in-law of one of the largest African American slaveholders in the American South, John Carruthers Stanly. The house where Green spent the final decades of her life working to reassemble a family that had been separated because of slavery still stands in New Bern. It is located at 310 George Street. Her home, also known as the Green-Hollister House, was purchased in 1800 by John Carruthers Stanly for Amelia, his wife’s grandmother, to save it from the tax collector.
Located at 411 Johnson Street, the John R. Green House stayed in the family until 1842. The Green family owned a family pew in Christ Episcopal Church, the same church as the John Wright Stanly family. John Green earned his living as a tailor. Amelia was a laundry woman. Green’s story is one of struggle and hard work to be free from slavery, first for herself and then her immediate family members. She accomplished much at almost unimaginable levels for a woman, especially a slave woman.
Sources: Bob Arnebeck, A Shameful Heritage, Washington Post Magazine, January 18, 1889; Roger Davis and Wanda Neal- Davis , Chronology: A Historical Review, Major Events in Black History 1492 thru 1953; Patricia M. Samford, Historic Bath State Historic Site, (draft to be submitted to the North Carolina Historical Review, March 2006 and New Bern’s African American Guide to African American History (a map and explanations).
Shackelford Beach
Serene Shackelford
Showing posts with label history NC slavery slaves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history NC slavery slaves. Show all posts
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Nat Turner
Nat Turner changed history. He scared most of the slaveowners.
Before Nat Turner's rebellion, North Carolina was quite lenient with slaves. Then Virginia and South Carolina officials really complained and slaves appeared to be more inclines to want their freedom as opposed to more dependency in the past.
Answers.com says, "Nat Turner was a black preacher who led an 1831 uprising in Southampton County, Virginia in which at least 55 whites were killed by a group of about 50 slaves. Turner was a deeply religious man who claimed to have visions and directives from God. On the night of 21 August 1831 he led four other slaves (Henry, Hark, Nelson and Sam) on a murderous spree near the town of Jerusalem, killing men, women and children in their beds. By the next day his mob had grown to at least 40 or 50, but the local militia confronted and captured most of them. Turner escaped, but was eventually captured in October and tried. He was hanged and skinned 11 November 1831. Before he was executed, he described his actions to Thomas R. Gray, and 'The Confessions of Nat Turner' was later widely published in newspapers. Turner's failed rebellion led to hundreds of blacks being murdered by white vigilante mobs, and spurred a new set of strict codes that limited the activities of slaves."
Before Nat Turner's rebellion, North Carolina was quite lenient with slaves. Then Virginia and South Carolina officials really complained and slaves appeared to be more inclines to want their freedom as opposed to more dependency in the past.
Answers.com says, "Nat Turner was a black preacher who led an 1831 uprising in Southampton County, Virginia in which at least 55 whites were killed by a group of about 50 slaves. Turner was a deeply religious man who claimed to have visions and directives from God. On the night of 21 August 1831 he led four other slaves (Henry, Hark, Nelson and Sam) on a murderous spree near the town of Jerusalem, killing men, women and children in their beds. By the next day his mob had grown to at least 40 or 50, but the local militia confronted and captured most of them. Turner escaped, but was eventually captured in October and tried. He was hanged and skinned 11 November 1831. Before he was executed, he described his actions to Thomas R. Gray, and 'The Confessions of Nat Turner' was later widely published in newspapers. Turner's failed rebellion led to hundreds of blacks being murdered by white vigilante mobs, and spurred a new set of strict codes that limited the activities of slaves."
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner
Before Nat Turner's rebellion, North Carolina was quite lenient with slaves. Then Virginia and South Carolina officials really complained and slaves appeared to be more inclines to want their freedom as opposed to more dependency in the past.
Answers.com says, "Nat Turner was a black preacher who led an 1831 uprising in Southampton County, Virginia in which at least 55 whites were killed by a group of about 50 slaves. Turner was a deeply religious man who claimed to have visions and directives from God. On the night of 21 August 1831 he led four other slaves (Henry, Hark, Nelson and Sam) on a murderous spree near the town of Jerusalem, killing men, women and children in their beds. By the next day his mob had grown to at least 40 or 50, but the local militia confronted and captured most of them. Turner escaped, but was eventually captured in October and tried. He was hanged and skinned November 11, 1831. Before he was executed, he described his actions to Thomas R. Gray, and 'The Confessions of Nat Turner' was later widely published in newspapers. Turner's failed rebellion led to hundreds of blacks being murdered by white vigilante mobs, and spurred a new set of strict codes that limited the activities of slaves."
Labels: North Carolina history slavery Nat Turner Virginia Southhampton County
Before Nat Turner's rebellion, North Carolina was quite lenient with slaves. Then Virginia and South Carolina officials really complained and slaves appeared to be more inclines to want their freedom as opposed to more dependency in the past.
Answers.com says, "Nat Turner was a black preacher who led an 1831 uprising in Southampton County, Virginia in which at least 55 whites were killed by a group of about 50 slaves. Turner was a deeply religious man who claimed to have visions and directives from God. On the night of 21 August 1831 he led four other slaves (Henry, Hark, Nelson and Sam) on a murderous spree near the town of Jerusalem, killing men, women and children in their beds. By the next day his mob had grown to at least 40 or 50, but the local militia confronted and captured most of them. Turner escaped, but was eventually captured in October and tried. He was hanged and skinned November 11, 1831. Before he was executed, he described his actions to Thomas R. Gray, and 'The Confessions of Nat Turner' was later widely published in newspapers. Turner's failed rebellion led to hundreds of blacks being murdered by white vigilante mobs, and spurred a new set of strict codes that limited the activities of slaves."
Labels: North Carolina history slavery Nat Turner Virginia Southhampton County
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The Irony of Slavery
Most Americans think slavery was very oppressive but there are a number of freedmen especially in NC who show another side to the institution.
John Carruthers Stanly is a true anomaly as he started life as a slave, earned his freedom and became the largest slave owner in the nation in 1824. He owned over 163 slaves to work his three plantations and his barber shop which was the source of his original wealth. He had bought his wife Kitty and first three children out of slavery.
In some ways he is an embarrassment to both races, white and black, because he overcame his position as a slave and became wealthy. He embarrassed the whites as he became wealthier than they were and an embarrassment to the African- Americans because he proved one can rise above slavery and have success.
John Carruthers Stanly is a true anomaly as he started life as a slave, earned his freedom and became the largest slave owner in the nation in 1824. He owned over 163 slaves to work his three plantations and his barber shop which was the source of his original wealth. He had bought his wife Kitty and first three children out of slavery.
In some ways he is an embarrassment to both races, white and black, because he overcame his position as a slave and became wealthy. He embarrassed the whites as he became wealthier than they were and an embarrassment to the African- Americans because he proved one can rise above slavery and have success.
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