The North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
“Unsurpassed Valor, Courage, and Devotion to Liberty”
“The Official Website of the North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission”
They are our kin
Kemp Battle
Allen Battle
North Carolina Plantation Labor Relations Before Reconstruction
“On
the Walnut Creek plantation I had Allen Battle, one of our slaves, in
charge. He was a fine looking man, one-fourth white, as honest and
honorable as ever lived and a very good farmer. His father was black,
his mother a mulatto. Allen when young was the playmate of the sons of
his master. When he grew older he advanced to the dignity of foreman . .
. Allen [by will came to ownership by] my wife and was advanced to the
dignity of overseer, about eighteen hands, as the workers were called,
being placed under his charge.
Allen
died worth about $2,000, leaving me exchequer of his will. His wife
Sukey never had a child. He bequeathed to her all he had but requested
me to keep the money in my hands and pay over to her whatever she should
ask for. “If she gets it all in hand,” he said, “her kinfolks will eat
her up.”
She
tried the plan of living with one of them and they began at once to eat
her up. They persuaded her to buy a $200 horse and other things too
costly for her station. After two years she took alarm and came back to
my care, rented a house at Flagmarsh, and lived economically.
When
she died, she still had about $800, which was distributed among her
kin, so numerous that the share of one was only about $3.50. As a
matter of law she could have called for all the fund [I held] but both
she and her kin regarded the provision in the will as a legal check on
extravagant expenditures. I was really vested with moral but not legal
power.”
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