by Jim Wiggins - July 2022 revised Jan 2024

NOTE: This research is extensive and detailed. We will post excerpts from it and add a link to the PDF at the bottom so those who would like to read more will be able to. -End note-
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Free people of color were, from the very first census in 1790 until 1810, listed under the category “all other free persons,” meaning those not already counted in the several white categories and not enumerated in the “slave” category, in other words, free, but not white.2

From 1820 to 1840, the category was “free colored persons.” Beginning in 1850, race was recorded for each household and the offered categories were “white, black, mulatto.” It is possible that the distinction between Blacks and Mulattoes was an effort to alleviate the census-takers’ uncertainty in distinguishing between some “light-skin” negroes and whites.

But the census instructions did not give any guidance to census-takers about how to do this. Chatham County census-takers made liberal use of the unclear distinction as a large majority of the free persons of color were identified as Mulatto.

Only free, that is not enslaved, people of color were listed in the population census. Enslaved people were enumerated under the name of their enslaver with no names of those enslaved provided.

Households Headed by Free Persons of Color in 1850 I began the search for answers to the questions about Chatham County’s free people of color by focusing on the households headed by free people of color who are listed in the 1850 census, which was the first census to provide the names of all family members in each household.3 Earlier censuses supplied the name only of the household head.

In 1850, there were forty-seven Chatham households headed by free Blacks and Mulattoes, containing 221 individuals. For each of those households, I have attempted to find as much additional information as possible and have summarized that information here.4

There were eighty other Black and Mulatto persons listed in white-headed households in 1850. I have not researched2 those further, but I provide a list of their names, ages, occupation if given, and the name of the white head of household in a table referenced at the end of this paper. Of course, free persons of color were in Chatham County long before the 1850 census.

The 1790 census, the first federal census, indicated there were nine persons enumerated “as all other free persons,” in Chatham, all living in mixed-race households. The 1800 census was the first to identify heads of nonwhite households and “other free persons except Indians not taxed.”

Two decades later, in 1810, there were twenty-four “free colored” households in Chatham with 139 individual members. In 1830, there were forty-four “free colored” households in the County with 262 family members.5

By 1850, there were forty-seven Chatham households headed by persons coded as “Black” or “Mulatto,” containing 221 individuals.
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NOTE: Below is family history about the two couples in the image of this post, George W. and Asenanth Jane Allen Burnett; and, Cyrus and Eliza White Bowden.
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Thomas Burnett (47) was a miller with real estate worth $75, in 1850. He lived with his wife Priscella (45), maiden name Archey, and son George (18), all Black.
Twenty years previously he was living with an adult female and four children.

In 1860, he was a laborer with no property. His household consisted of Priscella and two male Bogs (33 and 10 and both Black). In 1870, Thomas was again identified as a miller with real estate valued at $50 near Pittsboro Road, but now identified as a Mulatto.

His household did not include Priscella whose whereabouts are not known, but it did include three young adult Bass males, all laborers, two of which have the same names as the Bogs/Bass boys from 1860—Joel and General—but Elwood Bass (22) as well.

It also included Matilda Allen (24) and two young Allen children (Mulatto)—Hadley (6) and Mary (2).
Matilda was from the same William Bass family who, in 1850, had a son Joel (2) but also had a four-year-old daughter named Matilda.(See below for William Bass.)

Thomas died in 1877 and is buried in the South Fork Friends Church Cemetery in Albright Township. In 1860, Thomas’ son George Burnett (27) was a farm laborer in the household of Elyza Jeffers (52).

The household also included two Jeffers and three Allen children. A decade later, he (37) was a farmer renter on Pittsboro Road with his wife Jane (32) and five children—Sarah (15), William (9),Priscilla (😎, Thomas (7), and Nancy (3)—all Mulatto.

Three children were in school. In 1880, George (46) was still farming with wife Ceyneth J. (42) [Asenanth Jane] and children—William (20), Thomas (16), and Nancy (13),Rebecca (9), Abram (7), Albert (5), and Ruth (7 months).The following is from Dark/Brooks/Burris/Kearns Family Tree on Ancestry. Thomas was born in 1802 in Orange County.

His father was Saunders Burnett (1750-1822). His mother was Abigail Williams (1768-1864). His spouse was Prescilla Archey (1805-?).
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James Bowden (46) was a farmer with no property. His 1850 household included Sally (46)and seven children, of which the two oldest, Oliver (16) and Thomas (15), were farmers. Other children included John (13), Thomas (11), Polly (6),
Sias/Sirus/Cyrus (5), and Milton (3 months). All were Mulatto.

Ten years earlier, James (24-35) had been a farmer with an adult female (24-35) and four male children under 10 in his household.

[A John Bowdin was listed in the 1820 Census as living in Chatham in a household of seven—a male ( over45), one male (14-25), four males ( under 14), and one female (14-25). As James would have been 16 at the time, John could have been his father.

In the 1830 Census, John (55-99)George W. and Asenanth Jane Allen Burnett, gg-grandparents of Calvin Dark, who provided the photo.11is listed as living in Pittsboro with only an adult female (55-99); but subsequently, he is not found in later censuses.]

In 1860, James (55) owned property valued at $50 near Cane Creek. His household had added another child.

In 1870, he (65) was a basket maker with no property living on Pittsboro Road. Sally (65) was there with three adult children. In 1880,James (73) was still a basket maker, but had a physical disability, and was living in Hadley Township with Sally (72) and no children.

He died in 1885 and was buried in the McPherson Bivin-Perry Cemetery in Alamance County, presumably having lived most of his life in Chatham.
James’ son Oliver Bowden has an extensive record from 1857-1910.

In 1857 he (22)married Ellen Mary Allen (18). In 1860, they lived near Cane Creek where he was a farm laborer, probably for Sallie McPherson (80) in Alamance County. They had two children—Esprane (2) and John(1).

A decade later, they added a son William. Another decade and they added a daughter Mary Eliza (6) and ason Cy (1).
In 1900, Oliver was a farm laborer in Liberty, Randolph County and had added seven children—Mary(10), Cemore (9), Garfield (😎, Lenice (6), Marge (2), and Nora (3 mons).

A decade later, Oliver (84) was a farm laborer in the same location, but he was widowed. Son William (53) was also a farm laborer. Daughter Mary Eliza (36) was living in the household along with her six children. James’ son Cyrus moved to Alamance County by 1880, followed by James’ son Milton two decades later.
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Source: EARLY FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR
IN CHATHAM COUNTY, NC
by Jim Wiggins1
July 2022 revised Jan 2024

LINK: https://chathamhistory.org/.../EarlyFreePeopleofColorinCh...