Aspects of Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North Carolina Main Menu Creative Commons License Preface and Acknowledgements ArcOnline Maps and ArcStory Maps Additional Project Components Introduction Earth Wood Fire Water Wind Escaping Network to Freedom Underground Railroad Locations Maps and Additional Resources Resources Brian Robinson 351175f8b63e375b96b75c26edde5534c94e8162 Torren Gatson 9cd3f098d43ed240801c35d1d0fd0737b5602944 Rhonda Jones 4c7a2610c10c17f5b487bcebc8abbbf64c221aa6 Arwin Smallwood 329b2d587e93ceaac77a3b3e316b5ce377128ac0 Self-Publish
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Labor for enslaved people of North Carolina began in the late seventeenth century, when they principally worked on cultivating tobacco in the developing days of the Albemarle region (not the county as it stands now). Many of the early planters in the region migrated from Virginia, and the North Carolina planters were shipped to Virginia ports or sent to markets such as Petersburg. In the early days, tobacco was king. As tobacco planters desired to grow, they cleared more land, accumulating land and slaves and cultivating more tobacco.
The tobacco growing regions line the Virginia border, along the Northern border of North Carolina from the piedmont to the coast. This includes counties such as “Stokes, Rockingham, Casewell, Person, Granville, and Warren counties.” Tobacco remained a staple in North Carolina throughout the antebellum period, and it continues to be important to this day. Slavery in the state of North Carolina has its roots in tobacco. Although in competition with Virginia, North Carolina, with great aid of forced enslaved labor, continued to increase its output of tobacco pounds. For instance, in 1801, North Carolina produced 4 million pounds of tobacco, and it produced 7 million pounds of tobacco a decade later. By 1860, North Carolina was producing 32 million pounds of tobacco.
Enslaved people not only worked in the field of cultivating tobacco to increase manufacturing. The production of tobacco increased toward the later part of the antebellum period, mainly because of newly discovered curing practices that turned the tobacco leaf bright yellow, which is also called flue-cured tobacco. This process was discovered by an enslaved person named Stephen Slade. His owner perfected the process, which took North Carolina tobacco and tobacco production to new heights.
When tobacco increased with the bright leaf boom, enslaved persons were also hired out to tobacco manufacturers. The biggest factories were located in Casewell counties, which were owned by Stephen Slade’s owner Abisha Slade. Some enslaved people did perform skilled occupations, in particular, in smaller factories.
Learn more about Stephen Slade and his owners HERE
Learn about a famous African American Tobacco grower and sellers Lunsford Lane HERE
Learn more about growing Tobacco in North Carolina HERE
