![]() |
![]() |
1860 Large SlaveholdersCan search by Surnames, as well as counties. |
African-American Population in Bertie
African-American Historical Leaders
Afrigeneas Links
Archives in Raleigh
Beginning your Research
Cemeteries in Bertie County
Census, Slave and Mortality Schedules
Churches
Civil War Colored Troops
Court Records
Freedman Bureau
Freedmen Searchable Database by by Paul Heinegg
Historic Homes (Source for possible slave owners)
IndenturesJan 1866-June 1866 N.C
Mailing Lists
Query Posting
Railroad Workers
Slaveholders
Southern Claims Commission
Free non-whites were identified as blacks and mullatoes and made up 2-3 percent of the population. Tax lists indicated: 1751=37; 1763=48; 1774=59. They were taxed for their wives and all children over 12 years of age. (White women were untaxed and white males were not taxable until 16 years of age) Some free Negroes reported slaves in the 1830 census, but by 1860 these slave owners were non-existent and only 29 actually owned any real or personal property.
African-American population of Bertie County was in the majority by the 1800 and continued to increase. Although most of these were living on the large plantations, the 1790 census does show that almost half of the county included slaves within their household.
Religion was important at the turn of the century with the Second Great Awakening, and many black churches were founded at that time. HISTORIC AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCHES IN BERTIE COUNTY
Free Negro orphans were frequently apprenticed. (Bertie County Apprentice Indentures 1750-1790, stack file no. C.R. 010.101.7- Raleigh)
Nov 29, 1763. Negro boy named Jacob, aged seven years. Bound to Aaron Ellis. Cordwainer. Signers: Thomas Pugh, Aaron Ellis. Witness: John Johnston
Resource: Bertie County: A Brief History by Alan D. Watson. NC Archives and History, 1982.
1860 - Slave Schedule (partial)
Plan to spend some time at this site. These family groups are well documented and contain lots of other surnames within the grouping. It has a search engine, so just feed in your surname, and you'll locate all the references. Or you can just browse through the alphabetical lists.
You can also just type in "Bertie" which will bring up the special sections which he includes on the Bertie County 1790, 1800, 1810, and 1820 surnames of free persons of color.
Result of searching for "Bertie"
Census Listing for 1820 Search for Bertie or specific surname.
Slave history and genealogy have suffered from inadequate attention to many of the records which tell us most about the identities and lives of North Carolina's slave population. When records from the slavery period have been extracted and published, they have been mainly the records which are most useful to researchers looking for free persons; and those records tend not to be the most fruitful sources of slave information. In many other cases, published extracts of records have omitted the names of the slaves present in those records. Legal records preserved in our county courthouses (and, in some cases, at the Department of Archives and History in Raleigh) are, in fact, the most numerous and most easily accessible of all pre-1865 records, and are the richest source of primary slave data. They deserve careful and methodical examination, analysis, and extraction.
There is no such thing as a "slave record" in the courthouses of North Carolina, if, by slave record, we mean a court document whose purpose was to record the names or activities of slaves for their own sake. Legal records were about the personal rights and property rights of free persons, and slaves had no personal or property rights. The fundamental relationship between free persons and legal records, therefore, was different from the relationship between slaves and legal records. Slaves do not appear as parties to any lawsuit, marriage, contract, deed, bond, or court action (except in rare cases as defendants in criminal trials). They did not make wills or inherit property. They are not named in the tax digests. They do not appear on any jury list, land lottery, poor school roster, or voters list. And yet, tens or hundreds of thousands of individual slaves are named and described in the court records of North Carolina, their lives inseparably intermingled with the lives of free citizens with whom they lived.
The historian or genealogist researching legal records for our North Carolina ancestors who lived as slaves must take a different approach to that task from the approach taken toward records of free persons living in North Carolina before 1865:
A note on extracting and indexing genealogical data on slaves. Genealogists researching free persons recognize that, without the combination of first, middle and last names by which free persons were legally known in different legal records, tracing free ancestors would be virtually impossible. Imagine how useless an index or extracted record would be if it only contained first names! Full names allow us to somewhat confidently connect persons from one record with the same persons in another record. Slaves in legal records also have more than first names. A slave's legal identity was the combination of his/her first name and the full name of his/her owner. This combination of slave's first name and owner's full name can be as effective as the name of any free person in tracing slaves from record to record. It is essential whenever extracting slave data about slaves that their owners' full names, as given in the record, also be extracted. When indexing any record which includes slaves, always index slaves by owners' full name (in the usual manner of last, first, middle) followed by the slaves' names, for example:
(Ruffin, John) Violet
One of the greatest challenges in tracing slave ancestors is to trace individual slaves back through former owners, because (working from more recent records to older records) the identifying "tag" of the owners' names usually changes without a clue. A slave typically appears in the records of an owner's legal affairs with no indication of where he or she came from. This is similar to the dilemma faced by researchers of free persons in trying to trace a married woman's ancestry when marriage (or other) records do not exist to show her maiden name. Just as marriage records are indispensable in tracing free persons, records of sale or transfer (as in estate sales, distributions of estates, and bills of sale) are essential to trace individual slaves from owner to owner. In many cases, a particular enslaved person with multiple owners, or even several generations of slaves, could be traced from our oldest records forward, if all existing records were thoroughly extracted and indexed.
Written by David Paterson for Georgia Research and adapted for North Carolina.
Contributed by: Cathy FarrisAs I have been sorting thru the different files I have gathered on my BRYAN(T) line, I have had in my possession all along, but didn't see this until I made an outline of my ancestor...is the whereabouts of Milly. By working on the various surnames related to my BRYAN(T)s, I was able to see where Milly has been...and if I had a few more records, I'll bet I could find out more about Milly and her children...maybe even her parents. This doesn't happen all the time, but I thought it worth posting...who knows, maybe someone is looking for this Milly. I also thought this was one of the best research lessons I have followed up on. Maybe this group would like to make a research project here, by using the books and records you have right there beside your desk. We know she was in Bertie and then Randolph. Maybe someone out there would like to try...as a research project... to find the rest of the story on Milly WIGGINS =============================================== The story of the WIGGIN family bounded out to different people thru two county court systems. This outline was on Aaron ELLIS dec'd 1769, 2nd husband to Catherine____BRYANT ELLIS dec'd 1779. I tried to search all records to put his activities in chron order for study purposes...mostly for trying to figure out how Aaron met Catherine widow of William BRYAN dec'd 1744 Bertie. They are the parents of Michael BRYAN dec'd 1794 Bertie. The records below show his association with Milly WIGGINS born about 1757. There are 2 Milly 'WIGGINS, mother and daughter. "Bertie Co Court Minutes, book III" Haun 1763 29 Nov Negro boy named Jacob aged 7, bound to Aaron ELLIS, Cordwainer. Signers: Thomas PUGH, Aaron x ELLIS. wit: John JOHNSTON 1763 29 Nov Negro girl named Amelia aged 5. bound to Aaron ELLIS, Spining, Nitting and Sewing. Signers: Thom PUGH, Aaron x ELLIS. no wit COMMENT: Maybe Amelia is Milly? cathy in the record below it states as of 1775 Milly is 18 years old. I believe this to be the Milly bound to Catherine MARSH daughter of Catherine___BRYAN ELLIS. 1763 29 Nov Negro boy named Arthur age 2 bound to Aaron ELLIS, Cooper. Signers: Thomas PUGH, Aaron ELLIS, wit: John JOHNSTON 1769 Ordered William WIGGINS 5 year orphan of Sarah WIGGINS be bound to Josiah GODDEN (GARDNER?) until 21 to learn trade of cooper. 1771 969 Court ordered that Jacob WEGGINS the mulato bastard of Mille a mulattoe free wench be bound to Catherine ELLIS age abt 14 til he arrives at age 21. Court ordered that Mille a mulatoe the bastard of Mille a mulatoe free wench age abt 13 be bound to Catherine ELLIS til she arrive at age 21 Court ordered that Arthur the mulatoe bastard of Mille a mulatoe free wench age abt 11 be bound an apprentice to Catherine ELLIS NOTE: 8 years have passed since the court ordered these same children to Aaron ELLIS, Jude would be 18 by now. Jude is mentioned in the will of Catherine ELLIS in 1779. Book IV 1772 Orderd Allin WIGGINs age 6 bastard child of JUDAH WIGGINS be bound apprentice to George WILLIAMs. Ordered Sarah WIGGINS age 10 bastard mulatoe child of JUDAH WIGGINS be bound to George WILLIAMS Ordered that Anthony WIGGINS age 8 son of Sarah WIGGINS be bound as apprentice to Luke RABY to learn trade of planter. Ordered Edward WIGGINS age 7 son of Sarah WIGGINS be bound appt to Luke RAYBE to learn trade of planter. 1774 Ordered Jemina WIGGINS age 8 bastard mulatto child of Sarah WIGGINS bound appt to John SKINNER. Order Mary Betth age 10 mulatto child of Sarah WIGGINS be bound appt to John SKINNER. "Bertie County Court Minutes Book Book IV", Haun: 1775 Motion of Edward WIGGINS to have order for court to bind his children to John SKINNER quashed, the court being convinced of SKINNERS ill and deceitful behavior in procuring said order do hereby order and command that said former order be quashed and entirely revoked. 1775 Ordered Jesse WIGGINs age 8, Luke WIGGINS 6, be bound apprt to John GARDNER to learn trade of shoemaker and Letters WIGGINS age 5, Pegg WIGGINS 3 be bound to John GARDNER to spin, orphans of ____WIGGINS. Below is a court order for Milly WIGGINS to Catherine MARSH daughter of William BRYANT and Catherine _____BRYANT ELLIS: from "Edgecombe Co NC Abst of Court Min". 1744--46, 1757-94 by Marvin K. DORMAN Jr. 1968, Salt Lake 975.646p2d 1775 Wed 19 July Milly WIGGINS 18 years old, daughter of Sarah WIGGINS, bound to Edmund MARSH and his wife Catherine. NOTE: Milly WIGGINS a free wench, as we see from the entry below Catherine ELLIS owned Milly and then passed her on to Edmund MARSH her son in law. There were several children by Sarah WIGGENS that were mentioned in Bertie court records being bound out to familiar names. Since Catherine ELLIS mentioned Judah in her will...from the 1763 entry below it would seem that JUDE is sister to Millie WIGGINS...not her mother. from Bertie Court.... 1763 On motion of Thomas JONES att at law in behalf of Aaron ELLIS an order of court to have a negro boy Matthew 14½, Jacob 7, girl JUDE 10, Mille 5, Arthur 2, until age 21, to learn the following, Matthew - cooper, Jacob - cordwainer, Arthur - cooper. daughter Catherine BRYAN married Edmund MARSH, they moved from Bertie to Randolph Co NC. An abstract of his will can be found in Grimes for Guilford Co. NC, however, I have a written copy from Randolph Co NC. 1779...cathy NOTE: Another find on Milly comes from the "Randolph Co., NC Genealogical Journal"- Summer 2000 page 16: Capias 28 July 1794 issued by Robert REDING, JP, on testimony of Darias RAMAGE that "one Milly WIGGEN a Negro Woman is a free person that there is four of her Children in the possession of Charles STEWARD one with Uriah MARSH and one in the care of William ARMSTED, Esqur. and held as slaves. These persons to come forward and answer the charge that these children are of right free persons. NOTE: Capias---A writ issued from the magistrate to a constable, ordering him to find an individual, most often the accused, based on a complaint. Once found, the accused person is forced to post a recognizance, thereby agreeing to answer the charge at an upcoming term of court. Usually, the defendant is not physically detained for matters arising before the lower court. The names of witnesses are frequently recorded on the reverse of capias writs and are included in the abstract after the symbol, "w/." I do not have the rest of this story. If one is interested...Maybe starting with the 1800 census to see if Milly WIGGINS is entered in Randolph Co. NC. Also, check the name Edward WIGGINS mentioned above. He must be father of some, of the WIGGINS children and maybe he is listed on another record. The name WIGGINS can be found in Bertie. I wonder if Edward took on the name of his previous owner? cathy
Devereaux Plantation |
Tom Blake has done partial transcriptions of the 1860 slave census for Bertie County. This is part of a project of indexing the names of larger 1860 slaveholders and matching the surnames with African Americans on the 1870 census. Be sure to read his analysis.
Thomas BARKER John DREW Whitmel HILL Matthew ING(S) Samuel JOHNSTON William W. JOHNSTON John LENNOX David MEREDITH Titus MOORE Greenberry MULLIN Cullen POLLOCK Francis PUGH Thomas PUGH Samuel SMITH David STONE Lewis THOMPSON Elizabeth TUNSTALL
Noah B. Hinton
Josiah Holley
John E. Wood
Stark Armistead
Lewis Bond
Cullen Capehart
William M. Clark
John Devereus
Robert A. Jones
Thomas Norfleet
Ralph Outlaw
William Pugh
Peter Rascoe
Thomas Speller
William T. Thompson
Lewis Williams
Original Jesse Garrett will which I obtained from the NC Archives. The will is dated 13 Oct 1796 and proved Jun 1797. Wife is shown as Rachael, sons Jesse, David, Jacob, James, Timothy, John and Thomas, daughters Celia Eley, Millie, Penny, Mary and Elizabeth with son-in-law James Cherry (?) as sole executor. [Mille may be the wife of James Cherry as Penny, Mary and Elizabeth were minors and Celia may have been married to an Eley.] [The slaves were Toney, Ben, Crummell, Jude, Venus, little Jude, Jack, Jerry, Silus, Abram, Cesar, Flora, Issac, Valley, Kate and Ester. I hope I have read the names correctly.] Contributed by: Virginia Jones VaJones@aol.com
Askew, Wilie I. 43 slaves Boyle, Mrs. M.C. 4 slaves Branch, John Sr 19 Bunch, Jermiah, Sr 23 Butlar, Monroe 5 Capehart, B.A. 43 Cherry, Jos. O 5 Craig, Andrew 14 Dewby, Ward (estate) 24 Floyd, Mary (estate) 1 Falk, William K 22 Floyd, Samuel 25 Gurley, Will P 11 Gray, William S 6 Gray, George 17 Hassell, A.H. 6 Hensberry, Peter 8 Hoggard, Will H 33 Lee, John H. 10 Mitchell, John 2 Mitchell, Lawrence 2 Mizillis, Mora L 2 Powell, Will R 2 Pruden, Will S 3 Rascoe, John T 1 Rhodes, Nezerath 7 Riddick, Thos W 53 Roulhac, Frances L. Miss 58 Ryan, Emely L. Miss 51 Sheperd, Jno S 2 Smioth, Dr. R.H. 21 Smith, Stark B. 3 Smithwick, Sam W. 38 Spellings 2 Spivey, Jos B 5 Sutton, William W. 16 Taylor, David E 3 Taylor, Jon S 24 Thomas, L. Capt 1 Thomas, Miss Sarah 5 Ward, Mrs. Sarah 8 Webb, S.S. 2 Whitaker, Jno.E. 7 White, Stanley 6 Wilson, Turner 35 Winston, P.H. 33 Wish, Mrs. Elizabeth 26 Wynns, Miss Nancy 4 Total Slaves for the District: 946
Civil War Role
Bertie County Military Page Lists servicemen from Bertie County. Work done by Gerald Thomas
Role of the African-American in the Civil War History of African Americans in the Civil War
___________________________________________________
The following are some known African-American Cemeteries to check out.
I need MORE of these LINKS, or if you have copies of these lists, please let me know. Virginia Crilley varcsix@hot.rr.com
The boxes are in chronological order and there is no volume with the records alphabetized.
Sample of information from Box number 6.
It had file folders in it from 1744-1815
Call # 010.928.6
They contain all sorts of information.
A young man who is doing his thesis on Slave insurrection in Northeastern NC recommended several sources.
William and Mary Journal, Series 3, Vol 37 Jan 1980
Slave Rebelliousness and Social Conflict in NC 1775-1802.
The Great Class,Conflict, and Consensus by Strickland
The Great Revival and Insurrectionary reviews the Church's part in slave insurrection.
Under aged children who were not or could not be supported by their parents or were orphans were apprenticed by Freedmen's Bureau officials to persons who would be responsible for their upbringing and welfare.
Included with this Index are notes from the mothers of certain apprentices giving permission for their children to be bound out and notes explaining why some children who were not orphans were bound out. A sample follows:
Lumberton, N. C. June 29, 1866 This is to certify that I am the mother of Mary aged 12 years, Aleck aged 10 years and Jerry aged 8 years and that I freely give my consent to have them bound to R. G. Ashley. The father of these three children is in Alabama and it is for their benefit that they are bound to Mr. Ashley. I further certify that I am not able to feed and clothe them and give them any education. Martha (X) HillTwo typical indenture agreements have been transcribed for those not familiar with these documents, one an agreement between Mary A. Bryant of Robeson County and Helen, a 15 year old colored orphan; and the other between J. L. Motley of Casswell County and Lucy, a 9 year old orphan who was bound out until the age of 21.
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
It is helpful to fellow-researchers if you mention that you are looking for an African-American ancestor. This points them in the right direction to share information.
To see the original records, ask the staff in the research room. They will direct you to the office where you can get a researcher's ID card (which allows you to enter the reading room where original records are viewed) and to the office that has the complete index of the Freedman's Bureau records (where you can fill out a form indicating which records that you want pulled so that you can look at them); both of these offices are open from 9 to 5. They will not pull original records if they have already been microfilmed, but the index identifies the records that have been microfilmed and gives the microfilm number.