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Pender County Born of Reconstruction Politics

Bernhard Thuersam, Director

Cape Fear Historical Institute

Cape Fear Historical Institute Papers

 

The Creation of Pender County, 1875

Current-day Pender county was created out of the northern two-thirds of New Hanover county in 1875, the result of continued political unrest between conservative North Carolinians and the postwar Republican carpetbag regime in the lower Cape Fear region.

After the Conservatives (later Democrats) won control of the

North Carolina General Assembly (from northern Republicans) in 1870, they could not completely return the State to full local control as the Republicans still held the national government; and they retained judicial and executive dominance along with strong representation in the State legislature.

Realizing that the majority black vote ensured continued Republican control and corruption in the Cape Fear region, the Conservatives determined that reducing New Hanover County’s representation in the legislature was a better strategy. They hoped to control Pender County and its legislative delegation once the blacks, mostly sharecroppers, were separated from the domineering Republican organization in Wilmington.

Also, the Franklin Township of northern New Hanover (now Pender) had a large population of freedmen after the war and "most of these had been organized into the Republican Party by the Yankee carpetbaggers, and were threatening control of New Hanover" (Bizzell). A portion of this area was ceded to Sampson County in 1870 to address this, and the rest of the township was given to Sampson County in 1872 thus establishing the current County boundary. As Sampson County had a small former-slave population and little radical Republican influence, the addition of Franklin seemed a good move for New Hanover County conservatives.  In Oscar Bizzell's "Heritage of Sampson County," the author states that "Dr. Cornelius Tate Murphy (1827-1881) of Taylors Bridge Township and Clinton (who) represented Sampson in the State Senate during 1870-1872, and was probably instrumental in engineering this deal."

On a State level, Conservatives ended Republican excesses and solved the staggering problem of State finances by repudiating most of the state debt of $30,000,000, about $13,000,000 of which consisted of the special tax railroad bonds issued in 1868-1869 during the Republican regime, most of which had been wasted and all of which were generally regarded as fraudulent, unconstitutional, and worthy of repudiation.

Northern Republicans who held power by virtue of the already mentioned majority black population ruled Wilmington and New Hanover County, since the overthrow of local government in February 1865. Though the white population was in the majority before the war, the black refugees who followed Northern armies for food, clothing and medical care since their plantations had been devastated ended up in Wilmington. The Freedmen’s Bureau drew blacks here as well, and Wilmington emerged from the war a majority black city by virtue of this influx. The city population in 1870 was composed of 5526 white, and 7920 black residents; by 1880, it totaled 8159 white and 13,217 (61%) black with a racially-polarized political environment. The white citizens comprised the vast majority of property holders, yet had little representation as the black residents voted solidly for northern-Republican office holders, and rule.

HISTORY OF PENDER COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA
MATTIE BLOODWORTH -1947    

The Reconstruction Period
"After Congress passed the Reconstruction Act, which was one of

the most drastic and tragic ever recorded in the history of this country, crime and riotous living spread its dark pall over this quiet peaceful land. Wilmington the County Seat was crowded with

carpet-baggers, scalawags, and Negroes. Negro constables, Negro deputy sheriffs, Negro health officers and for many years a Negro served as Register of Deeds; also a Negro represented New Hanover in the Legislature. These Negroes and scalawags owned no property and were not interested in much of anything beyond the idea of exploiting the white property owners. The Negroes were very

ignorant and strongly prejudiced against their former masters, and

in no way qualified to take part in government affairs. The so-called scalawag and carpet-bagger occupied the important positions with

the Negroes in the minor places. The white man was, so to speak, disfranchised, and the former leading families were in many

instances practically bankrupt, the great plantations lay idle, neglected, and everything and all business was demoralized.

Poverty stalked the land and New Hanover County, which then comprised the present Pender, found life almost intolerable.

This condition existed until 1898, when a revolution changed the whole aspect and the Reconstructioners faded into discard where

they have since remained, a negligible element. Under such

conditions the Democratic Party inevitably became the party

of “White Supremacy,” the party of decency in government

and honesty in affairs.

To secure control of the County and State government and to regenerate it, became the consuming passion of the Democratic Party.
In those days it was impossible to elect a decent white man—a Democrat—to the Legislature, either from New Hanover or from this section. The thousand voting Negroes in the city of Wilmington piled upa majority so large that it could hardly be overcome by any

artifice, and so when the County of Pender had been created, the politicians were solely disappointed, for Alfred L. Lloyd, a noted Negro, was promptly sent to the Legislature from the new County of Pender. His majority was a slight one and was soon overcome, and Pender County shortly after became a reliable “White County.”

Since that time Pender has been constant in its loyalty to the Democratic Party, to decency in government, and to honesty

in public affairs.
While this great War Between the States, with its terrible slaughter of life, inflicted a severe blow to this section, Pender has emerged from this period slowly, but substantially, and is fast becoming one of North Carolina's greatest farming sections."

A New County Is Formed:

A bill that would form a new county from the northern two-thirds of New Hanover was introduced in the North Carolina Legislature in January 1875 by John D. Stanford, a Democratic senator from Duplin County. Comprising almost all of New Hanover’s agricultural population, the new county would reduce the former to little more than Wilmington proper “plus an almost uninhabited peninsula.”

“Stanford introduced the bill because the “petitioners had no representative of their political faith on the Senate floor.” According to Stanford the petitioners desired “to be free from Radical rule and corruption which had…impoverished the county of New Hanover.” They “wanted to be cut loose from the Radical ring of Wilmington.” Even though the Republicans would have a slight majority in the proposed new county, they opposed its creation.” (McDuffie, Politics in Wilmington and New Hanover County, 1865-1900)

The new county commissioners of Pender were directed by the North Carolina Legislature to convene their first official meeting at Rocky Point, with the county seat being at the town of Cowan, but an act of 1877 directed that it should be named “Stanford” after the bill’s sponsor. Burgaw was chosen and an act of the General Assembly in 1879 changed the name ”Stanford” to Burgaw and incorporated the town as the county seat. Burgaw appears on maps as early as 1861, and is named for Burgaw Creek, which appears on the Collett map of 1770. Also, a Burgaw Plantation in the vicinity appears in records of 1764. The county was named in honor of Edgecombe County native and Confederate General William Dorsey Pender (1834-1863), killed in action at the battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.

About the Author

Bernhard Thuersam is the Executive Director of the Cape Fear Historical Institute in Wilmington. A native of Niagara Falls, New York, he has been a devoted student of world history since 1958 and

is the former Chairman of the Cape Fear Museum Board of Trustees.

Contact him at bernhard1848@att.net

 

Sources:
The Formation of the North Carolina Counties, 1663-1943,

D. L. Corbitt, NC Dept. of Archives & History, 1950

North Carolina Gazetteer, William S. Powell
UNC Press, 1980

Wilmington and New Hanover County Politics, 1865-1900,

Jerome McDuffie, Kent State University, 1979

The Heritage of Sampson County, North Carolina, 1784-1984

Oscar M. Bizzell, Editor, SCHS, 1983