EXPLORING THE MARITIME TASK SYSTEM OF SOMERSET PLACE By Mackenzie Mirre Tabeling May 2023 Director of Thesis: Dr. Lynn Harris Major Department: History Eastern North Carolina’s maritime industry was dependent on the labor of free and enslaved maritime workers. These maritime laborers contributed to maritime development in a multitude of ways, from working on large seagoing vessels to preparing flatboats to carry plantation produce along canals. This thesis examines the personal characteristics, social relationships, and cognitive understandings which fabricated maritime tasks of an enslaved community belonging to the Collins family living in Edenton, in Chowan County and Somerset Place in Washington County, North Carolina from 1786 to 1864. This research analyzes the historical documents of the plantation owners and businessmen in the area to understand the motivation of task assignment within the maritime industry of northeastern North Carolina. EXPLORING THE MARITIME TASK SYSTEM OF SOMERSET PLACE A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of History East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Maritime Studies by Mackenzie Mirre Tabeling May 2023 ©️ Mackenzie Mirre Tabeling, 2023 Exploring the Maritime Task System of Somerset Place By Mackenzie Mirre Tabeling APPROVED BY: Director of Thesis Dr. Lynn Harris Committee Member Dr. Nathan Richards Committee Member Dr. Jarvis L. Hargrove Chair of the Department of History Dr. Timothy Jenks Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Kathleen Cox DEDICATION This project is dedicated to all the enslaved people who were ever enslaved by the Collins Family. It is for them and their descendants that this research seeks to share their stories and vastly important roles in the building of the maritime history of North Carolina. While they did not choose to be studied, I hope that their memory is honored in the sharing of their stories. Thank you. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the support of so many people. First, I would like to thank Dr. Lynn Harris for the massive amount of patience she gave me while completing this research and the passion that supported me through this process. Thank you to my committee members, Dr. Nathan Richards and Dr. Jarvis Hargrove for their additional patience and willingness to read my writing, I know it was not always easy. Thank you to my original cohort members, Amelia Yona, Bethany Early, Jacqui Hewett, Tyler McLellan, and Will Nassif for all the fun adventures, game nights, vent and brainstorming sessions, phone calls, encouraging words and acting as my support group during my time at ECU. In addition to my core group, I cannot express the proper amount of thanks to other students and alumni including Aleck, Joel, Molly, Allyson, Maddie, Ryan, Kam, Amber, and Andi for their support and friendship. Thank you to my wonderful parents who have never ceased to support and encourage my dreams and provide endless opportunities for me to get to where I am today. And a gigantic thank you to my amazing husband, Scott, who holds down the fort for me, supports my need to explore, and gives me more support than I thought possible. I love you. Lastly, and most importantly, thank you to Dorothy Spruill Redford for her decades of research and care to share the stories of her ancestors and the other members of the enslaved community at Somerset Place. Without her important work, this research would not have been possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page ............................................................................................................ i Copyright Page ............................................................................................................ ii Signature Page ............................................................................................................ iii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................ iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ viii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1 Research Objectives ................................................................................................... 6 Defining the Terms .................................................................................................... 7 Thesis Outline ............................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER TWO: HISTORIOGRAPHY ............................................................................. 11 Somerset Place ........................................................................................................... 11 Studies of Slavery in the Albemarle Region .............................................................. 17 Studies of North Carolina Slavery ............................................................................. 20 Studies of Task Systems ............................................................................................ 21 CHAPTER THREE: THE TASK SYSTEM ......................................................................... 25 CHAPTER FOUR: THE TASK SYSTEM OF A MARITIME INDUSTRY, 1786-1829 .... 41 The Lake Company .................................................................................................... 44 Ropewalk ............................................................................................................ 56 Enslaved Agency and the Enslaver ............................................................................ 62 CHAPTER FIVE:  CENTRALIZING THE MARITIME TASK SYSTEM, 1829-1864 ...... 67 Paternalism ............................................................................................................ 67 Fisheries ............................................................................................................ 70 Somerset Place ........................................................................................................... 84 CHAPTER SIX: ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION............................................................ 96 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 106 LIST OF TABLES 1. Lake Company Hires of 1787. Data from Anne S. Graham Collection, MfP. 127, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. ................................................................ 51 2. Lake Company Hires of 1788. Data from Anne S. Graham Collection, MfP. 127, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. ................................................................ 52 3. Lake Company Hires of 1789. Data from Anne S. Graham Collection, MfP. 127, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. ................................................................ 53 4. Lake Company Hires of 1790. Data from Anne S. Graham Collection, MfP. 127, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C ................................................................. 54 LIST OF FIGURES 1. A portion of James Wimble's 1738 map, "Chart of His Majesties Province of North Carolina." North Carolina Maps from UNC .............................................................. 2 2. The indoor operation of a common seaport ropewalk. From Carl Bridenbaugh's 1990, The Colonial Craftsman ............................................................................................. 37 3. Drawing of ropewalk machine for twisting rope. Courtesy of Historic Edenton State Historic Sites .............................................................................................................. 37 4. Entry from the Lake Company Books of payment for enslaved Africans from Camden March 12th, 1787. From the Anne S. Graham Collection. ........................................ 45 5. Section of "A Map of the Roads and Country Between Edenton and Norfolk with the Dismal Swam and Great Canals Park." From North Carolina Maps from UNC ....... 58 6. The North Carolina Journal April 27, 1795. Halifax, North Carolina. ...................... 60 7. Runaway slave advertisement from The State Gazette of North Carolina. March 9, 1793.......................................................................................................................... 61 8. "Going Out." From Harper's New Monthly Magazine 82(14):440 ........................... 74 9. "Heading Herrings." From Harper's New Monthly Magazine 382(14):438 .............. 75 10. Receipt of purchase from Hugh Collins to John W. Littlejohn for fish purchase. From Josiah Collins Papers. PC.417, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C...... 77 11. Receipts from Hugh Collins to William Dreams for fish purchase. From Josiah Collins Papers. PC. 417, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. ........................... 77 12. Distribution of Enslaved Laborers in Chowan County, North Carolina, 1838. Data from Josiah Collins Papers, PC.417, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C...... 79 13. Distribution of Enslaved Male Laborers in Chowan County, North Carolina, 1838. Data from Josiah Collins Papers, PC.417, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. 80 14. Distribution of Enslaved Female Laborers in Chowan County, North Carolina, 1838. Data from Josiah Collins Papers, PC.417, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. ........................................................................................................................... 80 15. Familial connection among the Chowan County properties in 1838 (approximate location). Data from Josiah Collins Papers, PC.417, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C............................................................................................................... 82 16. "Negroes, Where Hired for 1864.” From Josiah Collins Papers, PC. 417, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. ............................................................................... 94 17. " United States Geological Survey USGS, Quadrangle Map, 7.5 minute series. Columbia, N.C. (1942). . ............................................................................................................. 95 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION North Carolina’s maritime history represents a unique narrative of the larger American industrial evolution. In addition to agricultural labor, planters assigned and profited from free and enslaved black tasks such as digging flatboat canal thoroughfares, working in fisheries, ropewalks and shipyards, and navigating pilot boats through treacherous coastal inlets. This study will focus on the case study of the Collins family who owned Somerset Plantation in Washington county and various properties in Chowan County in the years of 1786 to 1864. The town of Edenton was founded in 1712. The location of Edenton, as shown in James Wimble’s 1738 map, “Chart of His Majesties Province of North Carolina” (Figure 1) was ideal for maritime trade and development as the Roanoke Inlet opened directly into the Albemarle Sound compared to the other inlets along the Outer Banks which were difficult to navigate and took a longer amount of time to navigate to their ports. The Albemarle Sound also connected the coastline to areas deep within the state, increasing the number of miles the vessels could travel.  During the American Revolution, the British Navy blockaded most of the major ports leading to the development of trade along intercoastal waterways. Even after the end of the American Revolution, the newly formed United States sought various trade routes to be more self-sufficient and less reliant on international trade. In an effort to increase this intercoastal trade, many canal- building projects were planned and began, leading to an increase in slave labor in the area (Angley 1986:1-3; Minchinton 1994: 2-3, 10, 15-17; Cecelski 2001: 85-86, 103-106). The entirety of maritime development of Northeastern North Carolina was heavily dependent on both free and enslaved black labor. Enslaved watermen, or persons were assigned to build canals, pilot vessels in canals, rivers, and along the coast, work in shipyards, fish in fisheries, and generally any industry businessmen attempted in the area. Two narratives from 2 formerly enslaved people inform specific aspects of an enslaved experience in the Albemarle Sound area (Grandy 1844; Brent 1861). FIGURE 1. A portion of James Wimble's 1738 map, "Chart of His Majesties Province of North Carolina." North Carolina Maps from UNC. The narrative of Moses Grandy describes an individual experience of an enslaved maritime laborer including his tasks on transportation canals and vessels traveling throughout the Albemarle Sound and into the Great Dismal Swamp along the Virginia and North Carolina state line. Grandy’s narrative exemplifies how his specialized skills as a maritime laborer provided more avenues for movement in the region. Linda Brent, also known as Harriet Jacobs, tells of her proposed maritime escape from enslavement in 1830’s Edenton. Brent describes the difficulty of planning an escape via maritime routes as travel was dependent on the weather and secrecy. Brent also describes how her friend Peter’s skills as a maritime laborer permitted him to be able 3 to build trust with enslaved individuals and white maritime laborers (Grandy 1844: 8, 16-25; Brent 1861:560-572). Somerset Place is a plantation located in Washington County, North Carolina on the northern shore of Lake Phelps. Since the beginning of the land development by the Lake Company, of which Josiah Collins I headed, the plantation at Somerset Place had been a part of the expanding maritime industry of northeastern North Carolina. The partners of the Lake Company recognized the use of enslaved labor to build economic and social standing. In 1786, Camden entered Edenton carrying 80 enslaved Africans purchased by the Lake Company to build a canal system and create a productive rice field. As the enslaved labor force grew and were assigned to other maritime activities, a maritime task system developed (Anne S. Graham Collection 1972; Tarlton 1954:6-7; Redford and D’Orso 1988:69; Michinton 1994:17). The task system was deeply intertwined and determined by the plantation system. Plantations are agricultural centers in which paid and/or enslaved labor is utilized to produce goods for a commercial market while plantation systems combine environmental, agricultural, economic, social, cultural, and political systems to form one general system of function. By adding the term tidewater, we simply describe a plantation system which is located in an area dependent and/or controlled by tidal patterns. The tidewater region of North Carolina stretches from Brunswick to Currituck County and from the Outer Banks to the end of Washington County, which includes the city of Edenton and Lake Phelps, the two areas of enslaved movement in this research. Little has been written about the maritime activity performed by the enslaved community on tidewater plantations in northeastern North Carolina. The previous research focused on the agricultural practices of tidewater plantations have remained in South 4 Carolina and Georgia. The tidewater regions of North Carolina have not proved as profitable as those in southern areas (Singleton 1985:2). Each plantation had its own task systems dictated by the tasks needing completion, the individuals available, and the time needed to perform them. The two general forms of plantation labor, gang labor and task system, differed based on the presence of specialized tasks assigned and the amount of free time enslaved laborers were given aside from their assigned tasks and even occasionally had the opportunity to create informal economies on their own time. Much of the scholarship on plantation tasks systems focus on the tasks performed under the enslavers and/or overseer’s watch, however, little is focused on the tasks performed by an enslaved individual on their own time. This readjustment is because the tasks performed to appease the enslaver were regularly documented and these tasks could determine every other aspect of an enslaved individual’s life on the plantation (Pruneau 1997:12; Morgan 1982:564-565). Studying the task system of Somerset Place provides insight into the value of maritime industry in the northeastern region of North Carolina in the post-revolutionary to the Antebellum periods. The Collins family of Somerset Place represent an exceptional situation for the time period and yet still exemplify sections of North Carolina maritime industry which brought in substantial wealth, activity, and sought to compete with the more urban industries in cities like Wilmington and Charleston. The task system at Somerset Place, while not representative of most task systems of enslaved laborers in North Carolina, does display the importance of maritime activity. Somerset Place fits into multiple categories of note. Firstly, the Collins family properties were all located in the tidewater region meaning that the movement of plantation products and people within the properties was dependent on tidal patterns and zones. Secondly, the Collins 5 family enslaved more people than most plantation owners between 1800 and 1860. While the sheer number of enslaved people may be the reason Somerset Place has been studied, the number of enslaved individuals provided numerous opportunities to create social, cultural, familial, and political systems within the enslaved community. Thirdly, Josiah Collins I purchased and imported half of the original enslaved laborers directly from Africa. This direct link to Africa permitted the enslaved community to continue and continue African traditions through the 1840s as described by white visitors to the plantation. Lastly, labor for the Collins family was dependent on seasons and on which individuals maintained the skills necessary to complete the tasks (Josiah Collins Papers 1966; Warren 1885:200-201). Through the study of Somerset Place’s task system and the role the maritime industry played in it, we may further understand how prevalent maritime activity determined the life of the enslaved community. This research analyzed how specific maritime tasks, both simple and complicated, defined the seasonal patterns of labor as well as how the assignment and definitions of maritime labor impacted the lives of the enslaved folks who performed them. Still, Somerset Place and the Collins family are not representative of white slaveholding properties and families in North Carolina, particularly in the western parts of the state. A vast majority of concentrated enslaved activity occurred along the intercoastal and costal lines, and thus the enslaved community in and near Edenton still represent a large percentage of the concentrated numbers of enslaved people in North Carolina at the time and many aspects of their experience can be likened to others in the area (Parker 1993:12-21). Few plantations with the same slave holding capacity as Somerset Place existed in North Carolina. Many of the larger and thoroughly studied plantations along the coast focus on South Carolina and Georgia (Littlefield 1981; Morgan 1982; Pruneau 1997). Stampp (1956:31) 6 considers that the majority of large slaveholdings were found in the Deep South or states like Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia where the alluvial river bottoms provided a more stable environment for cash crops and the markets were easily accessible. Somerset Place, located in northeastern North Carolina maintained a similar environmental setting as the Deep South, was not easily accessible to the large markets but maintained at times, over 300 enslaved people. Somerset Place is one of the few tidewater and large slaveholding plantations in northeastern North Carolina that has seen thorough historical and archaeological studies and time and care dedicated to telling the stories of the enslaved community. Research Objectives            This research seeks to analyze and understand the ways in which enslaved communities influenced the maritime culture and environment of eastern North Carolina through their labors under the Collins family from 1786 to 1864. The historical documents and analysis also discuss how the characteristics of enslaved individuals determined to which maritime tasks they were assigned. These questions guided this research: Primary • How did the enslaved community at Somerset Place and other Collins family properties interact with the physical and cultural maritime environment through the task system? Secondary • What are the demographic patterns, such as age, gender, or skill sets which correlate with specific maritime tasks delegated among the enslaved population at the Collins properties? 7 Defining the Terms This research explores the assumption of agency by enslaved people through their maritime labor. While the general definition of agency is the ability to take action or to choose what action to take, the concept of agency is slightly more complex. In his article, “The Subject and Power,” Michael Foucault (1982) describes taking agency as the individuals overcoming their objectification. According to Foucault, sources of power create systems which objectify individuals, and those individuals face struggles which combat their place within the system. Foucault writes, “Generally, it can be said that there are three types of struggles: either against forms of domination (ethnic, social, and religious); against forms of exploitation which separate individuals from what they produce; or against that which ties the individual to himself and submits him to others in this way…” (Foucault 1982:781). For the enslaved individual, most of the systems of which they were a part, they were objectified and commodified. Agency, in the case of enslaved individuals at Somerset Place, was acting outside of the expectations of the system. In the context of this research, maritime tasks are evaluated for opportunities they presented for individuals to display their agency. The development of the task system will be discussed further in Chapter Three however, the definition and understanding of the task system has transitioned throughout study. The task system at Somerset Place could be more individualized dependent on multiple external factors including season, agricultural and industrial needs, as well as factors of individuals such as specialized skills, gender, age, and physical attributes. This research examines the task system of the enslaved community assigned to Somerset Place and the other Collins Family properties to understand how and where maritime tasks informed the structure and patterns of the task system. 8 Thesis Outline Chapter Two: Historiography, summaries the studies which have examined the various aspects of this research and formed the framework for this study. This chapter begins with various studies of Somerset Place analyzing the general history and archaeology of the site, the kinship patterns, religious, and medical care of the enslaved community, and the representation of the current State Historic Place. The analysis then moves to the system of slavery in tidewater North Carolina and onto the various approaches to studying the history and archaeology of American slavery. Chapter Three: The Task System, defines the concept of task system as it is employed in this research. This chapter discusses how scholars have defined the task system of plantations in research and how it has been studied both historically and archaeologically throughout the years. This chapter introduces maritime slavery into the structure of the slave system and how specialized skills, gender, and age patterned the maritime tasks of the system. Chapter Four: The Task System of a Maritime Industry, 1786 - 1829, discusses the establishment of Somerset Place and the Collins Family entrance into the maritime industry of eastern North Carolina as well as the early and establishing members of the enslaved community. This chapter focuses on the management of the task system under the first Josiah Collins as it transitioned to his son, Josiah Collins II and explores the various maritime tasks including canal building, managing a rice field, and outfitting vessels at the Ropewalk, a long covered walk where rope was manufactured in Edenton. This chapter examines the various duties and lives of enslaved laborers with specialized skills and their place within the task system and structures of the enslaved community. 9 Chapter Five: Centralizing the Maritime Task System, 1829-1864, discusses the task system of the enslaved community under the management of Josiah Collins III. Plantation documents from this time record much of the personal life and familial structures of the enslaved community as well as the investment and management of fisheries. This task system reflects the shift towards paternalism in attitudes of southern plantation owners towards black and enslaved people. This chapter analyzes these plantation documents for distribution of tasks and valuation of various enslaved individuals. This chapter also focuses on the development of commercial fisheries along the Albemarle Sound and the tasks systems practiced there. Chapter Six: Analysis and Conclusion, analyzes why the maritime task system of Somerset Place is important to the understanding the roles of the enslaved community in North Carolina’s maritime industry. This chapter adapts the patterns discussed in Chapters Four and Five to be representative of the larger maritime task system in the Albemarle Sound region as well as explore other areas which would benefit from further study. The history of Somerset Place as well as the current public education produced by state park historians attempts to focus on the voices and narratives of the enslaved community. Descendants have recorded and recounted much of their history. Additionally, the staff at Somerset Place Historic Site has taken care to record and dictate the stories of the enslaved community utilizing various methods to inform the public. Still, white researchers, including myself, have undertaken a majority of the maritime and terrestrial archaeological research of the region surrounding and including Somerset Place. The reality of white researchers studying an area in which an enslaved community spent so much of their lives, leaves out potentially significant data and considerations and many of these researchers take the time to acknowledge their biases and faults while studying an enslaved black 10 community. While my role as a white researcher limits the interpretation of the enslaved community, this project seeks to close the gap by recognizing the role of the white ideological view of slavery in task formation. This research has undergone a variety of phases since the initial prospectus. The COVID- 19 pandemic created a lack of access to many of the primary documents including the Collins family papers located at the North Carolina State Archives however, many of the staff members were incredibly helpful in accessing digitized and specific pieces of information. Additionally, archaeological evidence directly linked to the maritime tasks performed at Somerset Place proved to be very limited leaving much of the historical understanding of maritime activities surmised from historical documents. Lastly, the pandemic and health and safety concerns, and my own relocation limited the collection of oral histories. In the end, this research analyzes the maritime movement and industry of the enslaved community under the ownership of the Collins family based on historical documentation. CHAPTER TWO: HISTORIOGRAPHY Various aspects of Somerset Place’s plantations systems have been the focal point of studies by historians such as William Tarlton (1954) and Dorothy Redford (1998; 2005) as well as for research conducted by students like Alisa Y. Harrison (2008), and E. Arnold Modlin Jr. (2008), William Gregory Lewis (2016) and Jay Colin Menees (2018). The study of North Carolina’s institution of slavery was reliant upon John Spencer Bassett’s (1899), Freddie L. Parker’s (1993), and David Cecelski’s (2001) work while the relationship of economics and slavery in the Albemarle area was thoroughly examined in Jacob T. Park’s (2018) thesis. Lastly, the understanding of the various aspects of slavery as an institution was furthered by historians such as Daniel C. Littlefield (1981), Whittington B. Johnson (1993), Leigh Ann Pruneau (1997), Deborah Gray White (1999), Kevin Dawson (2005; 2006; 2013; 2018), and many others. Studies of Somerset Place Since the reconstruction and recognition of Somerset Place as an educational State Historic Site, multiple researchers have studied the various aspects of enslaved life within the plantation system. While William Tarlton (1954) conducted in-depth state-ordered studies and reports on Somerset’s foundation, the stories and narratives of the enslaved community were not a priority until Dorothy Redford’s introduction into the leadership of Somerset Place’s interpretation. The 1977 television show Roots inspired Redford to research her family history and discover more about the portion of her family who was enslaved before Emancipation. Redford’s research not only produced a comprehensive timeline of the white and black inhabitants at Somerset Place but also gathered personal and detailed stories of the enslaved community and family histories told by the descendants of that community (Redford and D'Orso 1988). 12 Somerset Homecoming: Recovering A Lost Heritage, Redford’s (1988) first work surrounding Somerset Place is mainly a narrative of Redford’s personal journey of connecting her roots to Somerset Place. Redford collects a multitude of details from newspapers, port records, Collins family papers, and other plantation documents to illustrate portions of the stories of the enslaved people who lived at Somerset Place and bring the humanity of the enslaved people to the forefront of Somerset’s narrative. Redford served as the Executive Director at Somerset Place from 1990 to 2008 and gathered numerous resources to expand the enslaved narrative. Generations of Somerset Place: From Slavery to Freedom (2005) is a collection of photographs and stories of the families of the formerly enslaved at Somerset Place and details of where they settled and the various jobs and skills they found after emancipation. Other documents, unpublished but sold in Somerset Place’s gift shop document various details of daily life and attempt to document the lives and deaths of each person who was enslaved or worked at Somerset Place (Redford 2001). Dorothy Redford’s multitude of works provides an in-depth understanding of the enslaved community at Somerset Place. Additionally, Redford’s perspective, while singular, does include and partially represents the descendants of the enslaved community at Somerset. While the entire community’s ideals cannot and should not be placed upon a single individual, it is invaluable to comprehend the familial and humanistic implications of this study and thus, bring the enslaved experience to the forefront of historical and archaeological research. A combination of student and professional historians have conducted research focusing on important structural components of Somerset Place ranging from the 1780s to the 1860s. Alisa Y. Harrison (2008), William Gregory Lewis (2016), and Jay Colin Menees (2018) all 13 focused on the narrative and experience of the enslaved community within Somerset’s history. Each topic of research combines aspects of the lives of individuals enslaved at Somerset. Alisa Y. Harrison’s (2008) dissertation, Reconstructing Somerset Place: Slavery Memory and Historical Consciousness describes the development of Somerset Place following the Civil War and its transition into a State Historic Site. Harrison’s examination discusses how the educational curriculum of Somerset Place now celebrated the contribution of the enslaved community. Harrison collected first-hand accounts of how members of the public, including descendants of the enslaved community, viewed the history of enslavement and the legacy of Somerset Place through various perspectives. Harrison discusses Dorothy Redford’s goal of creating and exemplifying positive studies of enslaved communities which would combat the racism found in academic research. The family reunions, initiated by Redford, were a method to connect the generations to each other and this made descendants active participants in the story of Somerset Place and share the narratives of the enslaved community with the community surrounding modern Somerset Place (Harrison 2008:312-326). William Gregory Lewis’s (2016) research, “The Lake Chapel at Somerset Plantation and Religious Instruction in the Antebellum South,” examines Somerset’s Lake Chapel membership and records to provide insight into the religious relationship between the enslaved community and the Collins family. More specifically, Lewis’s research analyzes the levels of religious and cultural agency displayed by enslaved individuals within the context of religious practices, which were heavily regulated by white power. Lewis utilizes the Lake Chapel at Somerset as a prime example of the heavily entwined relationship of religion and slavery in the Antebellum American south. The ideological relationship many white owners held regarding the enslaved under their 14 legal ownership maintained religious connotations and reasoning to maintain and perpetuate the institution of slavery. The Lake Chapel at Somerset Place served as an avenue for religious expression. However, the location and leadership of the Chapel allowed for the white Collins family to preserve a certain amount of control over the religious instruction of the black community. Lewis discusses the tensions between the Southern plantation owners in the 1820s and 1830s who fought between the ideas that religious instruction and care of an enslaved labor community would either nurture the attitudes of those enslaved or give them a false sense of quality which would lead to insurrection. Lewis dives into the legal and social policies which influenced the ways in which he informed and controlled the religious instructions of the enslaved community as well as some of the combinations of Christian instruction to enslaved Africans and their descendants and a few of the unique customs and cultures at Somerset Place (Lewis 2016:43). In his research, “The Health and Medical Care of Enslaved African Americans at Somerset Place, 1839-1863,” Jay Colin Menees (2018) studied the overall health of the enslaved community through the medical records written by the doctor who frequented Somerset and the manner of care provided at the slave hospital built by Josiah Collins III. This analysis of medical needs and care relates to the physical effects of tasks assigned to enslaved individuals at Somerset. Menees (2018) gathers the large collections associated with Somerset Place including the medical records of Doctors who visited the plantation, the Lake Chapel Records, and the Collins family documents to understand the health patterns of the enslaved community at Somerset Place based on seasonal tasks and/or crops produced. A large portion of Menees’s analysis focuses on 15 the mortality rate and patterns of enslaved women and children during the years in which births and deaths of children and mothers were recorded in the Lake Chapel Records. Meness looks at the effects seasonal climates had on the health of the enslaved community members, particularly children and how the care or lack of specialized care of enslaved women might have been the cause of deaths for their infants (Menees 2018). Wayne K. Durrill, a historian of Southern Antebellum and reconstruction society, has examined the social structures of Somerset’s enslaved community through labor routines and kinship relationships (1995; 1992). In his article, “Slavery, Kinship, and Dominance: The Black Community at Somerset Place Plantation, 1786-1860” (1992), Durrill explains the enslaved community at Somerset Place to be structured based on the access and proximity to resources and often how members within the enslaved community exhibited power and dominance over other members. Durrill explains that the majority of the first important of enslaved African laborers did not survive long enough within the plantation system to create strong and influential relationships or cultural practices. In addition, the acquisition of many small groups or individuals did not provide the kinship or social relationships within the early enslaved community. Durrill utilizes the Collins family records to recognize the patterns of kinship alliances. The marriages, or alliances, between the adults on the plantation occurred between either strangers brought to the plantation or enslaved laborers on different plantation who were eventually bought by the Collins family and brought to Somerset. Gender division among the enslaved community at Somerset Place was rooted within the marriage relationship. On average, women were younger than their husbands and began to have children at an earlier age. More younger children provided a labor source outside of the Collins family as not as much was 16 expected of children younger than 12, creating a higher social value in women who produced more children. However, men with older and skilled children gained value in the community as they had more labor resources to offer from their family unit (Durrill 1992:5-10). Marriages within the enslaved community tended to last many years and produce a larger web of kinship ties. Most individuals married outside their familial relationships but often, within other families on the plantation or individuals brought to the plantation. Durrill highlights the different purposes marriages and kinship relationships served within the enslaved community as compared to marriages within the white Collins family. In the 1850s, an attempted uprising by individuals at Somerset Place as well as growing uncertainty of the politics of the country, the Collins family divided many families between their various properties, purposely dividing kinship structures. At that division, many new kinships were created between separated family members and their neighbors or friends within the community. Overall, the enslaved community at Somerset Place did not necessarily build kinship structures in any singular fashion and were often formed under the uncertainty of how long those relationships would last. Mates and kin were largely chosen because of personal resources rather than social or economic standing (Durrill 1992:12-16). Durrill’s (1995) later article, “Routine of Seasons: Labour Regimes and Social Ritual in an Antebellum Plantation Community,” examines the labor systems of Antebellum Washington County by looking at the distribution of enslaved people among the enslavers in the county. While separate plantation systems encompassed the region, much of the seasonal labor followed similar patterns. Durrill’s research maps out how the various labor and plantation systems interacted and determined each other. While this article forms this examination on the basis of 17 the plantation owner’s perspective, this study provides insight into how the enslaved community may have interacted with other surrounding enslaved laborers. Tsutomu Numaoka’s (1998) article, “Josiah Collins III, A Successful Corn Planter: A Look at His Plantation Management Techniques,” examines how the younger Josiah Collins adapted methods for corn production to transform Somerset Place into a profitable business along the North Carolina coast specifically by taking advantage and control of shipping connections and schedules. While Numaoka’s article does create a detailed examination of the economic planning which Collins translated to ensure profitability, the discussion fails to acknowledge the active roles the enslaved laborers performed to manage those crops. Instead, Numaoka explains Collins’s allotment of the “Negro Patch” as a system of incentives and rewards to ensure the productivity of the labor force. The article praises the decisions of Josiah Collins III for his management practices while failing to discuss the detailed tasks which made the success of Somerset Place possible. Studies of Slavery in the Albemarle Region As this research indicates, the enslaved community working under the Collins Family industries were tasked with activities along Edenton Harbor and the shore of the Albemarle Sound. As the enslaved community was representative of the enslaved people in and around Edenton, the study of slavery and economics of the greater Albemarle Sound area is necessary for a more complete understanding of Somerset Place’s maritime influence. For a base of this research, David Cecelski’s work, The Waterman’s Song: Slavery and Freedom in Maritime North Carolina, highlights the significant role of free and enslaved black maritime presence in the structure of the North Carolina maritime economy. Cecelski studies the diverse types of maritime tasks which were essential to the commercial prosperity of North Carolina and were 18 assigned to enslaved black labor or taken up by free black individuals, including the labor at fisheries, canal-building, and boatmen. (Cecelski 2001). Cecelski specifically analyzes the harsh realities of enslaved people assigned to the task of canal building at the Lake Phelps properties. Cecelski recognizes the unique and harsh reality of the enslaved Africans assigned to dig the canals connecting Lake Phelps to the Scuppernong River as the “nightmare of maritime slave life” (Cecelski 2001:105). These enslaved individuals were geographically and socially isolated and worked in grueling conditions where death was always a possibility. Canal building was an essential process, particularly for agricultural development within the swampy environment and so canal building in northeastern North Carolina became a frequent practice. However, Cecelski discusses the intersection of maritime and plantation tasks within a plantation system dependent upon canal networks (Cecelski 2001:103-117). Additionally, Cecelski’s work discusses enslaved maritime laborers at North Carolina’s fisheries. According to Cecelski, the Antebellum Albemarle Sound contained the most substantial fisheries which relied upon enslaved labor, and thus, many of the agricultural heads in the area also commanded the fishing and seine industry. Cecelski analyzes the group labor methods of the fisheries as like the community labor necessary to run plantations. However, building fisheries, like canals, required intense manual labor to prepare the land and environment for efficient fishing. Enslaved laborers needed to clear the waterfront of Cyprus stumps and roots so that the seines were not caught but this process required specific maritime skills including boating and diving (Cecelski 2001:83-102). By utilizing Cecelski’s work and research as a base for the understanding of enslaved and black maritime labor, this research is grounded with a comprehension of the general culture and 19 products resulting from these specific tasks. For instance, the analysis of the Albemarle fisheries provides insight to the special skill set enslaved individuals assigned to the Collins fisheries would have obtained there. Moreover, as the fisheries were reliant upon enslaved labor, at least a handful of enslaved individuals would need to understand watercraft and how to move along the sound to ensure the productivity of the seines, and thus, specific maritime knowledge may have been available to the enslaved person based on their assigned or undertaken task. Darlene M. Perry’s (2004) thesis research, “A Profitable, But Risky Business: Slave Hiring in Colonial and Antebellum North Carolina,” explores the importance of the system of slave hiring in North Carolina’s economy. According to Perry, most of the enslaved laborers who were hired out or hired out themselves were skilled and often had more freedom in their movements which often caused tension between the skilled enslaved laborers and white laborers. Perry examines slave hiring from the perspectives of the owners and/or hirers against the view of the enslaved people. Perry’s work argues that a discussion of slave-hiring is necessary to explore the reality of the enslaved experience in North Carolina. While not enslaved laborers had the specialized skills to paint them as profitable for hiring, Perry and many of the scholars utilized in the study argue that slave hiring was a steppingstone to emancipation by expanding agency of the individuals hired. Perry emphasizes that slave hiring offered unique opportunities for enslaved laborers while also for white hirers. Slave hiring was a method to bypass the expense of buying and maintaining enslaved laborer while still taking advantage of the social and economic benefits of having access to slave labor. Robert S. Thompson’s (2008) dissertation, “Soil and Slaves: An Environmental History of Northeastern North Carolina, 1548 – 1860,” analyzes how the climate of the Roanoke River 20 and Albemarle Sound watershed influenced the socio-economic institutions of the people in the region. Thompson discusses the purchase of large numbers of enslaved Africans was seen was a necessity by landowners in the region to compete with the agricultural success of their neighbors along the coasts of Virginia and South Carolina. Additionally. Thompson highlights the racially charged expectations of slave holders which maintained that non-white laborers were scientifically more suited to perform canal building and rice cultivation (Thompson 2008:162- 194). The thesis of Jacob T. Parks (2018), “The Price of Bondage: Slavery, Slave Valuation, and Economics in the Albemarle,” is an evaluation of the economic implications of slavery in the antebellum Albemarle region. According to Park’s analysis, enslaved people were utilized as tools to create profit for enslavers whether that was by their sale, their purchase to ensure profitability of crops or industry, or ensuring their reproduction. The ownership of enslaved people ensured a certain amount of economic, political, and social value. Parks’s analysis utilizes the perspective of enslavers and plantation owners by viewing enslaved people as commodities and property rather than active participants in the region’s economy and often experienced poor quality of medical care or food to keep the costs of maintenance lower. Parks contrasts the viewpoint of the enslaved with examples of how enslaved people in the Albemarle Region took advantage of their economic value to make determinations in their own lives, particularly within hiring out situations (Parks 2018:30-56). Studies of North Carolina Slavery Freddie L. Parker’s (1993) work, Running for Freedom: Slave Runaways in North Carolina 1775-1840, evaluates how enslaved individuals, particularly escaped individuals, were identified by the people seeking their return. Parker analyzes the runaway slave advertisements 21 from North Carolina newspapers to note which physical attributes were deemed identifiable by the enslavers seeking their return. This analysis provides insight to the economic values placed on enslaved individuals and point out patterns of who was able to escape from slavery. Parker provides a detailed distribution of the growth of slavery in North Carolina, particularly along the coast as well as a discussion of slave law and codes in the state. Parker also explains the process which would occur at the publication of a runaway advertisement as well as the patrolling system created to track down and return fugitives. Parker also discusses the active role free black people played in attempting to protect enslaved runaways including appealing to courts and creating safe havens in many coastal towns in communities (Parker 1993:44-52, 65- 76). While this analysis does provide insight into the various situations or attributes which allowed more opportunities for an enslaved person to run away, it is necessary to remember that these advertisements were only created if the enslaved individual or individuals were deemed worth the expense of paying a reward. The details in these advertisements offer insight into the reality of if enslaved individuals with certain physical attributes or skills were more likely to be able to run away and the methods they may have utilized (Parker 1993). Studies of Task Systems Daniel C. Littlefield’s (1981) book, Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina provides a base for the early task system of the enslaved laborers at Somerset Place. Littlefield analyzes the economic necessity of enslaved people within a successful rice plantation system. Littlefield explores how enslavers, colonists, and British- American landowners categorized Africans into potential labor tasks based on visitors to Africa 22 had described physical and characteristic attributes of various ethnic groups. Littlefield describes how Africans were commodified specifically regarding rice cultivation (Littlefield 1981:8-32). Leigh Ann Pruneau’s (1997) dissertation entitled, All the Time is Work Time: Gender and The Task System on Antebellum Lowcountry Rice Plantations is a detailed study of a task system on rice plantations in lowcountry South Carolina and Georgia. This dissertation describes how labor was performed, divided and measured. Pruneau discusses the difference between working on the plantation owner’s time and many enslaved laborer’s goal of accumulating their “own time” and how individual agency was practiced by laborers when they worked against the system. A large portion of Pruneau’s research centers on the experience of enslaved women and how gender shaped task assignment in the rice fields. Pruneau discusses how the expectations for field production were the same for enslaved women and men, even when women were in the later stage of pregnancy and explores the relationship between the requirements of hard physical labor and neonatal mortality (1997:102-158, 252-302). Whittington B. Johnson (1993) analyzes the presence and development of black labor within the industrializing United States in his work, The Promising Years, 1750-1830: The Emergence of Black Labor and Business. Johnson examines the difference in black labor in the northern and southern states while pointing out the racial disparities in both regions including the use of enslaved black labor and the tendency for free black labor to serve white patrons and audiences. Specifically, Johnson acknowledges the overwhelming presence of black individuals in spaces designed to be black occupations such as maritime or domestic service spaces. By examining all forms of black labor within the development of the industrialization of the United States, Johnson recognizes the various methods in which black individuals created their own spaces in labor despite their legal or social statuses. 23 Johnson’s work explores the development of maritime industry as a space in which social movement was more flexible for back workers. Johnson explains that this maritime industry extended to land-based maritime tasks like Edenton’s ropewalk and shipyards. The enslaved community under the Collins family management exemplified this early distribution of black labor. In addition to laboring in the fields, the enslaved community gained specialized skills to ensure the production of industries such as the ropewalk and fisheries. The accounts of visitors to Somerset Place also record the interactions with black ferrymen and riverboat pilots. Kevin Dawson’s collection of work has focused on the maritime activities of enslaved and free black people and the aftermath of the institution of African slavery. Dawson’s dissertation, “Enslaved Watermen in the Atlantic World, 1444 -1888” (2005), analyzes how the maritime skills typically held by West Africans influenced the destinations in the Americas as divided on the economic goals of white landowners in the regions. Dawson examines how the maritime skills and knowledge of black people informed cultural practices in the new world. Kevin Dawson’s (2018) later research, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora, discusses the various maritime tasks and skills which many enslaved black individuals maintained and utilized and adapted while enslaved. Dawson utilizes historical narratives to describe how many maritime activities and skills originated and were highly practiced within African cultures and how those skills and activities were translated in a world dominated by slavery and oppression. Dawson highlights the unique maritime skills which were from black people and cultures to normalized coastal cultures, particularly in the Americas. While this collection of research covers a wide range of topics and perspectives of the enslaved experience at Somerset Place and the general region, the specific maritime task system of Somerset Place has not been at the forefront. This research attempts to begin to fill that gap by 24 evaluating the historical record of Somerset Place and the Collins family for maritime tasks and formation and combining the evidence with studies which focus on the task systems of enslaved communities on and off the physical plantation. CHAPTER THREE: THE TASK SYSTEM The Collins family industries required task systems tailored to each industry. The Collins family owned two family farms and/or houses in Edenton, the Edenton Ropewalk along the waterfront, and leased out at least two fisheries in addition to the plantation at Somerset Place. While all these properties maintained separate boundaries, all properties were connected by their patterns of labor. The Collins family documents establish where enslaved laborers were assigned and what tasks would have been performed at these locations. This task system spanned approximately 25 miles and was determined by a variety of characteristics. The two common management organizations, the task system, and gang system directed plantation labor in the American southeast. The task system was primarily utilized at plantations producing cash crops such as tobacco, rice, corn, and cotton. The task system was commonly experimented with by larger coastal and tidewater plantations in Georgia, South Carolina where rice field were separated by drainage ditches and as some plantation owners believed the benefits of completing tasks quickly would encourage the enslaved laborers to be more productive. However, a few plantation owners did not find the task system beneficial on its own and thus incorporated a combination of the task system and the gang system. The system utilized was decided by the tasks needing completion and those completing them (Stampp 1956:55-56). Through studying the task system, we understand how characteristics such as age, gender, and specialized skills impacted task assignment, in addition to how outside societal, cultural, and economic patterns characterized the task system. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the task system was the distinction between the plantation owner’s time and the enslaved laborer’s time. Lewis Cecil Gray writes, “Under the task system the slave was assigned a certain amount of work for the day, and after 26 completing the task he could use his time as he pleased. Under the gang system, slaves were worked in groups under the control of a driver or leader” (Gray 1993:547-551). With the completion of assigned tasks and the additional work, a few enslaved individuals in Lowcountry plantations produced their own crops and raised their own livestock (Morgan 1982:589-595). The development of the task system occurred for a multitude of reasons. First, the long absence of plantation owners for most of the year was a major contributing factor. Many plantation owners left their plantations to escape the intense heat and disease or simply, did not normally live on their plantation lands. Without the constant presence of the plantation owner, the oversight of the labor force was relegated to white or black overseers who may not have maintained the same economic goals as the plantation owner. Phillips writes “…the necessity of the master’s moving away from his estate in the warm months, to escape malaria, involved the adoption of some system of routine which would work with more or less automatic regularity without his own inspiring or impelling presence” (Phillips 1907:418). Historian Philip Morgan noted that large plantation owners in the Caribbean did not widely adopt the task system so popular along the eastern seaboard of North America. Instead, the presence of enslaved laborers with specialized skills and knowledge may have mitigated the need for so much supervision. Additionally, Morgan suggests that the hardiness of crops such as rice or corn allowed for less attentiveness from the laborers, and thus, less direct supervision from either the plantation owner or overseer, leaving the laborer to define and complete the task on their own terms (Morgan 1982:566-568). The introduction of rice to the Americas was the prime reason for the enslavement and importation of so many laborers to the Carolina region. Europeans did not have a successful record while cultivating rice or many other crops grown in tropical areas. Even before the 27 introduction of rice or large-scale crops, European colonists faced the problem of cheap and efficient labor. As many white Europeans entered the Americas as indentured servants, their presence was limited by the number of years on their labor contract. Additionally, when Europeans attempted to enslave Native Americans, they faced threats from the neighboring Native relations. Thus, the enslavement of Native Americans proved less beneficial for European settlers. Africa was physically and culturally far removed from the new settlement and thus, seemed a valuable and more secure option as a labor source area (Wood 1975:35-55). Daniel C. Littlefield expands on the idea of the promise of Africa and suggests that many enslavers in the Americas sought to purchase people from certain ethnic and cultural groups to complete certain tasks based on European travelers’ perceptions. For instance, travelers to the African coast in the eighteenth century reported that the Senegambia region was naturally suited for growing rice. Because of reports such as these, many plantation owners who sought to cultivate rice, particularly in South Carolina inquired about and purchased enslaved Africans from this area, presumably because they already had the expertise to produce a successful crop. This knowledge further pushed enslaved and freed black people’s influence on the successful economy of the early United States (Littlefield 1981:76-79). Knowledge of rice cultivation was not the only skill that increased the economic value of black laborers. The flexibility of the task system served the various needs of large and isolated plantations in the lowland areas. Occasionally, specific enslaved laborers were either trained or hired to complete tasks such as bricklaying, working as stable hands, blacksmiths, or boat hands, and whatever was needed to accomplish the industrial goals of the plantation. The development of specialized skills provided opportunities for enslaved laborers to engage within society and the economy as active participants. 28 In his book, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860, John Hope Franklin (1943) discusses that many skilled black laborers, usually free, were met with distrust from their white counterparts in urban settings, Franklin writes, It was unfortunate for the free Negro artisan that he was the object of such contempt and distrust. In a world that was none too friendly, this attitude on the part of his white competitors made his lot immeasurably more difficult. For the better part of the period, the white artisan failed to see any wisdom in developing a close relationship between himself and the free Negro (Franklin 1943:139). Franklin goes on to discuss that many skilled free black laborers likely learned their skills while enslaved and thus, were unable to visualize the potential economic and social benefits their skills could provide for themselves, their family, and their community. Still, practically all skilled labor contributed from enslaved and free black labor (Franklin 1943:139-140). Critics of the task system claim that the incentive for an enslaved laborer to complete the task as soon as possible inspired lower quality work. Many argued that the gang system was the superior method of plantation management. More recent studies have reevaluated claims that the task system alleviated the workload of enslaved laborers and more likely, increased the exploitative nature of slavery. Scholars who contributed to the early analysis of the tasks system argue that this method permitted the enslaved laborers to have an independent life and agency. Leigh Ann Pruneau’s dissertation argues that the tasks, beyond back breaking field labor, were central to the lives of the enslaved laborers and dictated much of their life experience (Pruneau 1997:12-17). Pruneau discusses that many of the tidewater and low country plantations were dependent on slave labor to transform the physical environment to create successful and efficient 29 plantations and as the number of enslaved laborers increased, so did the need for land transformation. The enslaved labor force adjusted their tasks to the cultivation cycle of the intended crop. Tasks circulated in a seasonal cycle enough so that they only need slight adjustments with each new season. Pruneau discusses how the introduction of mills and such equipment eased some of the physical demands for the enslaved laborers however, the care of that equipment was transferred to other laborers (Pruneau 1997:43-45). While the task system entailed the physical work performed at a given plantation, the task system remained central to the lives of the enslaved community and should be evaluated as such. Theresa Singleton’s approach to plantation archaeology is rooted in the interdisciplinary of the plantation system which included economic, cultural, social, political, agricultural, and ecosystems to create one complex system. This approach to plantation archaeology and history seeks to understand the movements and tasks of the enslaved community by also analyzing the underlying systems which influenced them. However, an important aspect of Singleton’s approach to studying plantations is the region’s systems of influence. While this research included only minimal archaeological analysis, Singleton’s interdisciplinary approach to plantation history and archaeology helps explain how the enslaved community at Somerset Place interacted with the physical and cultural maritime environment through the tasks they undertook (Singleton 1985:2). A significant contributor to the task system at plantations was the distinction between gender-based tasks and the complex relationship gender had within task assignment. Pruneau suggests that gender played a large role in designing the task system of rice plantations and enslaved women played a particularly important role in plantation production. In Pruneau’s analysis of thirteen rice plantations between the years 1802 and 1859, enslaved women either 30 account for more or equal to the male laborers working in the rice fields, and most of those women were expected to work as much as the men. Thus, gender had a complex impact on task assignments during and after the completion of routine fieldwork for the planter (Pruneau 1997:60-66). This use of enslaved women, including those with children, was a common practice in plantation labor systems in the late eighteenth century. Enslavers believed that children would discourage the enslaved female population from running away. Many women and children fugitives were either caught or in other ways unsuccessful in their attempt at escape. Enslaved women were still expected to perform tasks outside of fieldwork such as child-rearing and household chores for their families leaving them little personal time. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese points out that gender-based task assignment might only have been possible on plantations with many laborers and various forms of production (White 1999:66,72-74; Fox-Genovese 1988:157). Societal understanding of the institution of slavery impacted the implementation of the task system and the relative freedom of movement and agency of enslaved labor. John Spencer Bassett categorizes North Carolina’s institution of slavery into two parts, starting in the colonial period and changing in the year 1831when “the conditions of slavery became more severe” (Bassett 1899:7). Bassett emphasizes a few events that sparked the change in the idealism of slavery. Firstly, the older political generation which envisioned that one day the enslaved people would be free, lost power because of age or declining popularity. Secondly, Nat Turner’s rebellion in August of 1831 sparked a religious and social fear of enslaved communities for many in the southern United States. Thirdly, the abolitionist and anti-slavery activists grew louder and greater in number in the northern states (Bassett 1899:9). 31 Studies of the task system at maritime-based plantations have not extended far beyond the complexity of rice cultivation and irrigation practices and the seasonal fishing patterns of a few select enslaved laborers. It is evident that maritime tasks were integral to the function of coastal and tidewater plantations of North Carolina. These maritime tasks were not as well documented historically by the plantation owners as the terrestrial tasks, with a paucity of information about extent of supervision. Studies show that maritime activity, particularly in North Carolina included a high number of enslaved and freed black laborers. To many white, higher-class laborers, maritime duties, particularly on sea-going vessels was less than attractive. Ships served as a form of imprisonment with a high likelihood of danger and death and long stints apart from family. Maritime labor, which required a level of skills, provided opportunities for mobility which plantations did not so readily offer. Philip D. Morgan writes, “Maritime slavery is thus not only about objects being moved but also about subjects doing the moving. Some slaves were actors, not simply the acted-upon” (Morgan 2010:311). Maritime tasks provided laborers with the agency which might not have been available within other realms of slavery (Johnson 1993:62). Enslaved laborers did undertake a multitude of tasks in the maritime services; with the assigned task dependent upon skill level or relationship to the person in charge. Morgan writes that many freed and enslaved black men gravitated toward maritime tasks all over the world but often undertook the work deemed undesirable or dangerous by white laborers. Nonetheless, “skin colour often mattered less than skill” (Morgan 2010:314). Thus, maritime labor also provided a different level of equality and camaraderie between the races. However, black maritime laborers still faced heightened dangers on vessels. Not only did the nature of seafaring provides its own 32 uncertainties, but the forced close proximities of black and white laborers provided opportunities for interpersonal violence between the two (Morgan 2010:35, 312). Coastal trading activities encompassed more enslaved and freed black laborers working on vessels and in ports. Black mariners served as pilots, sea captains, ferrymen, navigators, boat hands, sailors, and cooks while on land black mariners labored in shipbuilding facilities such as ropewalks, shipyards, and naval yards. On plantations which were dependent on maritime activity, enslaved laborers had a generally wider knowledge base of tasks that could accommodate both terrestrial and maritime settings. This knowledge and adaptability of black free and enslaved laborers was a large reason for the success of coastal economies like that in northeastern North Carolina (Johnson 1993:62). Most scholarly studies focusing on the task system revolve around rice plantations in South Carolina or Georgia with the occasional acknowledgment of similar management styles in tidewater North Carolina. While plantations cultivating rice or other hardy crops such as corn, permitted the use of the task system more so than crops such as tobacco or sugar, task system management was primarily utilized in the low country. Somerset Place planters experienced some success as a rice and corn producers, but continued to utilize maritime activities, structures, and nearby waterway infrastructure throughout its time as a working plantation. It is evident from primary sources, that the enslaved laborers did not stay within the physical plantation limits and were sent to complete seasonal tasks at other locations within the Collins family properties and the town of Edenton. Studying the enslaved community at Somerset Place provides an understanding of the types of task systems utilized within an eastern North Carolina tidewater plantation. Collins plantation management utilized various management methods including gang systems and hiring in addition to or as an extension of the task system. As one of the largest 33 plantations in North Carolina, Somerset Place serves as an exceptional study of the history of North Carolina’s institution of slavery (Josiah Collins Papers 1966; Anne S. Graham Collection 1972). This plantation system does not make Somerset Place representative of the complete reality of slavery in of the entirety of North Carolina; but Somerset Place provides a glimpse specifically into the maritime activities and slavery of North Carolina. The goals the Collins family set in place for Somerset Plantation are based on the economic successes of lowland rice plantations in Wilmington, South Carolina, and Georgia. All these locations came with easy access to inland waterways and the ocean while Somerset Place faced, Sounds and difficult inlets and shoals as well as challenging swamps with little to no irrigation. The Collins plantation documents (Josiah Collins Papers 1966) provide a decent understanding of how the task system functioned on the plantation itself, however, little is known about the task system structure at the ropewalk, fisheries, or even the other Collins family homes in Edenton. Most likely, the enslaved labor force would have an equivalent amount of oversight for a smaller group of people. Still, the fisheries and ropewalk would require a certain level of specialized skill or at least knowledge and experience from its labor force thus, the level of skill and proximity to people in the city may have been enough reason for limited oversight. The task system at Somerset Place does follow a similar pattern to the conclusions of scholars Pruneau (1997), Fox-Genovese (1988), and White (1999). Enslaved women were also expected to work full time in the fields around the same ages they were expected to have children suggesting that on these hard labor plantations, the need for profit outweighed the need for reproduction of enslaved property. As noted in the Somerset plantation daybook from 1850 to 1853 (Josiah Collins Papers 1966), it is clear that on the days that all hands worked in the field, 34 and manual labor tasks were not separated by gender. However, other days clearly distinguish certain tasks were performed by men or performed by women. The occasional distinction between the two genders, included references to more specialized skills and more community- focused tasks. Only enslaved women performed tasks pertaining to the care of children or running the hospital when the doctor was away. On the other hand, only enslaved men are recorded to have specialized maritime skills related to the repair of vessels such as ship carpenters or a pilot (Pruneau 1996:70-71). Somerset operated as a working plantation with enslaved laborers for a roughly eighty- year period. During this time, the new generation of plantation owners adjusted their respective management styles based on economic demands and social and moral understandings of their own relationship to the institution of slavery. Josiah Collins III came to inherit Somerset Place in January of 1830 and managed the enslaved community differently than his father and grandfather. Josiah Collins III was the first Collins family member to live at Somerset Place with his family full-time. The constant presence of the plantation owner as well as these societal changes shifted the task system for the enslaved community. Unfortunately, the nature of the tasks assigned to the enslaved laborers, beginning with canal cutting, were extremely physical and challenging (Cecelski 2001:109-114). While there are only a few accounts of canal cutting at the Lake Company lands, they are proof of the hardships associated with canal cutting. William Trotter, who worked as an overseer at Lake Phelps for the Lake Company, recalled of this time, “Many of the Africans succumbed under this work. When they were disabled they would be left by the bank of the canal, and the next morning the returning gang would find them dead” (Bassett 1899:93). The work of canal 35 building at Lake Phelps isolated the enslaved laborers and placed them in harsh environments which exposed them to unfamiliar diseases (Cecelski 2001:103-106). Another narrative from the formerly enslaved Moses Grandy further depicts the realities of canal cutting. Just a few hundred miles away from Lake Phelps, Grandy worked at the Dismal Swamp Canal. Grandy recalled, “The labor there is very severe. The ground is often very boggy; the negros are up to the middle, or much deeper, in mud and water cutting away roots and baling out mud; if they can keep their heads above water, they work on” (Grandy 1844:22). Grandy also recalls that the overseer would flog those who could not complete their task of the day and tie them to a pole with open wounds to prevent them from escaping (Grandy 1844: 22-23). The Collins family maintained manufacturing businesses as well as fisheries. Thus, they practiced both agricultural and industrial slavery. Like other plantations of the antebellum American south, Somerset became increasingly dependent on enslaved and cheap industrial labor, almost entirely responsible for the building of canals, iron mining, logging, turpentine extraction, railroad construction, and most intercoastal maritime transportation (Starobin 1970:132-133). Another aspect of industrial slavery was in the Edenton Ropewalk. A ropewalk was a long covered building where rope was manufactured. Hemp material was transformed into yarn and spun to create rope, twine and cords (Shaeffer 2013). Figure 2 and figure 3 depict what the Edenton Ropewalk may have looked like. Not many sources document the intricacies of Edenton’s Ropewalk however, local newspapers document that various types of twine, seine rope, white lines, and cordage were manufactured and sold at the Ropewalk. If a city or port maintained a shipyard, a ropewalk was nearby. Carl Bridenbaugh writes that in 1774, the city of Philadelphia contained six ropewalks and in them, “all the crafts connected with shipbuilding 36 were represented: three blockmakers, two riggers, five caulkers, two mastmen, five boatbuilders, and thirteen sailmakers who contributed to the completion of the vessels made by its forty-five shipwrights and joiners” (Bridenbaugh 1990:94). Based on the 1840 (Collins 1840) list, both enslaved men and women were labeled to have specialized skills such as ship caulker, carpenter, and weaver that would have contributed to the business of the Ropewalk. As this list was recorded at least many years after the Edenton Ropewalk saw its busiest seasons, most likely older generations of enslaved laborers would have maintained these skills as well. Aspects of the plantation system at Somerset Place were also considered industrial labor. The rice machine, built under the Lake Company, added an element of rice production which may not have normally been on a plantation of Somerset’s size. After Josiah Collins transitioned to more profitable crops like wheat and corn, a grist mill was utilized to finish the cycle of cultivation. The addition of machinery did make these tasks more dangerous and on March 25th, 1841, Jim Blount was “killed in the mill wheels.” In the late 1850s and early 1960s, the construction of the North Carolina Railroad offered opportunities for Josiah Collins to hire out enslaved laborers for extra income. In 1862, Collins hired 37 men to the railroad for two years of labor where at least two of those men died (Collins 1841, 1862). 37 FIGURE 2. The indoor operation of a common seaport ropewalk. From Carl Bridenbaugh's 1990, The Colonial Craftsman. FIGURE 3. Drawing of ropewalk machine for twisting rope. Courtesy of Historic Edenton State Historic Sites. 38 Enslaved laborers also utilized their personal plots to practice their culture. Morgan presents accounts of southern white citizens who recalled that enslaved people grew a variety of African varieties of vegetables and thus, extended the opportunities for others to continue making cultural food. Additionally, the ability to hire themselves out to neighbors and surrounding plantations provided a form of revenue independent from the plantation owner. Enslaved laborers who were masters of their trade maintained the ability to determine the length and ability of a task (Morgan 1982:565, 573). Many of the enslaved laborers under the Collins family maintained specialized skills which were deemed important enough by the Collins family members to record. In the list of Collins’s 1940 estate, the specialized skills recorded amongst the enslaved men included carpenters, a ship carpenter and caulker, and shoemakers. For the enslaved women, the specialized skills included a weaver and a seamstress. These skills permitted the enslaved laborers to exercise some control over the locations where they were assigned but also display their increase of value to the Collins family. While these skills permitted some enslaved laborers to hire themselves out under the management of Josiah Collins I, as evident in the Lake Company records, under the paternal style of management practiced by Josiah Collins III, these specialized skills might only determine where an enslaved laborer would be assigned to a task. Not much is known about how the enslaved community spent their own time in the later time of Somerset Place’s occupation as a working plantation however, Josiah Collins III took an active role in the teaching and religious activities at the plantation’s chapel. In this Antebellum period, many southern enslavers viewed themselves as the paternal figure in the lives of their human property, responsible for the physical and spiritual well-being of all those associated with their plantation (Anne S. Graham Collection 1972; Josiah Collins Papers 1966; Lewis 2016:42-62). 39 A descendant of enslaved family on Somerset plantations, Uriah Bennett gave an interview in 1937 which did not indicate any personal time given to his family besides the enslaved children. Bennett was only about 15 years old at the time of emancipation and thus, did not experience many opportunities to discover what enslaved life in the Antebellum south was like for enslaved adults. Bennett does describe the strict distinction in access to the Collins family between field hands and “house servants.” Presumably, as the two class of enslaved laborers were separate at this time, it can be concluded that personal time and the use of that time, also held distinct differences between field laborers and house servants (Bennett in Scuppernong Farms Project 1937). Based on the plantation log books from 1850 to 1853 (Josiah Collins Papers 1966), Josiah Collins assigned a number of enslaved laborers to cultivate and harvest in the negro patch. While this seemingly means that this particular patch was solely for the use of the enslaved community, the work was done within work time limits. While the other explanations of the task system dictate that enslaved laborers earned time to work in their own fields, the “Negro Patch” at Somerset Place would have been entirely necessary to support an enslaved labor force of over 400 people and thus, would have been a part of normal work time for enslaved laborers. Tidewater plantations of northeastern of North Carolina have largely lacked the scholarly attention of those in South Carolina and Georgia. However, Somerset Place, and plantations like it have much to offer to the knowledge of maritime tasks on tidewater plantations. Because of the complicated layer of slavery, the historical discussion of Somerset Place needs to occur within the context of plantation and slavery in order to understand the intricacies of the plantation system. Somerset Place’s plantation management does not fit perfectly within any one 40 management system however, Somerset does hold many similarities to the other large plantations which utilized the task system. The examination of the task system can be seen as problematic as the early examinations completed by white researchers maintain racist prejudices and the lack of primary sources from the enslaved perspective. The task system gave enslaved laborers agency within the plantation setting and even the American economy, of course within the violent and coercive reality of American slavery. In the instance of this research, similar issues arise. Very few accounts from the formerly enslaved specifically discussing the task system within Somerset Place, exist and much of this examination still relies on the plantation accounts and personal correspondence between white enslavers.  CHAPTER FOUR: THE TASK SYSTEM OF MARITIME INDUSTRY, 1786-1829 Josiah Collins I immigrated from England to the colony of Rhode Island in 1773 but the economic prospects of Edenton led him to move his family to Edenton, North Carolina in 1777. Upon his arrival in Edenton, Josiah Collins I established himself in the regional maritime industry including shipping and vessel outfitting. Collins was the senior partner in a shipping business called Collins, Stewart, & Muir. Business records (Josiah Collins Papers 1966) from 1782 through 1785 indicate that Collins, Stewart, & Muir owned or rented and regularly operated at least nine different vessels. The vessels included sloops, schooners, brigs, and ship-rigged vessels and transferred rice, sugar, tobacco, and corn between Edenton and ports along the Atlantic coast including Philadelphia, Charleston, and Jamaica. This company provided access to many vessels, including ships and schooners with shipping services primarily between the United States and the West Indies. In some instances, schooners and brigs like Alliance would later transport supplies along the canals to Lake Phelps (Tarlton 1954:2-5).   Collins, Stewart, & Muir recorded the expense of vessel care and maintenance. For instance, in May 1783, the company purchased tar, pitch, and pump tacks for repairs to the schooner Dolphin. In July and August of the same year, the company purchased nails, oil, and cordage from the old ropewalk for another brig, Alarm. The Collins, Stewart, & Muir company brought maritime revenue to Edenton and provided the vessels which harbored in Edenton’s waters. In the same year, Josiah Collins purchased the Edenton Ropewalk from the Joseph Hewes Estate further contributing to the maritime industry of Edenton (Collins 1783). In 1784, Nathaniel Allen and Samuel Dickinson and other individuals from Halifax and Edenton received authorization from the General Assembly to conduct a project to drain Lake Phelps and establish substantial agriculture on the land. The group was given a period of seven 42 years to develop the land tax-free but after a survey of the land, the members decided a rice plantation which maintained and utilized the water in the Lake would be more beneficial and economical than completely draining the Lake. Within a few years, Josiah Collins joined the partnership to formerly create the Lake Company (Tarlton 1954:2-7). The Lake Company made multiple purchases of private and unsettled land to total nearly 109,978 acres for their agricultural project. In order to cut irrigation canals to create a plantation capable of yielding rice, the Lake Company needed a large amount of cheap labor. The task of canal cutting was dangerous and intensive, particularly in an unsettled piece of land. Given this reasoning, the Lake Company partners did not have the financial benefit of hiring out the enslaved laborers of neighboring farms and plantations. Additionally, northeastern North Carolina did not contain large numbers of concentrated enslaved people at this time, leaving the collection of a large cheap labor force more complicated (Tarlton 1954:7-14; Cecelski 2001:112- 114).  Unlike southeastern North Carolina in cities such as Wilmington, the port of Edenton was not easily accessible and thus, larger vessels which carried enslaved people did not easily navigate the shoals of the Outer Banks. Not many records remain to provide extensive analysis of the North Carolinian seaborn slave trade however, a few ports, like Brunswick and Roanoke took records that give glimpses into the number of enslaved individuals arriving through these ports. In the early eighteenth century, most of the seaborne enslaved imports arrived from surrounding American colonies or the West Indies. Minchinton writes that Edenton received a total of 203 enslaved individuals divided in eighteen vessels from Antigua and Jamaica (Minchinton 1994:9- 10; Cecelski 2001:105).   43 Still, the interest in enslaved Africans directly from Africa began to increase in frequency in North Carolina toward the end of the eighteenth century. A schooner delivered a shipment of enslaved Africans to New Bern in 1774. While it is likely that the ports did not consistently record enslaved importations, the state of North Carolina received a total of 993 enslaved individuals on 122 vessels through the seaborn slave trade between the years of 1784 to 1790 and The Port of Roanoke, which fed to Edenton, received 323 individuals on 9 vessels in the period. Specifically, port records indicate that 231 enslaved individuals on three vessels were transported to Edenton from Africa, with at least 161 of those headed to provide labor for the Lake Company (Minchinton 1994:10-16).   In the eighteenth century, many of the enslaved people who were shipped to North Carolina primarily traveled through land routes through Virginia and South Carolina. In the following decades, the number of black people, either enslaved or free increased however, very few maritime imports of enslaved people accounted for the increase. Still, North Carolina port records indicate less enslaved cargo than what was advertised in contemporary newspapers. By 1780, North Carolina contained around 91,000 enslaved black inhabitants, a 30.7% increase from 1770 and 25.2% of the total population (Parker 1993:6-7).   The majority of families in North Carolina did not lay claim to enslaved people. By 1790, 31 percent of white families in North Carolina legally owned enslaved people leaving a majority of enslaved people gathered in larger coastal or near-coastal cities including, Halifax, Edenton, Newbern, and Wilmington. According to the North Carolina 1790 census (Chowan County Census 1790), only thirteen white families claimed between 100 and 299 enslaved people. By 1800, enslaved people numbered 21,632 and accounted for 38% of the city’s total population (Parker 1993:11-14).   44 The Lake Company Circa 1784, Collins entered into an agreement with a contact from Collins, Stewart, & Muir, named Richard Grinnell, to acquire and transport enslaved individuals directly from Africa to North Carolina. In 1786, Camden entered the port in Edenton with a cargo of 80 enslaved Africans. Camden brought another shipment of enslaved Africans in March of 1787 with 70 enslaved individuals. Just a few months later, in June of 1787, Jennett brought another 81 enslaved laborers presumably because the shipment did not reach its desired location. In total, 231 Africans were enslaved and brought to Edenton to create a functioning rice field for the Lake Company. The Lake Company’s payment for Camden’s travel to Africa and back is seen in Figure 4  (Tarlton 1954:6-7; Redford and D'Orso1988:90; Michinton 1994:17).   The enslaved laborers brought to Edenton on Camden were described as between the ages of 20 and 25 with very black skin. The origin of these particular enslaved people would have aligned with common European and American expectations and generalizations to create an ideal labor force for the extreme conditions of canal building at a proposed rice plantation. West Africans established a highly successful cultivation of rice in the 1500s. As cultivation expanded and transatlantic trade grew, enslavers began to frequently visit the popular and successful rice production areas and transport enslaved laborers to the Americas under the assumption that the knowledge of the crop and familiarity of the production process made African laborers the most qualified to do the manual labor in rice fields (Redford and D'Orso1988:59; Littlefield 1981:8- 32). North Carolina and Virginia contain several natural lakes surrounded by swampland and forested wetlands which provided travel, trade, and agricultural potential. Canal-building projects contributed to each of those activities and thus, was not an uncommon undertaking at the 45 FIGURE 4. Entry from the Lake Company Books of payment for enslaved Africans from Camden March 12th, 1787. From the Anne S. Graham Collection. 46 turn of the 19th century. Canal systems were crucial to the development of maritime commerce in the area. Larger canals connected ports and served as avenues for larger trade vessels while smaller canals allowed for swamp draining, producing water power, rice cultivation, and local waterways. However, the realities of canal cutting proved difficult and dangerous (Cecelski 2001:105-106).  Just north of Elizabeth City, the Great Dismal Swamp canal system, the largest canal constructed before the Civil War, connected Chesapeake Bay to the Albemarle Sound. Moses Grandy experienced the labor of canal cutting in the Great Dismal Swamp and recounted the experience of the canal labor, “The labor there is very severe. The ground is often very boggy; the negroes are up to the middle, or much deeper, in the mud; if they can keep their heads above water, they work on. They lodge in huts, or, as they are called, camps, made of shingles or boards. They lie down in the mud which has adhered to them, making a great fire to dry themselves, and keep off the cold...” (Grandy 1844:22). In the first comprehensive study of slavery in North Carolina, John Spencer Bassett records the severe conditions of Lake Company’s enslaved laborers cutting the canals as told by an unnamed “intelligent gentleman” who spent tine at Somerset Place, “When they were disabled they would be left by the bank of the canal, and the next morning the returning gang would find them dead” (Bassett 1899:93). The first maritime task assigned to the Lake Company’s enslaved community altered the landscape of Lake Phelps’s northern shore and the formation of maritime paths between the Lake and Albemarle Sound. Modification of the lands for rice production brought more problems for neighboring plantations. The survey initially taken to draw boundaries along the land for the Lake Company was deemed unfair by people who sold their land to the Company, bringing a multitude of official complaints in the following years. Charles Pettigrew wrote that he received 47 the lower quality of his land while the Lake Company had acquired his profitable land. Pettigrew also claims that the boundaries drawn by the Lake Company caused his land to flood because the amount of water moved by the mills along the canal made Lake Phelps rise too high and flood the shoreline ruining Pettigrew’s crops without a draining ditch (Pettigrew in Lemmon 1971[1]:179-182).  Additionally, draining pocosins and swampland permitted a higher likelihood for destructive wildfires. In the absence of wetlands, the soil served as more of a fire starter rather than a way to keep the fire at bay. In a letter from Lake Company partner, Nathaniel Allen to Charles Pettigrew dated April 25, 1791, Allen describes a wildfire that started south of Lake Phelps and quickly spread northward only to be extinguished by rain before it could cause damage to the Lake Phelps planation (Allen in Lemmon 1971[1]:98-100; Cecelski 2001:108- 109).    The enslaved Africans were purchased for the sole purpose of canal building and suffered significant but documented losses due to the severity and reality of enslavement. Additionally, as the Lake Company pursued a working rice plantation, the Company allocated funds to hire out and purchased enslaved and freed black laborers to complete the more specialized skills needed at the Lake Company lands. From 1787 to 1789, the Lake Company hired out enslaved or freed black laborers to travel to the canal. Most of the entries for hire do not detail the assigned tasks, however, a few individuals were hired consistently with the hire of smaller vessels to pilot and/or accompany those vessels (Anne S. Graham Collection 1972).   Hiring enslaved people proved more economically beneficial for farmers and plantations owners. Enslaved labor, even while temporary, was less expensive than hiring free white labor. According to Darlene M. Perry’s (2004:7, 91) thesis hiring skilled enslaved laborers allowed 48 opportunities for white landowners to move up in social status. Traditionally, the hiring period of an enslaved individual lasted for around a year while the Lake Company did hire a small number of enslaved laborers for a longer period, the partners’ typically contracted laborers for only a few days at the Lake. This could be explained by the presence of several freed skilled black laborers in the Edenton area who hired out themselves and their family members or the simple movement of enslaved property belonging to the Lake Company partners. Regardless of the reason for the significantly shorter hire periods, the enslaved community members which supplied the labor on the Lake Company’s land participated in an elevated level of movement between properties.  The Lake Company hired enslaved and freed black men, and on occasion, women with specialized skills to conduct specific tasks at the Lake Company’s land. On July 27, 1787, the Lake company partners “paid Negro Will for 3 days hire going over [to Lake]” (Collins, Allen, and Dickinson 1787). Additionally, Josiah Collins paid “a Black for 400 needles” on October 2, 1787. The Lake Company members also hired out their personal enslaved property to conduct work at Lake Phelps. On October 26, 1787, the Lake Company paid Josiah Collins for “7 days hire Bricklayer Welcom at the Lake” (Collins, Allen, and Dickinson 1787). Another example was to Samuel Dickinson for “General Expenses for 33 days hire negro [Jack] (shoemaker)” on April 1, 1790 (Collins, Allen, and Dickinson 1790). Additionally, in a letter dated January 8th, 1789, from Josiah Collins II to John Gray Blount, Collins mentions the hire of “Dick the Pilot” for a one-year period (Collins in Blount 1952:453).  While most of the consistent hires for the Lake Company did not necessarily name the enslaved individual, particularly if there was more than one person being hired, a few individuals were named. While the Lake Company records