Beschreibung:

Small archive of material relating to the Lowry Gang, a group of free men and women of color who resisted the Confederate Home Guard in Robeson County, NC. and became hunted outlaws.
Robeson County: 1864-1872. Together, 8 documents, as follows: 1) Partly-printed document signed by the solicitor for the State, a decision of the Superior Court of Law, attesting that “Seely Dial, Allen Lowrie, Martha Lowrie (free negroes)” did on the 10 November 1863 “with force and arms” steal “eight sides of leather of the value of one dollar each, one set of carpenter tools comprising chisels, files, rasps, brace and bracebits, gimblets, squares and trisquares, augers, compasses [etc]” from Dugald McDugald. Robeson County: Fall term, 1864. 2) Partly-printed document signed by Hugh Regan C.S.C., a warrant for the arrest of Henry B. Lowery, “upon a bill of indictment found against him for murder.” With the word “Confederate” crossed out and “United” added. Robeson County: 2 April 1868. 3) Partly-printed document signed by a county clerk, a warrant for the arrest of Henry Berry Lowry for murder. Robeson County: 21 May 1869. 4) Manuscript legal document, a motion for change of venue filed by the prosecution in the murder trial of Thomas Brady, who was accused of killing Stephen Locklier, a member of “a band of outlaws, known as the ‘Lowerie Outlaws.’” Robeson County: 4 March 1872. 5-8) Four partly-printed documents each signed by the Robeson County clerk, receipts for payment for services as witnesses in the aforementioned murder trial of Thomas Brady, issued to Mary Locklear, Charlotte Locklear, James McMillan and Peter Dial. Robeson County: 28 February-4 March 1872. The first item in this archive, printed on Confederate necessity paper, is particularly intriguing, as it appears to provide evidence on the origins of the dispute which began the “Lowry War.” During the war, Henry B. Lowry led a group of free blacks in Robeson County who refused to abide the Home Guard’s orders to help construct fortifications. In response, many of these men were accused of theivery (of which the first item in this archive gives direct evidence) and of harboring escaped Union soldiers. After Berry’s apparent murder of two men in late December 1864, the details of which are unclear, the County arrested his father and brother on various charges and prompty executed both. This set off a decade long guerilla war and members of the Lowry Gang became outlaws. Henry B. Lowry disappeared in 1872.