Aspects of Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North Carolina
Fire-Self Defense and Murder
Sometimes the reason behind murder could have varying intentions. For instance, Joshua Irby of Lincoln was killed by one of his enslaved men. As they both were in the distillery together, the enslaved man knocked out Irby with a sledge hammer and “dragged him to a situation where he let hot water run on him till he was dead.” It was also rumored that Irby’s wife had colluded in this case.
North Carolina allowed enslaved people to defend their lives. However, what the slave society would judge as self-defense would be very limited as opposed to how the enslaved would judge self-defense. The judgement of acts of self-defense often depends on the view one chooses to select—the enslaved view or the slave society’s view. Such was the case when a runaway killed Samual Harvey of Bath, North Carolina in 1831 when Harvey tried to apprehend him. The desperation of enslaved was obviously great, while trying to escape slavery and killing a man who was trying to apprehend him. How should this be judged—Is this murder or self-defense?
An enslaved person was “by law” granted the ability to self-defend. But the important case of ‘State v. Will,’ which situated slave self-defense, shows the trouble of law and slavery. Self-defense was not broad for the enslaved. Self-defense had to fit the parameters of an act of passion, a life-saving act, a human act of self-preservation, and an unavoidable incident. The case of State v. Negro Will did not replace or upend State vs Mann, which stated slaveholders had absolutely authority over their slaves and declared perfect slave submission as a right of the slaveholder. State v. Mann is summed up here as follows:
“a negro cut or wound his master or a Christian with any unlawful weapon, such as a sword, scymiter, or even a knife, and there is blood-shed, if it is known amongst the planters, they immediately meet and order him to be hanged, which is always performed by other negroes with them to behold their fellow negro suffer, to deter them from the likewise practice.”
Unfortunately, records do not show enslaved persons’ reason for committing murder. However, there are few records of attempted murder and acts of murder. One thing we know for sure is that enslaved people attacking and sometimes murdering slaveholders and overseers occur more frequently than what is recorded.
Newspapers of North Carolina highlight several cases of slaves murdering their masters. For instance, the event of “the negro Austin, who murdered his master, Mr. Battle, in Edgecomb last summer, is to be hung on the 5th of next month” occurred in October 1847.
Other instances comprise the instance of how “the slave Edmund, property of May Buchanan, was sentenced to be hung on the 26th of October next, at Wadesborough, for the murder of his master, says the Argus.”
There are other cases of enslaved people who were accused of killing masters but were acquitted for lack of evidence. This may suggest two things—some enslaved people were good at covering up crime scenes. It also shows the paranoid manner in which strange deaths of slaveholders made enslaved persons the usual suspects. For instance, “The slave Mina, who was tried at the last Term of Johnson Superior Court, on the charge of having murdered her master William Smith, was acquitted” because of the lack of evidence. Tarboro Press April 26, 1851.
“At the Superior Court for this county, held last week, Judge Saunders presiding, Jacob, a slave belonging to the estate of James Woods, deceased, was put on trial, on a charge of having murdered his master some six or seven years ago. Mr. Woods was found dead in the woods near the road, and at the time it was supposed that he was killed by the fall from his horse. The charge against the negro rested mainly upon what was alleged to be his own confession made to some of his companions; but the evidence was deemed to be incomplete in some important particulars, and he was discharged.”
More cases sourced: The Hillsborough Recorder March 18, 1857
In regard to media, one of the more repeated murders was that of Lucretia Adams.
Some other cases of enslaved person killed as while on the run, pet: 1128709; Price executed for murder, North Carolina Standard March 29, 1837; A bloody attempt to murder, The Western Democrat, June 08, 1858; Execution of Slave, The Southerner February 26, 1859; Sentenced, The Western Democrat, April 28, 1863; Bill and Frank who killed Hugh Little broke Jail, April 07, 1863; Propaganda, The Western Democrat, January 10, 1860.