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Stumpage Reports
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Wednesday, June 16, 2004 :::
Weird History Stuff, Part 34B
At work I've been preparing for a presentation on Thomas Day. He was a free black furniture maker in NC before the Civil War. You can see examples of his work here.
In 1830, he married a free black woman in Virginia. Since there was a law against bringing free blacks into North Carolina, some of Day's neighbors in the town of Milton petitioned the General Assembly to allow her to come and live in the state. The General Assembly let her move to the state, and they presumably lived happily ever after.
The petition describes him as "a first-rate workman, a remarkably sober, steady and industrious man, a high minded, good and valuable Citizen, possessing a handsome property in this town." I think that whole thing is pretty interesting. But what I thought was really interesting was an added testimonial to the petition. This part says that Day was "an excellent mechanic, industrious, honest and sober in his habits and in the event of any disturbance amongst the Blacks, I should rely with confidence upon a disclosure from him, as he is the owner of Slaves as well as of real estate."
I think that's pretty important. One of the many reasons they did not want free blacks in the state was that they were afraid they would rile up the slaves and incite them to rise up against their masters. But they took the time to point that Day himself owned slaves, so they did not need to worry about leading a slave rebellion.
That's one of the reasons I like studying and reading about Slavery in the American South. If you just glance at the institution of slavery, you can see its pretty fucked up. But when you dig a little deeper, and see stuff like the above petition, it gets really fucked up.
Last Listened To:
Old Ways, Neil Young.
P.S.
Happy Bloomsday!
::: posted by tom at 9:53 AM
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