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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from State Library of North Carolina https://archive.org/details/carolinacomments45nort N.C. DOCUMENTS CLEARir GMOUQC Carolina Comm Published Bimonthly by the North Carolina Division of Archives and History VOLUME 45, NUMBER t JANUARY 1997 NCLHA and FNCHS Hold Joint Annual Meeting The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association (NCLHA) and the Feder¬ ation of North Carolina Historical Societies (FNCHS) held a joint annual meeting in Raleigh on November 22, 1996. It was the ninety-sixth such gathering for the NCLHA and the twenty-first such conclave for the FNCHS. Preceding the opening of the joint meeting was an address titled "Trends in Philanthropic Giving" by John Bennett of Raleigh, president of the Capital Consortium. The meeting itself commenced at 1:00 p.m. at the North Carolina Museum of History with a welcome from Jo Ann Williford of Raleigh, secretary- treasurer of the FNCHS. John E. Batchelor of Laurinburg then announced the winners of the NCLHA-sponsored North Carolina Student Publication Awards for 1996. A trophy for first place in the senior high school division went to Washington High School of Washington for its publication Opus '96; C. W. Stanford Middle School of Hillsborough won a trophy for first place in the middle-school category of the annual competition for its publication Enchanted At the November 22,1996, joint annual meeting of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association and the Federation of North Carolina Historical Societies, William S. Powell (right) of Chapel Hill presented the 1996 Christopher Crittenden Memorial Award to Drs. Joseph and Lala Steelman of Greenville. (All photo¬ graphs by the Division of Archives and History unless otherwise indicated.) Contemplations. Certificates of commendation for second and third place in the senior high division went to Lee County Senior High School of Sanford for Lee High Review and to South Mecklenburg High School of Charlotte for Sententia respectively; winner of second and third place in the middle-school division were Martin Middle School of Raleigh for Illusions and Warren County Middle School of Warrenton for Creative journeys respectively. Following presentations of the awards. Dr. John Mack Faragher, professor of history at Yale University, deliv¬ ered the joint meeting's keynote address, '"White People Who Live Like Savages': Daniel Boone in North Carolina." At the conclusion of the keynote address Jeffrey J. Crow of Cary announced the recipients of the Hugh T. Lefler Undergraduate Award and the Robert D. W. Connor Award. The Lefler award went to Emily Berry of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for her undergraduate paper titled "'One Building Block in the Battle': The North Carolina Volunteers and the Legacy of Idealism." Winner of the Connor award was Jane Turner Censer, professor of history at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, for her article "A Changing World of Work: North Carolina Elite Women, 1865-1895," which appeared in the January 1996 issue of the North Carolina Historical Review. Each year the Historical Society of North Carolina presents the Lefler award for the best paper written by an undergraduate student and the Connor award for the best article to appear in the North Carolina Historical Review during a one-year period. E. T. Malone Jr. of Durham then announced that the Roanoke-Chowan Poetry Award had been given to Fred Chappell of Greensboro for his volume of poetry titled Spring Garden (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995). The Roanoke-Chowan Poetry Award, bestowed each year by the Roanoke-Chowan Group of Writers and Allied Artists and the NCLHA, recognizes the best volume of poetry published during a one-year period. The 1996 American Association of University Women (AAUW) Award for Juvenile Literature went to William H. Hooks of Chapel Hill for his book Freedom's Fruit (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996); Sandra Champion of Kings Mountain presented the accolade on behalf of the AAUW. Winner of the 1996 American Associa¬ tion of University Women Award for juvenile Literature was William H. Hooks (right) of Chapel Hill for his book Freedom's Fruit. Hooks received the award from Sandra Champion of Kings Mountain (left), representing the AAUW. 2 CAROLINA COMMENTS Jeffrey J. Crow then presented American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) Awards of Merit to Katie Burkart, a student at P. S. Jones Middle School of Washington, North Carolina, and a Tar Heel Junior Historian, for "Forgotten Legacy: African American Storm Warriors," her report on the history of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station; to the Catawba County Historical Association and Gary R. Freeze of Newton for Dr. Freeze's book The Catawhans: Grafters of a North Carolina County (Newton: Catawba County Historical Associa¬ tion, 1995), a history of everyday life in the rural county; to the Historical Publications Section of the Division of Archives and History for accomplish¬ ments in publishing North Carolina history; to Greg Mast of Person County for his book State Troops and Volunteers: A Photographic Record of North Carolina's Civil War Soldiers, Vol. 1 (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, 1995); to Dr. Joseph¬ ine E. Newell of Raleigh for her nearly thirty years of work with the Country Doctor Museum of Bailey; and to the Railroad House Historical Association of Sanford for its publication The History and Architecture of Lee County, North Carolina, by J. Daniel Pezzoni (Sanford: Railroad House Historical Association, 1995). Dr. Crow then distributed AASLH Certificates of Commendation to Sarah Manning Pope and Emily Newman Weil, both of Pikeville, for their book Postcards of Old Wayne County, N.C. (Goldsboro: Wayne County Historical Association, 1995) and to Joe A. Mobley of Raleigh for his accomplishments as the author of various publications on North Carolina history. Two recipients of the American Association for State and Local History's Awards of Merit were Katie Burkart (left photo) of Washington, North Carolina, and Dr. Josephine E. Newell of Raleigh (right photo). Ms. Burkart was honored for her report on the history of North Carolina's Pea Island Lifesaving Station, Dr. Newell for her many years of work with the Country Doctor Museum of Bailey. Jeffrey J. Crow of Cary presented all AASLH awards at the joint meeting. Following an afternoon break, Willis P. Whichard of Durham, president of the NCLHA, presided at a brief business meeting. At the conclusion of that conclave John William Coffey II, chairman of the curatorial department and curator of American and modern art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, presented a slide demonstration titled "Louis Remy Mignot: The Discovery of a Southern Painter." VOLUME 45, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1997 3 The evening portion of the joint meeting, held at the Woman's Club of Raleigh, commenced with a 6:00 P.M. social hour, followed by a dinner presided over by association president Willis P. Whichard and an after-dinner presidential speech by Judge Whichard titled "Justice James Iredell." Jo Ann Williford then presented Albert Ray Newsome Awards to the Yadkin County Historical and Genealogical Society of Yadkinville and to the Country Doctor Museum of Bailey. The FNCHS bestows the award annually to historical organizations in North Carolina that conduct the most comprehensive and outstanding programs in local or commun¬ ity history during the previous year. Keynote speaker at the evening session of the joint meeting was Willis P. Whichard of Raleigh, associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and current president of the NCLHA. judge Whichard discussed lames Iredell, one of his more distin¬ guished predecessors on the state's high court. Aurelia Stafford of Greensboro, representing the Historical Book Club of North Carolina, presented the 1996 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction to G. D. Gearino of Fuquay-Varina for his book What the Deaf-Mute Heard (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996). Winner of the 1996 Mayflower Award for Nonfiction C. D. Gearino (left) of Fuquay-Varina received the Historical Book Club of North Carolina's 1996 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction for his book What the Deaf-Mute Heard. Aurelia Stafford (right) of Greensboro made the presentation on behalf of the book club. 4 CAROLINA COMMENTS was James L. Leloudis of Chapel Hill for his book Schooling the New South: Pedagogy, Self, and Society in North Carolina, 1880-1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996); Rom Moser of Zebulon presented the award to Dr. Lelou¬ dis. The R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award, bestowed by the NCLHA in recogni¬ tion of significant lifetime contributions to the literary history of North Carolina, went to Louis D. Rubin of Chapel Hill, retired professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, founder of Algonquin Books, and author of numerous books, articles, and essays. Lee Smith of Chapel Hill, president-elect of the NCLHA, made the presentation. Rom Moser (left) of Zebulon, representing the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of North Carolina, presented the 1996 Mayflower Award for Nonfiction to James L. Leloudis (right) of Chapel Hill. Dr. Leloudis won the award for his book Schooling the New South: Pedagogy, Self, and Society in North Carolina. Honored with the 1996 R. Hunt Parker Award was Louis D. Rubin (right), retired professor of English at UNC-Chapel Hill, founder of Algonquin Books, and prolific author. The NCLHA bestows the award in recognition of lifetime contributions to the literary history of North Carolina. Presenter of the award was Lee Smith (left) of Chapel Hill, president-elect of the NCLHA. In the evening's final ceremony, William S. Powell of Chapel Hill, chairman of the North Carolina Historical Commission, presented to Drs. Joseph and Lala Steelman of Greenville the NCLHA's 1996 Christopher Crittenden Memorial Award, which recognizes "significant contributions to the preservation of North Carolina history." Both are retired, having previously served for many years as professors of history at East Carolina University. VOLUME 45, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1997 5 A&H Publishes History of Bertie County during Civil War The Division of Archives and History recently published Divided Allegiances: Bertie County during the Civil War, by Gerald W. Thomas. The volume recounts the story of how the great national struggle quickly transformed the lives of virtually all of Bertie County's citizens and describes in detail the price those citizens paid in casting their lot on either side of the conflict. Gerald W. Thomas, a native of Bertie County and an amateur historian, is the coauthor (with Weymouth T. Jordan Jr.) of “Massacre at Plymouth: April 20,1864," which appeared in the April 1995 issue of the North Carolina Historical Review. His careful attention to conditions on the home front offers new insights into the glaring internal divisions that beset the Confederacy within one North Carolina county (and, by extension, throughout the state). Prior to the Civil War, overwhelmingly rural Bertie County, situated in the Albemarle region of northeastern North Carolina, was largely governed by staunchly pro-Union landholders, many of whom produced cotton and depended upon the labor of slaves, who constituted more than half the county's total population. Even after the states of the lower South had seceded from the Union in January 1861, the people of Bertie strongly opposed secession and even the holding of a convention to consider such a course. Only when newly elected president Abraham Lincoln issued a call for troops to suppress the rebellion in the lower South did the people of Bertie County reluctantly abandon their deeply felt opposition to secession. Even so, a substantial number of those citizens simply refused to fight for the Confederacy. Bertie's leaders responded to the war by organizing military units and raising money to equip the county's numerous volunteers, the majority of whom enlisted for Confederate service. Nevertheless, among the county's 1,425 men identified by the author as having taken up arms during the Civil War, more than 200 whites—including the author's great-grandfather—served in Union military units. Moreover, approximately 400 African Americans from the county likewise served in the Federal military. The author documents the extensive participation of Bertie County men in various Civil War battles, including the Battle of Plymouth (April 17-20, 1864), at which a substantial number of the county's Union volunteers were captured and sent to Confederate prisons (most notably the notorious facility at Andersonville, Georgia), at which most perished. While Bertie County remained under Confederate civil authority throughout the war, it was not protected by a permanently stationed Confederate military force. It thus became a virtual no-man's-land, vulnerable to frequent raids by Federal forces, particularly troops aboard Union gunboats that plied the Union- controlled Albemarle Sound and Chowan and Roanoke Rivers, which largely circumscribe Bertie's borders. Economic and social conditions deteriorated over time, and commodities and foodstuffs were constantly in limited supply, requir¬ ing the county to be placed under martial law. Even the county's pro-Confederate citizens soon tired of the war. A strong resentment of efforts by the Southern government to draft men for military service led many Bertie men to hide out in the woods and swamps to avoid Confederate conscription officers. Many of them were hunted down and shot on sight. Large numbers of people—black and white—fled the county during the war. Certain whites entered Union lines to avoid conscription or persecution by military or civilian authorities, and large 6 CAROLINA COMMENTS