XXXIV: The Free People of Color in North Carolina (REMOVED 1894)

By John Sinclair Leary (1845–1904), youngest brother of Lewis Sheridan Leary who was mortally wounded at Harpers Ferry during John Brown’s Holy War (1859). John wrote this chapter for Edward A. Johnson’s A School History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1890 (1890). However, it was removed from the 1894 revision approved for use in NC public schools.

THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN NORTH CAROLINA.
BY THE HON JOHN S. LEARY.

In the Revolutionary War there were enlisted as soldiers in the American army quite a number of colored men who served faithfully and fought gallantly for the cause of American Independence. Among others who enlisted from North Carolina, were Louie Revels, John Lomax, Thomas Bell, Charles Hood and John Pettiford. All of these surviving the contest, drew as long as they lived a pension from the United States Government. When the Congress of freemen (freeholders) assembled at Halifax, and on the 18th day of December, 1776, ratified a Constitution for North Carolina, the elective franchise was extended to every freeman residing in the State who was twenty-one years of age and had paid a public tax. Under the provisions of this Constitution, all free colored persons living in North Carolina, who were twenty -one years of age and had paid a public tax, claimed and exercised the right to vote until the year 1835, a period of more than a half century, when the Convention which assembled that year, acting on the principle that might makes right, adopted an amended Constitution which barred them of that right. Having been barred of the right to vote by the provisions of the Constitution of 1835, in the year 1838 the question as to whether they were or were not citizens coming before the State Supreme Court, the following extract from the opinion of the Court, delivered by [William J.] Gaston, Judge, will show that the Court decided that they were citizens:

“Whatever distinctions may have existed in the Roman law between citizens and free inhabitants, they are unknown to our institutions. Before our Revolution all free persons born within the dominion of the King of Great Britain, whatever their color or complexion, were native-born British subjects — those born out of his allegiance were aliens. Slavery did not exist in England, but it did exist in the British Colonies. Slaves were not, in legal parlance, persons, but property. The moment the incapacity — or disqualification — of slavery was removed, they became persons, and were then either British subjects or not British subjects, according as they were or were not born within the allegiance of the British King. Upon the close of the Revolution no other change took place in the law of North Carolina than was consequent upon the transition from a colony dependent on an European king to a free and sovereign State. Slaves remained slaves. British subjects in North Carolina became North Carolina freemen. Foreigners, until made members of the State, continued aliens. Slaves manumitted here became freemen — and, therefore, if born within North Carolina, are citizens of North Carolina — and all free persons born within the State are born citizens of the State.”

However, under the provisions of the amended Constitution, and the laws enacted subsequent to its ratification by the Legislature, there existed in North Carolina prior to the year 1865 three distinct classes of people: The free white man, enjoying and exercising all the rights and privileges of an American citizen; the free colored man, deprived of nearly all the rights and privileges of an American citizen ; and the colored slave who, in legal parlance, was a mere chattel. Owing to this anomalous state of affairs, whatever was accomplished by the genius, industry, effort, culture and literary attainments of the colored American residing in the State, was studiously ignored and cast aside as not worthy to be recorded as a part and parcel of the history of the people of the State.

To preserve the memory, as well as to perpetuate the work and worth of a very eminent colored citizen of North Carolina, I here present for the information of the youths, and all other persons who do not know anything of the history of his life, a biographical narrative of the Rev. John Chavers. This gentleman, a regularly ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church, came to the United States in the year 1822. He settled in North Carolina, and after remaining here for the period of time required by law, was naturalized and became a citizen of the State and United States. In culture and literary attainments he far excelled a majority of all classes of the people living in the State at that day and date. A Christain gentleman, possessing all the qualities which go to make a true and noble man, he was honored for his eminent ability and respected for his Christian character. He lived in the town of Fayetteville for a period of two years, preached and taught school. He removed from Fayetteville, and afterwards lived respectively in the counties of Franklin, Wake and Chatham, in each of which he preached and taught school. The school organized and taught by him in Chatham County was patronized almost exclusively by the white people. In the light of present surroundings, it may seem strange and incredulous that the white people of North Carolina would send their children to a colored school teacher and consent to have their lives and characters shaped and moulded by him, but this is accounted for in the fact that the recorded history of those times goes to show that classical scholars and thoroughly equipped school teachers were not near so plentiful among the white people then as they are now, and they were not so very particular as to the color of the “Gamaliel” at whose feet their children should sit, provided he had the ability and learning to impart the desired information. As evidence of this gentleman’s eminence as an instructor, and the influence which his precept and example had upon the lives and character of his pupils, I mention the names of a few who were so fortunate as to enjoy the benefit of his instruction and careful training. The late Honorable Kenneth Rayner, one of his pupils, was well known to the people of North Carolina as an eminent lawyer, and, before the civil war, as a Representative from North Carolina in the United States Congress, and after said war was the able and efficient Solicitor General cf the United States Treasury under President Arthur’s administration. Mr. Thomas J. Curtis, a successful business man, and for several years Mayor of the town of Fayetteville, was another, and yet another was the late Honorable Abram Reneher, of Chatham County, who was one of the most distinguished men the State has ever produced. There were a great many others, but it is not necessary to mention by name any more. These are enough to show that if justice had been done, this illustrious colored gentleman would have had a place in the recorded history of the State of his adoption as one of her earliest, most successful educators and eminent men.

Contents of the 1894 revision:
Preface
I. Introduction.
II. General View of Slavery in the World. — a whole new chapter for the 1894 edition, and it’s a doozey!
III. Beginning of Slavery in the Colonies.
…
XVI. Frederick Douglass. — “̶H̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶q̶u̶o̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶l̶i̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶A̶m̶e̶r̶i̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶e̶s̶m̶a̶n̶.̶”̶
…
XX. Examples of Underground Work.
XXI. The Slave Population of 1860.
XXII. The Civil War T̶h̶e̶ ̶W̶a̶r̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶e̶b̶e̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶ — what’s in a name?
…
X̶X̶X̶I̶V̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶F̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶P̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶C̶o̶l̶o̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶N̶o̶r̶t̶h̶ ̶C̶a̶r̶o̶l̶i̶n̶a̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶e̶v̶.̶ ̶J̶o̶h̶n̶ ̶S̶[̶i̶n̶c̶l̶a̶i̶r̶]̶ ̶L̶e̶a̶r̶y̶ (this post)
XXXV. Conclusion.

Tschüss!
— Wilhelm