The Gazette

What is the truth about the Lost Colony? “ New insight into America’s oldest “mystery”

Scott Dawson in the field showing his daughters how to do archaeology.

This isn’t an article about Adam Fletcher. And it isn’t even an article about Colonial Beaufort, or even Colonial America.

This is about something that goes back even earlier…

Recently, more than one television documentary has offered viewing audiences one spin after another about one of America™s favorite historical mysteries“the Lost Colony. Through my work with Coastal Carolina Indian Center, as well as my own roots in the region that go back to the earliest colonists and the Algonquian peoples of the coast, I have always had a particular interest in the Lost Colony, but also the other Roanoke expeditions as well. (Yes, there were others.) It was in those expeditions that Thomas Harriot recorded his experiences with the first indigenous Americans who ever encountered the English. It was during those same expeditions that John White created the beautiful watercolor illustrations that give us a glimpse of what life was like in America in the 1580s.

When one has a personal connection to a certain history, it tends to inspire a great passion about it. That seems to certainly be the case with Scott Dawson, who along with his wife, Maggie, founded the Croatoan Archaeological Society. I’ve known Scott for years. He has contributed articles and materials to our CCIC website. Earlier this week I interviewed him about recent discoveries related to the Lost Colony and the related Roanoke expeditions, as well as what his organization is doing to help uncover a fuller picture of the history.

Q “ A lot of news articles and documentaries have been coming out over the last year relating to the Lost Colony. In fact, I understand there was one on the History Channel recently that talked about the Dare Stones. What do you know about that?

A “ I was on the History Channel a few years ago and they were doing a show about the Dare Stones, but they never told me that was what the show was about. When they contacted me they said it was about the “lost colony” and they were interested in the archaeology we had been doing in Hatteras. I had no idea it was a quack show or I would have never agreed to go on it.

The Dare Stones are a hoax, as any reasonable person can tell. The first stone was found the year the Lost Colony play came out in 1937. When that play began, it created the mystery of the “lost colony” to sell tickets and the public was hoodwinked into thinking it was a real mystery.

Magically, the first stone pops up and is authored by none other than a member of the Dare family, of course.

The entire area where the stone was found was excavated, but nothing was found. Later, 41 more stones were found“none of them even in the state of North Carolina“and all by just four people, which it turns out all knew each other and even tried to blackmail a professor into saying they were real.

It was put to bed as a hoax a long time ago in the 1940s, but I guess it makes good TV“so there you have it.

The idea the colony walked to the outskirts of Atlanta and left a trail of stones behind and no other artifacts is probably the dumbest of a host of stupid theories out there.

Q “ The outdoor drama about the Lost Colony has been really popular over the years and is a big tourist draw. Would you say that it’s an accurate portrayal of the history?

The Lost Colony play has been a tourist draw and that is why it was created. I don™t think the play even pretends to be accurate. Almost nothing about the play is accurate.

The very idea they are lost isn™t even accurate.

Real history from the primary sources is not ambiguous at all about the fate of the colony. The œlost colony of 1587 was the fourth English voyage to North Carolina.

This watercolor of Secotan“an Indian village that was across Pamlico Sound from Hatteras island“was created by John White during one of the Roanoke expeditions.

The first voyage landed at Hatteras Island“then called Croatoan. This is the voyage that met Manteo“who was from Croatoan“not Roanoke. They only spent one night on Roanoke Island during the six-week stay of the first voyage. A relationship had begun with the Croatoan of Hatteras Island that continued for years.

The second voyage had English people living on BOTH Hatteras Island and Roanoke Island. The English were at war with Indians from the adjacent mainland and killed their Chief and burned one of their villages before going back to England.

The third voyage was just 15 men left on Roanoke who got attacked by the mainland Indians.

The fourth voyage was the one known as the Lost Colony and they were only stopping by to get the 15 men from the year before, only to discover they had been killed.

The Lost Colony also had a man, George Howe, [who was] killed in 1587 by mainland Indians. When this happened, they sent 20 men with Manteo to his home, Hatteras, to get help. They were hosted to a feast and told that the Croatoan of Hatteras would try to smooth things over for the English with the mainland. Instead, they sacked a mainland village and stole all the corn and split it with the English. When the governor left and instructed the colony to carve out where they had moved to, it was no shocker that they wrote “Croatoan.” This is a tribe the English had known for years and the only tribe in the area who did not want to kill them. These are facts.

Unfortunately, if you tell the facts from the primary sources you can™t pretend the colony is lost and thus you won™t sell as many tickets.

Q “ What is your connection to this history? Why is it something that you care so much about?

A “ I am a history teacher in Elizabeth City and as I tell my students what matters the most is the truth. I feel like the mythology of the Lost Colony is a slap in the face to the Croatoan people.

In the real history, they fed and cared for the English and undoubtedly adopted them in the end. Yet in the mythology, they are marginalized to a strange message on a palisade and all mention of their contact with the English is swept under the rug.

Q “ You have been researching this history for years and you’ve found many archaeological artifacts, right? Many of them you have found just living on Hatteras?

A “ I grew up on Hatteras and my Mother™s family has lived there for at least eight generations.

We go back to the Croatoan who were still living there well into the 1750s.

There was a land grant to the Hatteras Tribe in 1751 that was signed by the colonial governor Arthur Dobbs.

My family still lives on that land, as well as many other families, most of whom have been doing so since they were wearing deerskins.

I have found thousands of pieces of pottery and other artifacts and started doing so when I was 10 years old. Now I head a non-profit group and got professionals from the University of Bristol to start doing archaeology there for the last seven years.

Anyone who knows me knows I told them exactly where the Croatoan villages were and predicted 16th century material would be in the village. So far we have located more than one Croatoan village and found several 16th century English artifacts mixed in with Croatoan exactly where I and pretty much everyone on the island has always said it would be.

Q “ I’m aware that a university in England has taken interest in digging at Buxton. How did the Croatoan Archaeological Society (CAS) come to partner with an archaeology team from across the pond? And why do you think North Carolina universities haven’t gotten involved?

A “ North Carolina Universities would probably love to be involved, but unfortunately, the property owners“at least most of them“do not trust them. ECU did some digs in the late 1990s and they also took artifacts that people had brought for them [back to the university] to look at and never returned them.

It is a very small community and they burned that bridge.

The University of Bristol (UoB) from England was a good choice, after all, this is their history too. We have always had American volunteers and many Americans from the University of Michigan, William and Mary and South Carolina have been involved in one way or another. In fact, our last dig was mostly Americans.

Usually the British outnumber us on these digs, but it is a great opportunity for the school kids of Hatteras to get some exposure to a different culture. The UoB students have done digs at the high school with local students and we actually found some pottery from about the year 500 behind the school.

CAS is a community organization so we work with the school and do all kinds of programs for the kids.

UoB has been wonderful. I can™t say anything but positive comments on their work ethic, professionalism and dedication. Dr. Mark Horton is the leader and when I met him in 2009, he had me pick the places to dig, secure permission, and off we went. The finds were so amazing he told me we needed to get organized and form CAS, so we did.

Q “ What have been some of the most interesting finds in your excavations?

A “ Everyone would answer this question differently. Obviously the English stuff from the 1500s such as a writing slate, a rapier (sword handle) and the Nuremberg token, copper bun, Elizabeth glass and all the œlost colony stuff is at the top of the list for most.

For me it is seeing the postholes of the Croatoan longhouses and knowing exactly where their houses were. I also like the really old stuff we have found“some of the spear points are thousands of years old.

I like anything with art on it too, especially the Native pottery and some of the decorated pipes. The whole thing is amazing. It is as close to time travel as it gets.

A glimpse of some of the artifacts found in excavations by Croatoan Archaeological Society and the University of Bristol

Q “ What do those finds mean for interpreting the history of the so-called Lost Colony?

A “ It means the “lost colony” wasn™t lost. They were abandoned and went exactly where they indicated they went with the CROATOAN message.

If anything is a mystery, it is that no one looked in the most obvious location for almost 400 years.

It goes to show how few people actually read primary sources and how much misinformation is circled around by so many so called experts.

It is sad really, because now that we have the evidence we have to deal with these competing theories that have no basis in reality like the Dare Stones, or Beechland, or Bertie.

If people would just read the historical context of the colony they would know that going inland would be like a Jewish family during World War II fleeing Poland by going to Germany! The mainland was attacking and killing the English, whereas Croatoan had been feeding and protecting them for years. Not to mention the fact the colony carved “CROATOAN” in the palisade to indicate that is where they went, and now we found their stuff there.

It™s irritating, but I think any reasonable person can understand the colony went to Croatoan if given the facts.

The London Times featured the work of the archaeological discoveries documented by Professor Mark Horton (University of Bristol - England) along with Croatoan Archaeological Society. — The London Times featured the work of the archaeological discoveries documented by Professor Mark Horton (University of Bristol – England) along with Croatoan Archaeological Society.

Q “ In your opinion, what happened to the Lost Colonists? Where did they end up? Did they survive? Did they“as some have suggested“go into the sassafras business?

First of all, sassafras grows all over the state“including Hatteras, and even Roanoke“so the idea they would go inland to get it is like saying they went inland to get pinecones or acorns.

Clearly, they went to Croatoan as they indicated.

I do not think they faired very well regardless of where they went because Jamestown is only 20 years later and no one ever sent word to Jamestown saying anything.

If you look at Jamestown almost all of them died in the first few year“and they had help from Indians too. It is only by sheer weight and constant resupply that they managed to survive.

This is not to say that some colonists did not pass on a few offspring with the Croatoan. In fact, in 1701 John Lawson reported grey eyed Indians on Hatteras who told him flat out that they had white ancestors who came on Sir Walter Raleigh™s ships.

Most likely what was left of the 1587 colony died off in the winter of 1602. This was a record cold winter due to a volcano that erupted in South America and caused record lows across North America.

Who knows? Saying the colony went to Croatoan is one thing, but after that it is a speculation game. In my opinion they didn™t do too well, passed on a few children with the Croatoan, and perished. If they had lived and thrived they would have contacted Jamestown and no one did so.

Q “ Everyone always talks about the colonists, but what about the Indians? What happened to the indigenous people from Hatteras? Did they survive?

The Natives of Hatteras like so many other tribes on the coast did survive but they were greatly reduced by disease and war. They fought on the side of the English in the Tuscarora War in 1711 and we have a handful of references to them in the 1700s when they had been reduced to less than 100 people. The archaeology shows they were still thriving in the 1600s with a healthy diet of deer, fish, birds, turtles, shellfish and that they had some access to European trade goods like brandy and guns. In the end they intermarried with white people and stayed on the island. That is where my family comes from, as well as most other old families on the island. Many visitors to the island in the 1700s reported a mixed race community living there and by the late 1700s the archaeology goes completely European.

Q “ What have you found to be some of the biggest misconceptions regarding the history about the Lost Colony and the indigenous people of Croatoan and the surrounding areas?

One misconception is that the Croatoan did not have much to eat and could not support the colony. To quote Dr. Horton, that idea is œcomplete rubbish.

Another misconception is that the Croatoan did not live on Hatteras year round. We can prove they did, and in fact have for thousands of years.

Another misconception is that Croatoan was some strange word left by the colony. It is a real place and real people that the colony had had contact with since 1584, and a known ally of the colony. I think that might be the biggest misconception. There are so many misconceptions, most of which were created to aid the mythology.

Q “ Where can people learn more about your organization and its discoveries?

The Croatoan Archaeological Society website is www.cashatteras.com or they can find us on facebook.

Also, my book Croatoan: Birthplace of America, details a lot of the history. We also have displays of the artifacts at the county library in Hatteras Village that can be seen for free. We are updating that location soon with new cases and more artifacts.

The whole point of CAS is to preserve the real history of the island and share it with the world. We have a few discoveries that have not been announced yet and no doubt more to unearth. Stay tuned, or better yet sign up and join us to be a part of history!

Smuggling in Colonial America: What drove good men to do it?

Before I ever started working on The Smuggler’s Gambit, I had done a lot of studying about not only smuggling in the colonial era, but what prompted otherwise law-abiding men to do it. It happened in all sorts of ways and by men you might otherwise not expect.

In May 1764, the month following the passage of the Sugar Act, Samuel Adams said this:

œFor if our Trade may be taxed why not our Lands? Why not the Produce of our Lands & every thing we possess or make use of? This we apprehend annihilates our Charter Right to govern & tax ourselves “ It strikes our British Privileges, which as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common with our Fellow Subjects who are Natives of Britain: If Taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal Representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the Character of free Subjects to the miserable State of tributary Slaves.

Make no mistake about it, the fact that American colonists felt their livelihoods were being negatively impacted by trade regulations was a key cause of the Revolution. The fact that there was all of this “taxation without representation” was adding insult to injury.

Why shouldn’t they be able to trade with markets in the Spanish, French or Dutch West Indies without being penalized? Why should the government in Great Britain make decisions that would affect the livelihoods of the hardworking folks in the colonies across the Atlantic? These are questions, among many others, that American colonists couldn’t help but ask.

They knew they were building a country from scratch, after all. Why should politicians a world away be able to impede their progress and economic success with the brush of a pen?

One thing that I had not known about until I started studying that decade between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution was the informal policy known as Salutary Neglect. That basically meant that throughout the early 1700s, England looked the other way at most American colonial trade violations. They didn’t force the colonies to play by the rules because they knew the fledgling economy would grow much more quickly if it were unhampered by oppressive trade regulations.

By the end of the Seven Years’ War, however, King George and Parliament decided it was time for Americans to start doing their part to refill Great Britain’s coffers so the period of Salutary Neglect came to an end”especially, with the the passage of the Sugar Act in 1764. (A conversation about this very thing takes place in The Smuggler’s Gambit on Adam Fletcher’s first day at Rogers Shipping Company between him and senior cooper Boaz Brooks.)

What made good men turn to smuggling?

One has to think outside the box when it comes to smuggling and what drove men to do it.

While many might have a knee-jerk reaction to the concept as one only performed by rogues and reprobates, the truth is smuggling is rampant even to this day.

Here in North Carolina, for instance, many kinds of fireworks are illegal to possess without a license. But does that stop North Carolinians from buying said fireworks? Goodness, no! I know of people who make it a point to travel to the South Carolina border every year before Independence Day to stock up on what they would call patriotic contraband.

And what about folks from California who will purchase items from out of state because California manufacturing and environmental regulations would otherwise ban them?

And then there are those in other countries who smuggle in Bibles or other books or movies that are otherwise banned?

In other words, smuggling isn’t always about things that we would typically label as “bad”, like drug running or modern slave trafficking. It can be about ordinary people who want to buy or sell ordinary things, but their local governments have set up trade restrictions on those particular items”either with crippling taxes, or by banning them outright.

Here are a couple of good resources about smuggling in colonial America:

Americans with Attitudes: Smuggling in Colonial America (A research article)

Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America (Book by Peter Andreas)

As a point of interest related to the setting of the Adam Fletcher Adventure Series, the Colonial Records of North Carolina also have some interesting entries about smuggling and smugglers, at least relating to how various legislators were responding to the issue, as well as particularly interesting items such as this one about the pirate Blackbeard and his dealings with Governor Charles Eden.

This article* by By Dr. Noeleen Mcllvenna from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources talks about why the state was such a haven for pirates.:

“Although pirates™ chief hunting grounds became the Caribbean Sea, North Carolina™s Outer Banks (and their treacherous geography) provided a safe hiding place from the Royal Navy. The people of Albemarle had political and economic motives for their friendly relationships with buccaneers. The region had always stood as a place of shelter for those most oppressed by owners or masters in England or Virginia. Runaways of many backgrounds”including slaves and indentured servants, along with small farmers and traders”pushed through the water-logged wilderness of the Great Dismal Swamp. They wanted to escape the few powerful planters who controlled society in colonial Virginia. One Virginia governor described northern Carolina as œthe refuge of our renegades. Few moral or ethical dilemmas worried these Albemarle settlers when dealing with men and women prepared to steal from rich merchants or the royal bank account. What others called lawlessness, Carolina™s early colonists considered freedom. This included freedom from burdensome taxes set by an oppressive government (in which they had no say) across the ocean. Politically, many sympathized with pirates.”

* – While I think the above excerpt is in line with other research I have done, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the whole article since it propagates the myth that Blackbeard’s head was tied from the bowsprit of Lt. Maynard’s vessel on the way back to Virginia, a ridiculous notion considering it would’ve taken several days to get there from Ocracoke and would draw flies and be rotted entirely upon arrival in Virginia.

Five things you DIDN’T know about Blackbeard

Was Blackbeard really as old as all of the illustrations depict him? Probably not! This painting is a new take on the famous pirate commissioned by Looking Glass Productions. (Watercolor by Jeffrey Jakub.)

In The Smuggler’s Gambit, one of the characters is revealed to have a past connection to one of the most famous pirates who ever lived, Blackbeard. Growing up in eastern North Carolina, I heard all kinds of Blackbeard stories growing up. He had a close connection to the families in our coastal region, so it seemed only natural that I’d incorporate some of the lesser-known history about him into my novel.

Most of what is known about Blackbeard today goes back to a single source ” A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson (pseudonym), more popularly known as A General History of the Pyrates, published in 1724 and often attributed to Robinson Crusoe author, Daniel Defoe.

This is unfortunate, because A General History is rife with errors and misinformation. Furthermore, recent scholarship has uncovered that the true author was almost certainly Nathaniel Mist.

Thanks to diligent research, we can now dispel many of the myths that have been built up around the most famous Pirate of all time, known by the dread moniker of Blackbeard.

Blackbeard may not have been born in 1680. Although books have been written that frequently rehash information that was originally published in “Capt. Johnson’s” General History, there is no solid evidence that Blackbeard was 38 when he was killed. He could have been in his late twenties or early 30s when his career was ended by Lt. Robert Maynard at Ocracoke Inlet. Oddly, even if he was 38, most images depict Blackbeard as closer to 50 or so, rather than as the young man he more than likely was.
Blackbeard never murdered anyone. ” At least no records exist claiming that he did. In spite of his reputation as the scourge of the seas, there is actually very little documented about him in official records anywhere. And no records exist accusing him of murder ” ever. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped some historians and archaeologists from propagating the theory that he was a blood-thirsty killer. I guess it fits better with Hollywood’s ideas about pirates, not to mention it makes those Golden Age swashbucklers seem far more interesting when they are attributed with all varieties of heartless misdeeds.
Blackbeard was not a particularly brutal or skilled fighter. ” It appears our favorite pirate relied on a carefully-cultivated reputation to cause adversaries to shake in their boots. It may come as a shock, but it’s true. In fact, other than A General History, which we now know is not entirely reliable as a historical reference book, the actual government records from the Golden Age of Piracy ” both of the American colonies, as well as in England ” point to only one incident during which Blackbeard actually got into a physical altercation with someone, a man named William Bell. And it was in the middle of the night on the Pamlico River. And he ended up having to call over men from his own periauger to assist him in his struggle with the man. And somehow, Blackbeard broke his sword while beating the man with it. (What was he doing? Slapping him?) Hmm… So as not to completely demolish Blackbeard’s reputation as a pirate, we do need to acknowledge that he ended up stealing a few items from the man before leaving Bell and his two passengers stranded in the middle of the river without oars or sail (which Blackbeard allegedly threw into the water). The items he took included:
- Pistols (he took them from the man’s locked chest, although it’s unclear if he made off with them, as they aren’t specifically named in the list of stolen items)
- £66 10s in cash;
- A piece of crepe fabric containing 58 yards;
- Half a barrel of brandy;
- Some unspecified items.
Blackbeard did not have lit fuses sticking out of his beard. ” This silly myth surely tantalized 18th century readers who had never actually been at sea, but anyone who lives in a coastal region (like I do) knows that the winds on the water make it nearly impossible to light a match, much less keep lit fuses safely away from that bushy, flammable beard that Blackbeard was reputed to sport. Does it really make sense that a man would essentially light his face on fire, whilst walking around in the wind on board a rocking vessel? Is it likely that such a man would be able to focus much on swashbuckling maneuvers? Of course not. He’d be working too hard to constantly reposition himself so that those lit fuses didn’t set his whiskers ablaze.
Blackbeard’s most valuable treasure was not gold or jewels. ” As has been discovered and documented by historian and author Kevin Duffus, the most valuable ‘loot’ ever taken by Blackbeard was the human cargo of a French slave ship called La Concorde, which he promptly renamed the Queen Anne’s Revenge. The pirate kept 60 of the slaves on board and left the rest of the 400-man company marooned with their French captain. Here is a summary according to Duffus:

Depositions filed in Charleston, S.C., later that year by former members of Blackbeard’s crew – the ones he left behind at Beaufort Inlet – are well-preserved and very detailed. When Blackbeard and his inner circle of associates sailed to Bath, they had with them 60 African men. Yet, six months later, when Blackbeard was killed at Ocracoke, he had aboard his sloop only six Africans. What happened to the 54 other African men?
“I believe they were the pirates’ secret treasure, a labor force delivered to the impoverished plantation society of the Pamlico region, which was desperately short on manpower and far from the slave markets at Williamsburg, Va., and Charleston.
“The colony of North Carolina had been wracked by years of political strife, punitive trade restrictions, drought, sickness and war with Indians. As her wealthier neighbors, Virginia and South Carolina, began to grow due to navigable, deepwater ports, the northern colony of Carolina was severely constrained by the vagaries of shoaling inlets, shallow sounds and great distances between her plantations and the traveled byways of the sea.
“Compared with South Carolina and Virginia, North Carolina had few slaves. “For the want of suitable ports negro slaves were not imported directly into North Carolina, and the planters there were forced to buy from Virginia and South Carolina. And in this very important particular North Carolina was at great disadvantage,” wrote Colonial Records editor William Saunders.”

Finally, while this isn’t specifically about Blackbeard, I’ll call this myth-buster a bonus. Many of Blackbeard’s men were said to have been hanged at Williamsburg after their captain was beheaded by Virginia’s Lt. Maynard. Of the men who were hanged, it was most probably at Hampton rather than Williamsburg. Furthermore, it turns out that the rest of his men (those who didn’t bear arms against the King’s colors) received a pardon and many went on to live out their days in and around Bath”but that part didn’t make it into history books.

The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate author Kevin Duffus endorses The Smuggler’s Gambit

Kevin Duffus, author of The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate and 2015 NC Historian of the Year has this to say about The Smuggler’s Gambit.

“The Smuggler™s Gambit will transport you in time to a formative period in our nation™s history, when young Colonial Americans like Adam Fletcher bravely faced life-changing choices, moral perplexities, and danger at every turn. Perfectly paced with characters and dialogue so real the reader feels they are right in the middle of the action. I found this well-researched, finely-crafted tale to be altogether plausible. No doubt, this book will leave you yearning to find out what™s next for Adam Fletcher.”

Creative Ways of Protecting Women’s Property and Interests in 18th Century America

Many elements of The Smuggler’s Gambit were inspired by real incidents that I uncovered while doing genealogical research”from the idea of forced apprenticeships, to the truth about Blackbeard, and many other bits and pieces of information.

In the book, there is a reference to one of the female characters being an heiress, but being bound to some key restrictions that had been placed upon her in her father’s will.

While I have never seen anything quite like the exact scenario in the book, I have found various other legal maneuvers throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that were employed to protect women’s property and interests. This is the first in a series of articles that will cover three very different kinds of circumstances:

A prohibition to marry
A refusal to marry
A promise of freedom

I should point out, that with the exception of one of these situations”the woman who refused to marry”that the individuals discussed in the articles in this series are not my ancestors, however, I did find their records while doing genealogy research.

Prohibition to marry ” Sally Handley (Born about 1786 in Wayne County, NC)

How did I find this record?: I was searching in various eastern North Carolina records for a family that could be connected to my 4th-great-grandfather, Laban Morris. Laban was not a Morris by birth, but apparently had the last name “Henby” until he had his named legally changed to Morris in 1810. As such, I was looking for any families within that particular region of the state that might have a name that sounded anything like Henby. One name I came upon was “Handley.” Ok, so it doesn’t sound much like “Henby””it was a long shot”but I wanted to leave no stone unturned.

What kind of record is it?: Last Will and Testament of James Handley, 1823 (Wayne Co., NC)

What does the record say?: This is the will of a man who was clearly quite wealthy. He bequeaths a great deal of real estate and divides up several slaves among his children. What struck me was something I had never before seen in a will. It is this item:

ITEM 2nd I lend unto my daughter Salley Handley one hundred acres of Land where Milley Head now lives joining Henry Roberts line as long as She continues to live without marriage also I lend my daughter Salley Handley during her Natural Life two Negroes named Cloe and Sabo and after her death it is my will that they and their increase should be equally divided between her five children to wit Washington, Penelope, Jackson, James and John Rasmus Handley. I give to my daughter Salley Handley my riding mare bridle and saddle one cow and calf one feather bed and furniture one flax wheel one woolen wheel one dish half dozzen (sic) plates one case knives & forks one table one flat iron one iron pot rack and pot and as much provisions of all kind as may be necessary for the support of herself and family one year from my death.

What does it mean? While I’ve yet to uncover any detailed biographical information about Salley Handley, I think we can assume from this part of her father’s will that she had given birth to five children outside of wedlock, otherwise, she’d have had her husband’s last name. Now, realistically, considering the time frame of this will, we can probably guess that one of two scenarios was likely: either she was mentally challenged in some way and had been taken advantage of multiple times, or she was exceedingly promiscuous. Regardless of what the circumstances might have been, her father was clearly trying to protect her interests. He wanted to make sure that she had land and slaves, as well as transportation (‘my riding mare bridle and saddle’), sustenance (‘one cow and calf’), a comfortable place to sleep (‘one feather bed and furniture’), a way to be productive (‘one flax wheel one woolen wheel’) and various household necessities.

The most striking part of the property he bequeaths to her is the land that he ‘lends’ to her “as long as She continues to live without marriage.”

Why would he say that? Again, we’re back to making certain assumptions, but I think it would be fair to say that he knew enough about his daughter that she would not likely make good decisions about what kind of man would make a virtuous husband and father. As such, he wouldn’t want some man coming in off the street to marry her just for the sake of getting his hands on her property. We must remember that in those days, if a woman married, through the legal concept of coverture, her property became marital property and her husband would have control of it. By lending her the property during her natural life unless she marries, he is making sure she has what she needs, but it will also deter potential gold-diggers who might want to marry her to acquire her property. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, coverture began to be, “disassembled in the United States through legislation at the state level beginning in Mississippi in 1839 and continuing into the 1880s.”

The next article in this series will be about my 4th-great-grandmother, who was married once, but then apparently said, “never again.”

Capt. Horatio Sinbad gives his hearty endorsement to The Smuggler’s Gambit

A well-known figure on the pirate re-enactments circuit, as well as a ship-builder, author, and certified ‘Pirate-Privateer’, Captain Horatio Sinbad knows a thing or two about adventure on the high seas, as well as in coastal towns like Beaufort, North Carolina, the home port of his ship, MEKA II.

Now, he lends his hearty endorsement to The Smuggler’s Gambit, the first novel in the Adam Fletcher Series:

With the real historic seaport town of Beaufort, NC as the setting, Sara Whitford has successfully woven a fast-moving adventure of intrigue, romance, deception, and betrayal.

I will be standing by for Captured in the Caribbean, the next book in the continuing saga.

Your servant,

Captain Horatio Sinbad
Privateer, MEKA II
Beaufort, NC

Review ” The Smuggler’s Gambit “captivates the reader’s imagination”

Advance copies of The Smuggler’s Gambit circulating ahead of its March 20, 2015 release are garnering lots of good feedback so far.

Children’s Literature has written this review:

“With a seamless plot and vivid characters, this novel set in Port Beaufort, North Carolina in 1765, captivates the reader™s imagination. When seventeen-year-old Adam Fletcher chooses to recklessly defend his single mother™s reputation with his quick temper and fists, he is given two choices”jail or an apprenticeship. The delinquent™s only consolation is the hope that he will work under the flashy Richard Rasquelle, a local hero and a successful port merchant. Adam, however, lands in the care of the elder Emmanuel Rogers, a staid member of the coastal colony and only competitor of Rasquelle. It does not take long for Adam™s impetuousness to land him in a tangled web of spying, betrayal, and life-threatening danger. When Adam finally uncovers the true evil players and why his boss, Mr. Rogers, has landed in jail, he is being led away to a deserted coastal island by kidnappers. Readers will not be able to put down this historically accurate tale until they discover how Adam redeems himself and reveals the truth.”

BIBLIO: 2015, Seaport Publishing, ages 15 – 18, $14.95
REVIEWER: Krisan Murphy
FORMAT: Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-9863252-0-5

What kinds of things were imported to Port Beaufort, North Carolina in 1765?

The Smuggler’s Gambit is set in 1765 in what was at the time known as Port Beaufort (modern day Beaufort, NC).

Although Port Beaufort was positioned right on the coast of North Carolina, it wasn’t a place that saw heavy shipping traffic. This is because Beaufort had no means of connecting to points further inland. In other words, there were no rivers that ran directly from Port Beaufort into North Carolina’s interior. They received the same sorts of items as other colonial ports, only less frequently.

The fact that imports coming into Port Beaufort were intended only for the surrounding region, and that they came less frequently than some other ports, made it the ideal setting for my novel.

There were certain factors that had to be in place, and Port Beaufort fit the bill perfectly. I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t talk about all of that now. You’ll have to wait until you read the book.

Something I will talk about is this: The colonial capitol of New Bern, unlike Beaufort, was a bustling port. This was in spite of the fact that it was about 50 miles from the sea. New Bern had the good fortune of being seated at the confluence of two major waterways ” the Neuse River and the Trent River ” which allowed imported items to be easily carried along those rivers to their inland destinations.

In my research, I spent a great deal of time poring over old newspapers from the 1760s in an effort to learn all that I could about eastern North Carolina in the volatile period between the end of the French and Indian War and the start of the American Revolution. I’ve read Stamp Act notices, news items about sinking vessels, lists of ships that recently arrived in nearby ports, and items imported from England.

I was interested in knowing just what kinds of items folks would have wanted to buy that, perhaps, couldn’t have been obtained locally.

One list dated January 1765 lists a wonderful array of items that, in essence, served as a sort of colonial mail order catalog. Some of the items include various sorts of fabric, spices, sugar, flat irons, candlesticks, jewelry and hats.

Apprenticeships in Colonial America: Educational opportunity or cheap labor? It all depends…

Unfortunately, many apprentices were mistreated and used as cheap labor for their masters. Other apprentices, on the other hand, benefited greatly from being able to not only learn a trade, but develop the skills needed to successfully run such a business, themselves. — Unfortunately, many apprentices were mistreated and used as little more than cheap labor for their masters. Conversely, other apprentices benefited greatly from being able to not only learn a trade, but develop the skills needed to successfully run such a business, themselves.

In The Smuggler’s Gambit, 17-year-old Adam Fletcher is the son of a young, single mother in a port town in 1765 North Carolina.

When he finds himself in trouble with the law, he is forced into an apprenticeship to avoid a harsher criminal punishment. As events unfold in his new life with a local shipping merchant as his master, Adam soon finds himself caught in the middle of a smuggling war.

The decisions he’s forced to make question his loyalties, his honor, his courage and ultimately his will to survive.

How real life intersects with The Smuggler’s Gambit

It’s as though Arthur Butler had no history before that fateful Saturday on the seventh of April 1764.

In fact, the first piece of documentary evidence of my fifth great-grandfather’s life was his apprenticeship bond. At age 16, he appeared in the Craven County magistrate’s office where he was made an apprentice to a rigid man who lived in Swift Creek named Thomas Swafford.

Swafford wasn’t from Swift Creek. In fact, he was a lapsed Quaker who had come into the North Carolina colony from Pennsylvania when he was younger.

It was uncovering these evidences, and the ones that followed, that ultimately led me to write The Smuggler’s Gambit.

Arthur’s father had been a shoemaker, I think. A lot of the boys in the Butler family were ” at least it appears that way from looking at Butler estate records in the surrounding counties.

But Arthur, well, he was a bit of a mystery.

I was delighted when I first found his apprenticeship bond in the Craven County records, but my joy was quickly turned to sadness when I saw that just four years later, in June 1768, Arthur returned to the Craven County court to complain about his master:

Arthur Butler complains that Thomas Swaffer [Swafford?] is keeping him at servile labor and not teaching him to be a cordwinder.”

By September, the Craven County authorities intervened on my ancestor’s behalf:

Ordered that Arthur BUTLER formerly Bound apprentice to Thomas Swaffer be discharged from his Indentures it appearing to the Court that the said Arthur hath not been treated as an apprentice Ought to be, And that he be bound to Charles ROACH untill he arrive to Twenty One Years to Learn the Shoemakers Trade.”

Forced Apprenticeships

Growing up, I always just thought about an apprenticeship as a means for a young person to learn a trade. It was the way things were done.

What I did not realize, however, at least not until I started researching apprenticeships in colonial North Carolina, is that often, apprenticeships were a forced enterprise.

This is a photocopy of the apprenticeship bond of my ancestor, Arthur Butler.

In 1762, the law in North Carolina stated the following:

Where the estate of an orphan shall be of so small value that no person will educate and maintain him or her for the profits thereof, such orphan shall, by direction of the court, be bound apprentice, every male to some tradesman, merchant, mariner or other person approved by the court, until he shall attain to the age of twenty one years, and every female to some suitable employment, till her age of eighteen years; and also such court may, in like manner, bind apprentice all free base-born children, and every such female child, being a mulatto or mustee, until she shall attain the age of twenty one years: And the master or mistress of every such apprentice shall find and provide for him or her diet, clothes, lodging and accommodations, fit and necessary; and shall teach, or cause him or her to be taught to read and write; and at the expiration of his or her apprenticeship, shall pay every such apprentice the like allowance as is by law appointed for servants by indenture or custom, and on refusal shall be compelled thereto in like manner; and if upon complaint made to the inferior court of pleas and quarter sessions, it shall appear that any such apprentice is ill used, or not taught the trade, profession or employment to which he or she was bound, it shall be lawful for such court to remove and bind him or her to such other person or persons as they shall think fit.

In other words, if a child was orphaned (and an orphan was typically considered a child without a father, regardless of whether or not the mother was still living) regardless of ethnicity, or if they were ‘base-born’, or female mixed-ethnicity children, they were to be bound out, no matter what.

Just to be clear, here are what those old genealogical terms mean:

Base Born “ An œillegitimate child. (A child whose parents are not married.)

Mulatto “ A person with mixed parents ” black and white, although at times may have indicated black and Indian.

Mustee “ A person with mixed parents ” Indian and white. (Short for œmestizo, the Spanish term for children of one Indian and one white parent.)

The colonies didn’t pass these laws out of cruelty, although the end results might have sometimes been cruel, nonetheless.

The practical reasoning behind the law was two-fold: First, to ensure that children who might otherwise not have someone teach them, be bound to a master and taught an industrious trade whereby they could enjoy a successful future. By learning to be self-sufficient, they wouldn’t become a burden on the colonies.

Second, the apprenticeship system provided a cheap labor-force for businesses. It was thought to be a mutually beneficial arrangement since the apprentice would be housed, clothed, fed and trained in a profession while the master enjoyed having an otherwise unpaid worker who lived on the premises and had to work how and when he was told.

Some people were bound from the time they were very small, in which case it could almost be compared to an adoption more than just an apprenticeship. Others weren’t bound out until they were teenagers.

Issues of Illegitimacy

I’m unfamiliar with laws from other colonies relating to unmarried women having children, but in North Carolina, ‘bastardy bonds’ were issued.

According to this website:

These bonds were intended to protect the county or parish from the expense of raising the child. When the pregnancy of a woman or birth of a child was brought to the attention of the court, a warrant was issued and the woman brought into Court. She was examined under oath and asked to declare the name of the child’s father. The ‘reputed’ father was then served a warrant and required to post bond. If the woman refused to name the father, she, her father or some other interested party would post the bond. In some cases, the mother and reputed father together posted the bond. If the woman refused to post bond or declare the father, she was often sent to jail.”

Illegimate children, or children whose fathers were not present, were always placed in forced apprenticeships unless someone in the mother’s family or circle of friends was willing to post a bond for the said child and act as surety for their welfare and upbringing.

In The Smuggler's Gambit, Adam Fletcher has grown up in a tavern, but when he gets in trouble with the local authorities, he is forced into an apprenticeship. — In The Smuggler’s Gambit, Adam Fletcher has grown up in a tavern, but when he gets in trouble with the law, he is forced into an apprenticeship.

In The Smuggler’s Gambit, Adam’s grandfather-figure and owner of the Topsail Tavern, Valentine Hodges, had stepped in as surety for Adam’s mother, Mary, since his father was not around. But when Adam ran afoul of the law, the county magistrate wouldn’t even consider allowing him to be apprenticed to Valentine. Colonial authorities didn’t see taverns as morally upright places, so some apprentice bonds would actually go so far as to forbid the youngster from visiting taverns or public houses. That was a very real worry for Adam when he was told he’d be made an apprentice.

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