Comments on: Southerners Against Slavery: Wesleyan Methodists in Montgomery County, North Carolina

By: renegadesouth

renegadesouth — Thu, 30 May 2013 14:39:20 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Steve! I have long been struck by how few people of these pro-Union regions of the South know their own history–even some who are directly descended from Unionists! Yes, there were plenty who supported the Confederacy in such regions, that’s why so many “inner civil wars” were fought. But support for the Union, and opposition to secession, was quite strong. For many southern unionists, the issues were constitutional and economic, but among the Wesleyans, Unionism was based largely on a hatred of slavery. Of course, if one doesn’t believe that secession was an effort to preserve slavery (a common myth that lives on) as well as an effort to maintain southern autonomy, one isn’t likely to take seriously the Wesleyans opposition to secession as a principled position. The transcripts from this particular inner war make clear, however, that pro-Confederate citizens of Montgomery County knew very well that protection of slavery was central to secession.

Vikki

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 30 May 2013 13:04:04 +0000

I appreciate your work. I was raised in the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist movement in Tennessee (a missionary conference of the Allegheny). The conference has long been defunct, and its churches part of various other denominations now. None of the Tennessee leadership I knew had any knowledge of this history, because most of them are rabid rebel sympathizers to this very day. Most of them don’t know their ancestors were “deserters” from the Southern cause and served in the Union Army either. East Tennessee was a waste land during and after the war. From Bristol to Chattanooga, a person couldn’t travel a few miles without seeing farms burned to the ground from partisan violence perpetrated by both sides. In fact, for a long time after the war the region called the Civil War time period, “The Time of the Bushwhackers.” So strong is our affinity for fiction over facts.

By: Christopher Graham

Christopher Graham — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 23:48:02 +0000

Gary,

Thanks so much for the detail. I’ll need to correct some of my work!

By: renegadesouth

renegadesouth — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 23:37:50 +0000

Thank you, Gary! I’m going to alert Chris to your post to make certain he sees it.

Vikki

By: Gary B. Sanders

Gary B. Sanders — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 20:52:30 +0000

I have some additional information regarding Chris Graham’s inquiry about the Benjamin Sanders who was active in the anti-slavery movement. As Vikki pointed out, there were so many Sanders in Randolph/Montgomery that it is difficult to keep track of them, and this Benjamin is one whose ancestry and history is particularly vague.

The B.L. Sanders, constable, on the 1850 census is actually Britton (called “Britt”) L. Sanders. He also worked as a gunsmith and owned a grist mill. His parents are not known with certainty but he was probably a first cousin to Aaron H. Sanders, the sheriff. So far as I know, Britton Sanders was not actively anti-slavery.

The Benjamin Sanders who was a subscriber to the Montgomery Bible Society is probably the same Benjamin Sanders who married Jane “Jinney” Clark in 1803 in Randolph County. Jinney was the daughter of Captain William Clark, a Revolutionary War patriot, who became a Quaker after the war and joined the Back Creek Monthly Meeting in Randolph County. William Clark and Alexander Gray, who witnessed the 1803 wedding, were active in the Manumission Society. Benjamin Sanders attended a meeting of the Manumission Society in March 1827 and this is the last unambiguous reference I have seen of him in Randolph or Montgomery counties. The parents of Benjamin who married Jinney Clark are uncertain. Genealogical researchers often confuse him with the other Benjamin in Randolph (my great great-grandfather).

By: renegadesouth

renegadesouth — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:46:46 +0000

Dear Joe Thompson,

Thanks so much for commenting on this post! There is nothing more interesting (or valuable) than when people tell the stories passed down to them by those who lived through the times.

In regard to the murder of the Hulin brothers, you are right that it was not the work of “vigilantes;” As you point out, the killers were Home Guard soldiers assigned to guard the region. The Hulin brothers’ father, Hiram Hulin, described them as “murderers who were home-guard troops.” He described one Henry Plott as the “officer in command.” I’ve accordingly corrected my careless use of “vigilante.”

Like you, Hiram Hulin was critical of the manner in which the murders were committed, and believed the home guard soldiers should all be charged with murder. In his letter to President Andrew Johnson, he wrote that “while on their way to the pretended prison they deliberately shot and beat to death with guns and rocks my three sons and Atkins while tied with their hands and handcuffed together.”

I love your descriptions of the Saunders family conflicts; they make me want to go back to my court records and see what I might find!

Vikki

By: Joe Thompson

Joe Thompson — Tue, 08 May 2012 00:31:52 +0000

I am a native of Montgomery County. I grew up next to the William H Hurley, Jr. home place. Two of my great great great grandfathers lived next to William Hurley. I was a member of Love Joy Methodist Church until I moved away after college. I think the reference to a vigilante mob murdering the Hulin boys is a little strong. You may have better information than I have which is the story handed down through the years. The sheriff who was responsible for the capture, trial and execution of the three, was a Colonel in the Montgomery County Home Guard and had some military authority to deal with deserters. I don’t think he acted properly because he would not let Caroline Moore Hulin visit her husband the night before he was executed at Dark Mountain. The men were kept at the Bean Mill on Barnes Creek. My father owned the property when I was growing up and my sister owns it now. Aaron had a brother, Pleasant Calvin Saunders, who was a Justice of the Peace and I think and others in the community think, was a crook. My grandfather Timothy Ragsdale died in Virginia during the war and the family never knew what happened to him. My great aunt, who was born before 1900 told me no one knew what happened to him. Some thought he may have gone west. I found some civil war records in the 1970′s that showed him dying at Richmond. My cousin, two years ago, found some military records showing the PC Saunders going to Richmond, claimed to be the adminstrator of Timothy/s estate and getting $212. I check the Montgomery County Courthouse records and he was never appointed administrator. He never told anyone in the family that my grandfather had died, apparently. Records show that his son was in the same company so I think that is how he knew Timothy had died and had died with a considerable amount of money. Perhaps PC Saunders was the j p that had the crowd that attacked preacher Crook.

When Aaron Saunders was on his death bed, David Dennis, a cousin of mine, had a great aunt that looked after him. He called her into the room the day he died and told her to “get those three men out of my room”. She told him there was no one there and asked who he was talking about. He said that it was the tree boys he shot during the war and that they had come to get him. He raised up in bed and fell back dead.

By: renegadesouth

renegadesouth — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:49:09 +0000

Carter, I have a several deadlines and appointments to keep today, but by tomorrow I should be able to personally contact you.

How nice that you have discovered more about your family’s history. The Hulins have a fascinating, though tragic, story that is of great historical as well as personal significance.

Vikki Bynum

By: Carter Malloy (@CHMalloy)

Carter Malloy (@CHMalloy) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:35:26 +0000

Vikki,
I have recently started researching my family geneaology and came across your articles here. I would love to talk to you more in private. The slain Jessie Hulin was my grt grt grt grandfather and this was the first picture I had ever seen of my grt grt grt grandmother Caroline. If you would like to talk more, please email me at cmalloy44@gmail.com.

By: renegadesouth

renegadesouth — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:17:34 +0000

Thank you! And thanks for visiting Renegade South.

Vikki