| Summary |
This thesis adds to the body of knowledge concerning slavery in North Carolina during the early federal period of American history. It focuses on Bertie County, North Carolina, located in the northeastern section of the state. This county, from 1790 to 1810, was populated by large numbers of slaves held in concentrations of twenty or more per farm. Tools of the social historian are employed to discover how slaveholders dealt with their property and how slaves coped with slavery. Wills and estate records have provided a wealth of information regarding slave work, naming patterns, and the provisional freedom experienced by some of the slaves in the county. Another resource available to the researcher is a large collection of slave depositions recorded in 1802 as a result of a failed insurrection. These depositions reveal information concerning slave attitudes toward slavery and their masters as well as how slaves interacted with one another. When this project was begun, it was thought that personal papers of many of the large slaveholders would provide clues about Bertie County slaves. Such records do not exist, however, and other sources such as wills and estate records have been used to draw conclusions about the largest segment of Bertie County's population. The first goal of the paper was to add to the body of knowledge about Bertie County slaves and the second was to draw upon this new knowledge and suggest ways in which a local historic site can present the information to the public. Historic Hope Plantation, located in Windsor, will take the information offered in this thesis and incorporate it into tours, exhibits, and long range plans for the site. |
