Several free African Americans voted in the North Carolina General Assembly 
elections in 1701. Jack Braveboy, was living in Chowan County before 17 
July 1716 when he was presented by the court: a negro, Coming into this 
Government with a woman and do live together as man and wife, it is 
ordered that the sd. Braveboy produce a Sufficient Certificate of their 
Marryage. 

In 1725 John Cotton was indicted for marrying a "Molatto Man to a White 
woman," and in 1726 the Rev. Mr. John Blacknall was fined fifty pounds for 
"joyning together in ... Matrimony Thomas Spencer and Martha Paule a 
Molatto Woman". 

Many of those who were free in Northampton County, Virginia, settled in 
Craven County, North Carolina. They were the Carter, Copes, Driggers, 
George, and Johnston families. They can be traced directly back to their 
seventeenth century Virginia ancestors. Those in the early eighteenth 
century lists of Northampton County, Virginia tithables who immigrated to 
North Carolina were the Allen and Roberts families. 

The descendants of Nicholas and Bungey Manuel, "negro slaves" freed by the 
28 October 1718 Elizabeth City County, Virginia will of Edward Myhill, 
were in the Edgecombe, North Carolina Militia in the 1750s. 

James and Peter Black came to Craven County from Essex County, Virginia, 
where they had been free born. John Heath tried to sell them as slaves to 
William Handcock, but the Craven County Court intervened on their behalf 
on 21 June 1745. 

Moll, Nell, Sue, Sall, and Will Dove, "Negroes," came to Craven County, 
North Carolina, from Maryland with Leonard Thomas who was trying to keep 
them as his slaves in September 1749, but William Smith travelled to 
Maryland and proved their claim that they were free born. 

Free African American immigrants were of sufficient number in 1723 that 
the General Assembly received complaints of great Numbers of Free Negroes, 
Mulattoes, and other persons of mixt Blood, that have lately removed 
themselves into this Government, and that several of them have intermarried
with the white Inhabitants of this Province.... 

Whilst some North Carolina residents were complaining about the immigration
of free African Americans, their white neighbors in Granville, Halifax, 
Hertford, and Northampton Counties welcomed them. Their neighbors may have 
been accustomed to living among free African Americans in Virginia; they 
may have moved from Virginia in company with them; or perhaps they were 
drawn together by the adversities of the frontier. Neighbor depended 
heavily upon neighbor, and whites may have been more concerned with 
hostile Indians and harsh living conditions than they were with their 
neighbors' color. Whites in some parts of North Carolina may have been 
more concerned with hostile Indians and harsh living conditions than they 
were with their neighbors' color. 

The slave population on the frontier was much lower than in the settled 
areas of Virginia, so the presence of free African Americans would not 
have posed a threat to most settlers. And several of these free African 
Americans owned slaves of their own. However, land ownership was more 
likely the social equalizer for them and their white neighbors. 

The McKinnie family, originally from Isle of Wight County, Virginia, was 
one of the leading white families in the area around the Roanoke River. 
Barnaby McKinnie, member of the General Assembly from Edgecombe County in 
1735, was witness to many of the early Bass, Bunch, Chavis, and Gibson 
deeds. John McKinnie called Cannon Cumbo his friend when he mentioned him 
in his 28 February 1753 Edgecombe County will. Other leading white 
settlers who sold them land adjoining theirs and witnessed their deeds 
were Richard Washington, William and Thomas Bryant, Richard Pace, and 
William Whitehead. Arthur Williams, member of the General Assembly for 
Bertie County in 1735, and John Castellaw, (brother?) of James Castellaw, 
a member of the Assembly from Bertie County, had mixed-race common-law 
wives, Elizabeth and Martha Butler. 

On 9 November 1762 many of the leading residents of Halifax County 
petitioned the Assembly to repeal the discriminatory tax against free 
African Americans, and in May 1763 fifty-four of the leading citizens of 
Granville, Northampton, and Edgecombe Counties made a similar petition. 
They described their "Free Negro & Mulatto" neighbors as persons of Probity
& good Demeanor (who) chearfully contribute towards the Discharge of every 
public Duty injoined them by Law.

About ten years later a similar petition by 75 residents of Granville 
County included those of a few of the free African Americans of the county:
Benjamin, Edward, and Reuben Bass, William and Gibea Chavis, Lawrence 
Pettiford, and Davie Mitchell (negro). 

By 1790 they represented 1.7% of the free population of North Carolina, 
concentrated in the counties of Northampton, Halifax, Bertie, Granville, 
Craven, Robeson, and Hertford where they were about 5% of the free 
population [Heads of Families - North Carolina, 9-10].Note 9 In these 
counties most African American families were landowners, and several did 
exceptionally well. 

Edward Carter was the fourth largest Dobbs County landowner with 23,292 
acres in 1780.  He was head of a Dobbs County household of 8 "other free," 
one white woman, and 20 slaves in 1790. Note 10 The Bunch, Chavis and 
Gibson families owned slaves and acquired over a thousand acres of land on 
both sides of the Roanoke River, and the Chavis and Gowen families 
acquired over a thousand acres in Granville County. 

William Chavis, a "Negro" listed in the 8 October 1754 muster roll of 
Colonel William Eaton's Granville County Regiment, owned over a thousand 
acres of land, a lodging house frequented by whites, and 8 taxable slaves. 
His son, Philip Chavis, also owned over a thousand acres of land, travelled
between Granville, Northampton, and Robeson Counties, and lived for a 
while in Craven County, South Carolina. 

Some members of the Gibson family moved to South Carolina in 1731 where a 
member of the Commons House of Assembly complained that "several free 
colored men with their white wives had immigrated from Virginia." Governor 
Robert Johnson of South Carolina summoned Gideon Gibson and his family to 
explain their presence there and after meeting him and his family reported,
I have had them before me in Council and upon Examination find that they 
are not Negroes nor Slaves but Free people, That the Father of them here 
is named Gideon Gibson and his Father was also free, I have been informed 
by a person who has lived in Virginia that this Gibson has lived there 
Several Years in good Repute and by his papers that he has produced before 
me that his transactions there have been very regular, That he has for 
several years paid Taxes for two tracts of Land and had several Negroes of 
his own, That he is a Carpenter by Trade and is come hither for the support 
of his Family.

Like the early settlers of the North Carolina frontier Governor Johnson 
was more concerned with the Gibsons' social class than their race. In mid-
eighteenth century North Carolina we find wealthy mixed race families 
counted in some years by tax assessors as "mulatto" and in other years as 
white. Jeremiah and Henry Bunch, Bertie County slave owners, were taxed in 
Jonathan Standley's 1764 Bertie County list as "free male Molattors" in 
1764, but as whites in Standley's 1765 Bertie list, and again as "free 
Molatoes" in 1766. Michael Going/ Gowen was taxed in Granville County as 
white in 1754 and was called "Michael Goin, Mulattoe" in 1759. 

John Gibson, Gideon Gibson and Gibeon Chavis, all married the daughters of 
prosperous white farmers. Some members of the Gibson, Chavis, Bunch and 
Gowen families became resolutely white after several generations. 

While some free African Americans owned slaves and were accepted in white 
society, others married slaves and socialized with slaves. Hester Anderson,
one of those freed in 1712 in Norfolk County, was the common-law wife of a 
slave. She was the ancestor of the Artis family of Southampton County, 
Virginia, and several North Carolina counties. James Revell of Cumberland 
County entrusted his executor with the task of making application to the 
legislature for his wife's freedom [WB C:21].Note 11 

Abel Carter was suspected of aiding a runaway slave. The 14 November 1778 
issue of the North Carolina Gazette of New Bern advertised a reward for a 
negro fellow named Smart ... Tis supposed he is harboured about Smith 
River by one Abel Carter, a free Negro, as he has been seen there several 
times. 

However, the majority were small farmers owning a few hundred acres who 
married other free African Americans. Their marriages can be identified 
from colonial wills and tax lists, and they were recorded in the county 
marriage bonds starting in the late eighteenth century. 

They suffered under the discriminatory North Carolina tax law enacted in 
1749 which described taxables as all and every White Person, Male, of the 
Age of Sixteen Years, and upwards, all Negroes, Mulattoes, Mustees Male or 
Female, and all Persons of Mixt Blood, to the Fourth Generation, of the Age
of Twelve Years, and upwards, and all white Persons intermarrying with 
any Negro, mulatto, or Mustee, or other Person of mixt Blood, ... shall be 
deemed Taxables....

Thus, free African American and Native American households can be 
identified by the taxation of their female family members over 12 years of 
age. Some light skinned people would claim to be white to avoid this 
discriminatory tax, and they would be listed by the tax collector with the 
notation, "Refuses to list his wife". It was in the interest of the tax 
collector to classify those of doubtful ancestry as "Mulatto" since he 
received a portion of the tax. However, those with some political and 
economic influence like the Bass and Bunch families were often listed as 
white. 

In addition to the discriminatory tax, poor and orphaned African American 
children were bound out until the age of 21 by the county courts just like 
their poor white counterparts.
Note 12 In July 1733 the General Assembly received complaints from "divers 
Inhabitants" that divers free People, Negroes, Molattoes residing in this 
Province were ... bound out until they come to 31 years contrary to the 
consent of the Parties bound out. The said comittee further report that 
they fear that divers Persons will desert the settlement of those parts ... 
The General Assembly ruled that those illegally bound should be released 
and the practice of binding out children to 31 years of age instead of 21 
years was to cease.

The children were bound as apprentices in various crafts. Some apprentices 
were bound "to learn the art, trade, and mystery of farming" which may 
simply have meant working as an unpaid field hand; others were trained as 
coopers, blacksmiths, cordwainers, or other useful occupations. 

The November 1774 Bertie County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions 
ordered Jemima Wiggins, 8 years old, and Mary Beth Wiggins, 10 years old, 
"bastard Mulattos of Sarah Wiggins," bound to John Skinner. However, this 
order was reversed in the May 1775 Court session when Edward Wiggins, the 
children's father, convinced the court of the said Skinners ill & 
deceitful Behavior procuring sd Order.... 

The courts bound out the children of many free African American women 
because they were the common-law wives of slaves, but Doll Burnett argued 
against the binding of her daughter, Edith, in the 28 May 1777 Johnston 
County Court: 
and the court taking the Conduct Character and Circumstances of the said 
Doll Burnet into consideration & finding no just reasons to apprehend that 
the said Edith would become a charge to this County, Ordered her to be 
returned to the care of her said Mother again. 

In some instances the indenture laws virtually enslaved a person for life. 
George Cummins had the indenture of his white servant woman named 
Christian Finny extended by a year and her child bound for 31 years by 
order of the 7 December 1736 Carteret County Court because she had a 
"Mallatto Bastard Child during her service". She may have been the common-
law wife of a slave for she was charged with having another "Melato" born 
10 July 1739 and another on 20 December 1743. When she applied to the 
court for her freedom on 9 June 1744, the court ruled that she serve for 
another five months to pay for the cost of the court suit against her. 
When she again applied for her freedom six months later, the court ruled 
that on checking the record she serve another year since she had a 
"Mullatto Child in the time of her servitude". 

Some unscrupulous masters treated their apprentices like slaves. On 21 
September 1742 David Lewis brought John Russell, a six year old mixed race 
boy, into Craven County Court, requesting that he be bound to him and 
promising to Cause to be learned the sd Boy to Read & Write a Ledgable 
hand & teach him or cause to be taught the Shoemakers trade....

However, Lewis "made a present of the said boy" to his brother, John 
Lewis, of Chowan County, and his brother sold the boy to Captain Hews of 
Suffolk County, Virginia. 

Between 1759 and 1786 there were sixteen African American apprentices in 
Craven County who at the completion of their indentures had to petition 
the court for their freedom. The court ruled in the favor of the 
petitioners in every case.

Caleb Lockalier was bound apprentice to Stephen Kades who assigned him to 
Francis Kennaday, who assigned him to James Oneal, who assigned him to 
Thomas Hadley, who refused to release him from his indenture until ordered 
to do so by the 27 July 1786 Cumberland County Court. John Harris, a white 
Hyde County carpenter, found guilty of begetting a bastard child by Mary 
Ba_row, a white spinster, was required by law to support her. However, in 
June 1756 when the child was about two months old, the court learned that 
the child was mixed race. Harris was compensated for his expense by 
binding the child, a "Molatto Named George," to him for 21 years. 

Robert West, Sr., advertised in the North Carolina Gazette of New Bern on 
13 March 1752 for Thomas Bowman as if he were a runaway slave: 

Ran away from the subscribers, on Roanoke River, a Negro fellow, named 
Thomas Boman, a very good blacksmith, near 6 feet high, he can read, write 
and cyper, Whoever will apprehend him shall be paid 12 Pistoles, besides 
what the law allows. 

Almost twenty years later Thomas Bowman was a taxable "free Molatto" in 
John Moore's household in the Bertie County tax list of 1771, 1772, and 
1774. 

A South Carolinian advertised in the North Carolina Central and 
Fayetteville Gazette on 25 July 1795 for Nancy Oxendine, daughter of 
Charles Oxendine of Robeson County: 
$10 reward to deliver to the subscriber in Georgetown, a mustie servant 
woman named Nancy Oxendine, she is a stout wench, of a light complexion 
about 30 years old. It is supposed she has been ??els away by her brother 
and sister, the latter lives in Fayetteville. 

We also find cases where children were willingly bound by their parents to 
neighbors, friends, and relatives. Lovey Bass bound her illegitimate 
child, Nathan, to her neighbor, George Anderson. 

George Anderson was probably the boy's father. He devised his land to 
Nathan and his farm animals to Lovey Bass but left his wife and children 
only a shilling each. 

Other apprenticeships were simply a way for a person to acknowledge 
responsibility for a child'ssupport. Mary Bibby, a "black" taxable, had a 
"base born" child named Fanny who was bound out to Amy Ingram in Bute 
County on 13 May 1772. However, Mary had been living in the Ingram 
household for at least ten years prior to this. She and a slave named 
Charles were "black" taxables in Jesse Ingram's household in Gideon 
Macon's 1761 list for Goodwin's District of Granville County, and she and 
Charles were taxables in the Ingram household in the 1771 Bute County tax 
list of William Person. Mary was Charles' common-law wife according to a 
28 June 1893 letter from a Bibby descendant, Narcissa Rattley, to her 
children.

Some masters took the apprenticeships seriously. In Bertie County on 26 
September 1768 Frederick James, 7 years old, "natural son of Ann James," 
was bound as an apprentice to John Norwood. And about 50 years later on 25 
February 1817 we find Frederick James able to write his own Bertie County 
will in good handwriting. Free African Americans were also in danger of 
having their children stolen and sold into slavery. In his Revolutionary 
War pension application on 7 March 1834 Drury Tann declared in Southampton 
County, Virginia, Court that he was stolen from his parents when a small 
boy by persons unknown to him, who were carrying him to sell him into 
Slavery, and had gotten with him and other stolen property as far as the 
Mountains on their way, that his parents made complaint to a Mr. Tanner 
Alford who was Then a magistrate in the county of Wake State of North 
Carolina to get me back from Those who had stolen me and he did pursue the 
Rogues & overtook Them at the mountains and took me from Them. 

An advertisement in the 10 April 1770 issue of the North Carolina Gazette 
of New Bern describes how the Driggers family was victimized in Craven 
County, North Carolina: Broke into the house ... under the care of Ann 
Driggus, a free negro woman, two men in disguise, with marks on their 
faces, and clubs in their hands, beat and wounded her terribly and carried 
away four of her children. 

And John Scott, "freeborn negro," testified in Berkeley County, South 
Carolina, on 17 January 1754 that three men, Joseph Deevit, William Deevit,
and Zachariah Martin entered by force, the house of his daughter, Amy 
Hawley, and carried her off, with her six children, and he thinks they are 
taking them north to sell as slaves. 

One of the children was recovered in Orange County, North Carolina, where 
the county court appointed Thomas Chavis to return the child to South 
Carolina on 12 March 1754. 

Stealing free African Americans to sell them into slavery in another state 
was not a crime in North Carolina until 1779. However, free African 
Americans were afforded some protection under the law. In 1793 the 
murderer of John James of Northampton County was committed to jail 
according to the 20 March 1793 issue of the North Carolina Journal: 

Last night Harris Allen, who was committed for the murder of John James, a 
free mulatto, of Northampton County, made his escape from the gaol of this 
town. He is a remarkable tall man, and had on a short round jacket. 

Many of the families in this history have at least one member who fought 
in the Revolutionary War. Several moved to South Carolina in the 18th 
century, and their names appear in the musters of the South Carolina 
Militia in the 1759 Cherokee Expedition. 

This service alongside whites established long lasting friendships. 
William Bryan, a Justice of the Peace for Johnston County, testified in 
court for Holiday Haithcock in support of his application for a 
Revolutionary War pension on 21 September 1834 explaining that many of the 
families in this history have at least one member who fought in the 
Revolutionary War. This service alongside whites established long lasting 
friendships. 

In the times of our Revolutionary War free negroes and mulattoes mustered 
in the ranks with white men ... This affiant has frequently mustered in 
company with said free negroes and mulattoes ... That class of persons 
were equally liable to draft - and frequently volunteered in the public 
Service. 

And H. Thompson Venable wrote for him to the Commissioner of Pensions in 
Washington,  the case of Holliday Hethcock of N.C. has been suspended 
merely because he was a free man of color. As we understand that several 
cases of this sort have been admitted, you will oblige us by having it 
admitted. 

Charles Roberson Kee, a leading citizen of Northampton County, testified 
that he knew Drury Walden for more than twenty years and that no man, not 
James Polk himself is of better moral character. 

Many free African American families sold their land in the early nineteenth
century and headed west or remained in North Carolina as poor farm 
laborers. This was probably the consequence of a combination of 
deteriorating economic conditions and the restrictive "Free Negro Code" 
laws. 

Beginning in 1826 and continuing through the 1850s, North Carolina passed 
a series of restrictive laws termed the "Free Negro Code" by John Hope 
Franklin. Free African Americans lost the right to vote and were required 
to obtain a license to carry a gun. Tensions arising from Nat Turner's 
slave rebellion in nearby Southampton County, Virginia, played a major 
role in the passage of these laws. It is also possible that moves against 
the African American population helped to divert the attention of poor 
whites from their worsening economic conditions in the 1830s. 

With the whole state literally up in arms over Nat Turner's rebellion, 
delegates to the General Assembly from Newbern called on the Assembly 
"setting forth the incompetency of free persons of color exercising the 
privilege of voting." Edmund B. Freeman, editor of the Roanoke Advocate, 
a Halifax County Weekly, boldly came to their support in the January 5, 
1832 issue: 
It cannot be denied that free negroes, taken in the mass, are dissolute 
and abandoned — yet there are some individuals among them, sober, 
industrious and intelligent — many are good citizens; and that they are 
sometimes good voters we have the best proofs ... We do think that too much 
prejudice is excited against this class of our population... — but, at the 
same time, there is a class of white skinned citizens, equally low and 
abandoned, whose absence whould be little regretted.

If his attitude toward free African Americans was typical of white Halifax 
County residents, this would help to explain why free African Americans 
made up over 18% of the free population of the county in 1810 The editor's 
backhanded compliment certainly compares well to the sentiments of Robeson 
County residents: 

The County of Robeson is cursed with a free-coloured population that 
migrated originally from the districts round about the Roanoke and Neuse 
Rivers. They are generally indolent, roguish, improvident, and dissipated.

Or a northern paper quoted in the 5 January 1832 issue of the Roanoke 
Advocate complaining about "the evils arising from the immigration of free 
blacks" from other states into Pennsylvania: 
Overun by an influx of ignorant, indolent & depraved popullation most 
dangerous to the peace, rights & liberties of our citizens .... John Hope 
Franklin recorded a famous case in which Elijah Newsom of Cumberland County 
was prosecuted for carrying his gun in the county. However, Halifax County 
and Robeson County appear to have granted gun licenses freely. These 
licenses were recorded in the county court records from 1841 through 1846.

Many of those who left the state were enumerated in the 1840-1860 censuses 
of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. Some went to Canada and a few to 
Haiti and Liberia. By 1857 when Henry Chavers (Chavis) emigrated to 
Liberia, life for free African Americans in North Carolina must have 
been truly oppressive. A letter written for him to his friend, Dr. Ellis 
Malone of Lewisburg in Franklin County, describing Liberia sounds like 
that of a recently liberated slave: this Land of Freedom ... a nation of 
free and happy Children of a hitherto downcast and oppressed Race ... I 
now begin to enjoy life as a man should do ... did my Coloured Friends 
only know or could they have seen what I already have seen they would not 
hesitate a moment to come to this Glorious Country.

By 1870 many of those who remained behind were living in virtually the 
same condition as the freed slaves. In the 1870 census for Northampton 
County, North Carolina, the most common occupation listed for those who 
were free before 1800 was "farm laborer," the same occupation as the former
slaves. Some married former slaves, and by the twentieth century they had 
no idea their ancestors had been free. 

Some of the lighter-skinned descendants of these families formed their own 
distinct communities which have been the subject of anthropological 
research. Those in Robeson County are called "Lumbee Indians," in Halifax 
and Warren Counties — "Haliwa-Saponi," in South Carolina — "Brass Ankles" 
and "Turks," in Tennessee and Kentucky — "Melungeons" and "Portuguese," 
and in Ohio — "Carmel Indians." Several fantastic theories on their origin 
have been suggested. One is that they were from Raleigh's lost colony at 
Roanoke and another that they were an amalgamation of the Siouan-speaking 
tribes in North and South Carolina. 

Documents from a court case held in Johnson County, Tennessee in 1858 
provide a detailed description of one such family. They illustrate the 
extent to which the family was accepted by the white community and the 
extent to which the family history was already clouded by myths in 1858. 
Joshua Perkins, born about 1732 in Accomack County, Virginia, was the 
"Mulatto" son of a white woman. He owned land in Robeson County, North 
Carolina in 1761, moved to Liberty County, South Carolina, and in 1785 
moved to what later became Washington County, Tennessee. Along the way, 
succeeding generations of his family married light-skinned or white 
people. They owned a ferry, race horses, and an iron ore mine; ran the 
local school house, and were election officials. However, conditions had 
changed drastically just prior to the Civil War in 1858 when Jacob F. 
Perkins, great-grandson of Joshua Perkins, brought an unsuccessful suit 
against one of his neighbors in the Circuit Court of Johnson County for 
slander because he called him a "free Negro". 

More than 50 witnesses made depositions or testified at the trial. Many of 
the deponents hadknown three generations of the family in North Carolina, 
South Carolina, or Tennessee. Sixteen of twenty-two elderly witnesses who 
had actually seen Joshua Perkins testified that he was a "Negro," 
describing him as a dark skinned man with sheeps wool and flat nose ... 
[Ibid., deposition of Nancy Lipps]. black man, hair nappy ... Some called 
Jacob (his son) a Portuguese and some a negro [Ibid., deposition of John 
Nave, 88 years old]. 

Knew old Jock (Joshua) in North Carolina on Peedee ... right black or 
nearly so. Hair kinky ... like a common negro [Ibid., deposition of Abner 
Duncan, 86 years old]. 

However, eighteen witnesses for Perkins testified that Joshua Perkins was 
something other than "Negro" - Portuguese or Indian.Note 20 They said 
little about his physical characteristics and those of his descendants. 
Instead, they argued that he could not have been a "Negro" and been so 
totally accepted by his community: dark skinned man ... resembled an 
Indian more than a negro. He was generally called a Portuguese. Living 
well ... Kept company with everybody. Kept race horses and John Watson 
rode them [Ibid., deposition of Thomas Cook, 75 years old]. mixed blooded 
and not white. His wife fair skinned ... They had the same privileges 
[Ibid., deposition of Catherine Roller, 80 years old]. 

Hair bushy & long - not kinky. Associated with white people ... Associated 
with ... the most respectable persons. Some would call them negroes and 
some Portuguese [Ibid., deposition of John J. Wilson, about 70 years old]. 

He was known of the Portuguese race ... Four of his sons served in the 
Revolution ... Jacob and George drafted against Indians ... they came from 
and kept a ferry in South Carolina [Ibid., deposition of Anna Graves, 77 
years old]. 

They kept company with decent white people and had many visitors [Ibid., 
deposition of Elizabeth Cook, about 71]. 

I taught school at Perkins school house ... they were Portuguese ... 
associated white peoples, clerked at elections and voted and had all 
privileges [Ibid., deposition of David R. Kinnick, aged 77]. 

Some who testified in favor of the Perkins family had never seen Joshua 
Perkins and seemed to be genuinely confused about the family's ancestry: 
I was well acquainted with Jacob Perkins (a second generation Perkins). A 
yellow man - said to be Portuguese. They do not look like negroes. I have 
been about his house a great deal and nursed for his wife. She was a 
little yellow and called the same race. Had blue eyes and black hair. Was 
visited by white folks [Ibid., deposition of Mary Wilson]. 

One of the deponents, 77 year old Daniel Stout, explained very simply how 
people of African descent could have been treated well by their white 
neighbors: 
Never heard him called a negro. People in those days said nothing about 
such things [Ibid., deposition of Daniel Stout].





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