African-American Population in Bertie County

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.

Beginning Your Research

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:

• Because slaves were property, they are liable to be found in any record which documents property rights. Many of these records are of little or no interest to persons tracing free ancestors, and are therefore unfamiliar to most genealogists.
• Because slaves were accountable under the law for criminal acts, they are present in criminal court records as defendants and as witnesses, but even more slaves are identified in the criminal records of white persons who traded illegally with slaves, stole slaves, or had other improper relations with slaves.
• The careful reader of court records will discover a world of information about slaves and slavery not equaled in size by any other kind of record.

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.

Tracing your Slave Ancestor - A Study

Contributed by: Cathy Farris 

As 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 14�, 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

Slaveholders in Bertie County

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.

Men and Women Who Owned 70+ Slaves
1790-1810

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

1830 Slave Holders - Bertie County (70 + Slaves)

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

Other Slave Holders

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  [email protected]

Slave Holders - 1862

Windsor District

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

___________________________________________________

African-American Cemeteries in Bertie County