Black Woodworkers of the 18th and 19th Centuries
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Otho: Otho was an emancipated slave who came to Bradford County, Pennsylvania with his former master, Ezra Goddard, in 1799. A turner by trade, he became a valuable member of the community, providing a variety of household goods.
Outlaw, Wyatt (c1820-1870): Wyatt Outlaw was born in North Carolina, the offspring of Chesley Farrar Faucett, a wealthy White man, and an enslaved woman. At some point Faucett gave or sold him to his neighbors, George and Nancy Outlaw. The 1860 census lists Nancy Outlaw, by then a widow, as owning a 40-year-old slave of mixed ancestry, who was described in various records as a mechanic [craftsman], cabinetmaker, and carriage maker. The 1870 census included Wyatt Outlaw by name, listing him as a 50-year-old “mulatto cabinet maker.” Oral tradition holds that the mantles, newel post, stairway, and front door of Nancy Outlaw's home were all made by Thomas Day (see entry) around the time Wyatt was fifteen years old, leading to the speculation he may have learned the craft from Day himself.
By 1863, Outlaw had either been freed or escaped, as he travelled to the Union-held area of North Carolina and joined the Second Regiment of the United States Colored Troops. He fought in Virginia and Texas before being discharged in early 1866. He returned to Alamance County and opened a woodworking business in his home on Graham’s North Main Street, where he made coffins for paupers and repaired wagons. Later that year he attended a convention of the Equal RIghts League, and was elected to the convention's board. He later organized the Alamance County Loyal Republican League, became the first Black commissioner of Graham, North Carolina, and became a constable. In that latter role, he was one of three [Black] lawmen who fired on a group of hooded KKK members.
On Feb. 26, 1870, Outlaw was taken from his home and lynched by members of the Ku Klux Klan in front of the Alamance County courthouse. Forty-four years later, a Confederate memorial, which still stands today, was erected on the spot where Outlaw was murdered. At the ceremony, Jacob Long, a White lawmaker, praised “the achievements of the great and good of our own race and blood.”
After the lynching, eighteen Klan members were arrested but never convicted of the crime. During the trial, one Klansman testified, “Outlaw was hung because he was a politician,” who, “had been a leader of the Negroes.”
For attempting to bring the criminals to justice, and declaring martial law after the assassination of State Senator John W. Stephens by the KKK, Governor William Woods Holden was impeached.
Overton, William: William Overton was a free Black wheelwright and Civil War veteran. In August 1867, Augusta Finck, a German woman and the wife of a grocer Overton roomed with, ran away with him to New York. They got as far as Wilmington, North Carolina before being captured and returned to Charleston for trial.
Patton, George (1825-1896) and John (died 1890): The Patton brothers were chairmakers who operated in Williamson County, Tennessee.
Photo courtesy of Richard Warwick
Pompey: Among the enslaved craftsmen who worked on the Pinckhey Mansion in Charleston, South Carolina was a carpenter named Pompey, who was apprenticed to John “Quash” Williams (see entry). Originally enslaved by British Army Officer George Lucas, Eliza Lucas Pinckney’s father, Pompey later became the property of Charles Pinckney and Eliza Lucas Pinckney through their 1744 marriage settlement. Described as “Pompey the Carpenter” in various documents, he worked on a number of Lucas and Pinckney family plantations. Of interest is a 1745 letter, from overseer, William Murray, to Charles Pinckney, in which he reports that, “Pompey has been very bad twise [sic] with the Plursey & I could not get the New barn finished.”
Poyas, Peter (died 1822): Peter Poyas, an slave and co-conspirator of Denmark Vesey (see entry) in the Charleston slave rebellion, was "a first class ship's carpenter."
Poyner, Richard (1802-1882), James (1833-1893), and William : Born enslaved in Halifax County, Virginia, Richard (Dick) Poyner emigrated to Williamson County, Tennessee with his slaveholder, Robert Poyner, in 1816. He probably learned chairmaking from Robert as his estate inventory included chairmaking tools, many of which were bequeathed to Richard after Robert's passing in 1848. Willed to Robert's son, Dr. AB. Poyner, it appears Richard gained his freedom shortly afterward, though there is no historic evidence to indicate such. In September of 1849 he advertised that his chairs were being sold through the store of William Park in Franklin, Tennessee, and by 1860 he was operating his chairmaking business on a 75 acre farm he owned in the western part of the county. He taught the craft to his son, James, who in turn instructed his son, William. All told, they made hundreds of chairs with maple posts and hickory rungs. The business extended into the 1920s.
Photo of chairs courtesy of Richard Warwick
Advertisement from the Western Weekly Review, 21 Sept. 1849
Pritchard, “Gullah” Jack (died July 1822): "Gullah" Jack Pritchard was an enslaved ship's joiner and caulker who was born in East Africa. His position provided some small freedoms, and he often hired himself out. He was seen by local Whites as nothing more than an “industrious little man with large black whiskers," but to the Blacks he was an, "African priest of great power and magic," who possessed a bag of conjuring implements. His spiritual authority was firmly rooted in those tools and ceremonies of divination, healing, and supernatural control. Few Blacks doubted his ability to heal or control people and events.
A friend of the self-emancipated Black carpenter, Denmark Vesey (see entry), they were allies in the fight against slavery, and worked together to plan an insurrection. Despite careful planning, Vesey and Pritchard were betrayed by some Black informers, rounded up, and put on trial without legal representation. He was portrayed as a bloodthirsty master of black arts and sentenced to death, with the court noting, "...you were not satisfied with resorting to natural and ordinary means, but endeavored to enlist on your behalf, all the powers of darkness, and employed for that purpose the most disgusting mummery and superstition. You represented yourself as invulnerable …. Your boasted charms have not protected yourself …. Your alters [sic] and your Gods have sunk together in the dust.” On July 12, 1882 he was taken out of the central city and hung.
Quamina: In the early 19th Century, John Fisher of Charleston, South Carolina advertised for the return of his 17 year old slave, Quamina, who "ran away from his duties as carver and chair maker." According to Fisher, Quamina often stated he could "go when he pleases" and was "known in and about Charlestown [sic] by his impudent behavior."
Raymond, John: John Raymond was a free black cabinetmaker who operated a shop in Petersburg, Virginia around 1816 in partnership with John Ventus. Raymond & Ventus employed several white artisans and proudly advertised they worked "in the best and most fashionable style."
Richmond, Asa: Originally an enslaved cabinetmaker, Asa Richmond operated a small furniture business in conjunction with fellow slave, William Wallace Andrews (see entry).
Richmond, William (1763-1829): William Richmond was enslaved in Cuckold's Town (now Richmondtown), Staten Island, New York. He was owned by Lord Percy, Duke of Northumberland and commanding general of British forces in New York during the Revolutionary War. Richmond worked as a hangman for Percy, his most famous execution being that of Nathan Hale. Richmond was 13 years old at the time and responsible for "fastening the rope to a strong tree branch and securing the knot and noose." In 1777 he was taken to England and apprenticed to a cabinetmaker. After getting into a fight with a soldier, Richmond was prompted to take up boxing and ultimately gave up cabinetmaking to fight professionally. Known as The Black Terror, Richmond won many fights. His most famous bout took place on 8 October 1805 when he fought Tom Cribb. Richmond lost in the 60th round and newspapers reported, "the crowd was pleased that a black man had been put in his place." After retiring from boxing, Richmond married, bought a pub, and operated a boxing academy. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999.
Image in the Public Domain
Robin: The 1 August 1766 edition of the Virginia Gazette contains an ad stating, "Run away from the subscriber, on the 7th of July... a Mulatto man slave named Robin, about 5 feet and a half high, well fed, bow legged, has several noted scars on his feet and legs... when he walks or works his foot it draws as if the leaders were cut... his back has been well whipped, and is a carpenter and cooper by trade."
Rousseau, Jean: Jean Rousseau was free Black (homme de coulieur libres) cabinetmaker who operated a business in New Orleans between 1810 and 1837. During that time he had at least twenty five free blacks apprenticed to him including Dutreuil Barjon Sr. (see entry).
Scott, Allen: Allen Scott was a free Black cabinetmaker who lived in the Bridgewater Community of McDowell County, North Carolina and worked in the shop of Joseph Hunter between 1828 and 1850. The descendants of Joseph Hunter own a number of Allen's pieces including this small table that was featured in the Journal of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers.
Photo courtesy of James Conley
Sheridan, Thomas (c1787-1864): Thomas Sheridan was described as an "emancipated mulatto" carpenter who worked in Bladen County, North Carolina. There is some evidence he was the offspring of a planter/merchant named Joseph Gautier and an enslaved woman named Nancy Sheridan, though there is no definitive proof of such. What is certain is that Gautier petitioned the State Legislature for approval to manumit Thomas and his brother Louis, and that Nancy (then free) and her two sons were major beneficiaries in Gautier's will.
Sheridan is primarily remembered as the builder of Brown Marsh Presbyterian Church. That structure is one of the few remaining examples of a simple frame church from the period. In his will, he left his farm, livestock, and household goods to his wife, specified that his gun and tools be sold to pay for his funeral, and the lumber in his shop be used "to make my coffin."
Photo by J.J. Prats, HMdb.org (used with permission)
Sherman, William (died c1851): William Sherman was an enslaved cabinetmaker and blacksmith who lived around Robertsville, South Carolina. Highly skilled, he negotiated his freedom for $1800, which he paid for after the fact by hiring himself out to wealthy plantation owners. With skills that were highly in demand, he worked toward the goal of purchasing freedom for his slave wife and son. Sadly, he died before saving enough to do so.
Singleton, Benjamin (1809-1892): Sometimes referred to as "The Black Moses" Benjamin "Pap" Singleton was born enslaved in Nashville, Tennessee. A trained cabinetmaker and carpenter, he made three unsuccessful escape attempts before he finally managed to make his way to Detroit via the Underground Railroad, and then on to Ontario, Canada. He later returned to Detroit and kept a secret boarding-house for fugitive slaves. During the Civil War he returned to Nashville, which was then under Union control, and made his living building cabinets and coffins. Believing his mission was to help his people improve their lives, he started an effort to buy farmland for blacks, but failed when whites began demanding excessive prices. He later became a leader of a movement to relocate blacks to Kansas in search of a better life. About 3000 former slaves moved west with plans to create businesses and factories, but the movement failed due to a lack of capital.
Image in the public domain
Smith, Burgunda: Burgunda Smith was a free Black cabinetmaker who worked in the shop of Thomas Day (see entry).
Smith, Hence (probably Henderson): Hence Smith was an enslaved Black cabinetmaker who worked in North Carolina as early as 1840. He may have moved to Eutaw, Greene County, Alabama later in life.
Photo courtesy of Derrick Beard
Somerville, Albert (born c1835): Born in Virginia, Albert Somerville is identified as a 35 year old Black cabinetmaker working in Nashville, Tennessee on the 1870 Federal census.
Southward, John (also Lander, Jack): William Bentley of Salem, Massachusetts noted in his diary entry of 2 November 1815 that upon the death of Peter Green, "we found only one African, Jack Lander, who as a freedman takes the name of John Southward... he served his time at Chairmaking with W. Lander and came from Africa.'
Stephens, George E.: George Stephens was a cabinetmaker, Northern soldier, and correspondent for The Weekly Anglo-African, the nations premier Black newspaper during the 1850s and 60s. His story is told in the book, A Voice of Thunder: The Civil War Letters of George E. Stephens, by Donald Yacovone.
Stephens, John Herbert: John Herbert Stephens was a cabinetmaker and teacher who also served as a deputy sheriff and constable in Little Rock, Arkansas during the period immediately following the Civil War when Black residents could vote and participate in civic affairs. He was married to Charlotte "Lottie" Andrews, daughter of William Wallace Andrews (see entry) and the first African American teacher in Little Rock.
Teasman, John (born 1794): John Teasman is listed as a planemaker in 1835-37 Newark, New Jersey business directories and identified as such on the 1850 census.
Thompson, Scipio: Scipio Thompson was a carpenter and cabinet maker from Wheatville, Texas. On July 5, 1873 he became the first elected black alderman in Austin, Texas.
Ventus, John: John Ventus was a free Black cabinetmaker who operated in Norfolk, Virginia as early as 1801. By 1816 he had relocated to Petersburg, Virginia and worked in partnership with another black cabinetmaker, John Raymond (see entry).
Vesey, Denmark (c1767-1822): Denmark Vesey, who was originally named Telemaque by his captors, was born in West Africa. After spending 20 years as a slave in Charleston, he won $1500 and purchased his freedom in 1800. A skilled artisan, Vesey opened a carpentry shop and became quite prosperous. Although successful, Vesey never forgot the suffering of his people and became extremely active in the antislavery movement. In 1822 he organized over 9000 slaves and free blacks and planned a revolt. Rumors of the plot spread and the city was thrown into panic. Vesey was betrayed and he, along with 46 others, were rounded up and hanged.
Photo by Brenda J. Peart, used granted under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
Washington (born 1837): Washington was an enslaved chair and cabinet maker who was born and worked on the Oak Grove Plantation in Alamance County, North Carolina (now a museum). His chairs exhibit a distinctive feature: crest rails and back slats with a double peak at their upper edge while his case pieces are of the plain-style form common to most plantation-made furniture of the era. His chairs are stylistically similar to those made by the white Way family of the area, indicating that he may have apprenticed with or been influenced by them.
Photos courtesy of The Alamance County Museum
Waterford, Adam: Adam Waterford was a free Black who operated a cooperage in Williamsburg, Virginia around the time of the Revolutionary War. He was succesful enough to have owned a large house not far from the governor's palace.
White, William Jefferson (1832-1913): Born to a White planter and mixed-race slave, William Jefferson White was a cabinetmaker by trade and minister by vocation. Born in Elbert County, Georgia, he was taken to South Carolina as a child and returned to Augusta as an adult. He trained in carpentry at the Goodrich Lumber Company and later worked as a cabinet and coffin maker for the Platt Brothers, a furniture and undertaking firm. He also worked construction and helped build several churches and schools in the area. Light skinned and blue eyed, White could have easily "passed" but chose to live as a Black man. During the 1850s he he organized clandestine schools for slaves and free Blacks, earning him the title of "Father of Negro Education" in the Augusta area. In the days following the Civil War, he became an important figure in the early civil rights movement. He worked hard to forge close associations with the white citizenry, started the Harmony Baptist Church, championed Republican Party causes, and sat on the Board of Trustees for Spelman Seminary. In 1867 he founded the Augusta Institute, which is now Morehouse College.
Photo used under license from The University of Georgia Press
Williams, John [Quash]: John Williams was born to an African mother and White father in South Carolina between 1720 and 1725. Quash was his birth name; he took the name John for himself when he was baptized in 1746. Enslaved by Charles and Eliza Pinckney, he became a skilled carpenter-joiner, having done much of the woodwork and carving on the Pinckney mansion, as well as supervising a crew of enslaved and free white craftsmen. He was so much favored, that the Pinckneys paid him bonuses while still enslaved, and gave him 750 pounds to purchase his freedom in 1750. They also sold him land behind their mansion where he built his own home.
Shortly after emancipation, Williams placed an advertisement in the South Carolina Gazette seeking work. He was quite successful, and with profits earned from his trade, he was able to purchase three of his enslaved children in 1751 for 200 pounds and granted them freedom in 1754. Sadly, he was unable to purchase his wife, Molly and another daughter from the same slaveholder. He continued to thrive and by 1758 had paid off his mortgage. In 1763, he advertised that he was leaving the city. With the finest home in Charleston as his advertisement and over a decade of experience working on his own, he was able to continue his life as successful master carpenter and joiner, and also became a planter, working land along the Santee River.
Wiltshire: The Williamsburg, Virginia Printing Office accounts of 1764 and 1765 identify a slave named Wiltshire working in the cabinetmaking shop of Anthony Hay. He was most certainly not a common laborer, as the 17 January 1771 edition of The Virginia Gazette contains an ad reading, "To be Sold, on Wednesday the 6th of March, pursuant to the last Will and Testament of Mr Anthony Hay, deceased, that noted and well accustomed Tavern in Williamsburg called the Raleigh, which has every Convenience to it, and exceeding fine Stable and Pasture adjoining. At the same Time will be sold... nineteen negroes... among them a very good Cabinet Maker..."
The information on these pages was gleaned from books, periodicals, museums, public records, web sites, historians and collectors. I want to express my sincere gratitude to those who did the original research (see Sources) or were kind enough to allow the use of their photographs.
Contributions to this page are highly encouraged. Please contact me about any information you have on Black woodworkers of the era.
Sources: The Mis-Education of the Negro, Carter G. Woodson; A Guide to the Makers of American Wooden Planes, Emil & Martyl Pollak; Antiques Magazine, May 1997; Alabama Heritage Magazine, Winter 2008; Black World Magazine, May 1974; BlackWebPortal.Com; KnowYourBlackHistory.Com; AARegistry.Com; DestrehanPlantation.Org; African Americans in New Orleans: Making a Living; Ancestry.Com; The Cincinnati Directory of 1842; Digital Library on American Slavery; Wikipedia; RaceMatters.Org; BlackPast.org; The New York Times; City of Austin, TX; Bobby J. Donaldson, Professor of History and African American Studies, University of South Carolina; Michael W. Bell, from an overview of the exhibit, First Rate & Fashionable: Handmade Nineteenth Century Furniture at the Tennessee State Museum; Thomas Day, African American Furniture Maker, Rodney Barfield and Patricia Marshall; Leaders of Afro-American Nashville, Department of History - Tennessee State University; Encyclopedia of African American Business History; AfricaWithin.com.; Charleston Furniture 1700-1825, E. Milby Burton; Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri, Charles van Ravensway; The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, Sir William Crooks; The Arkansas Slave Narratives; The Thomas Jefferson Foundation; Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad, Betty DeRamus; The Topeka Capital Journal; PBS; History of Bradford County 1770-1878; The Insolent Slave, William Wiethoff; Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina, Thomas Holt; "Pap" Singleton, Moses of the Colored Exodus, Walter L. Fleming; The American Slave, a Composite Biography, various contributors; The Florida Slave Narratives; Furniture of Williamsburg and Eastern Virginia, 1710-1790, Wallace Gusler; Eighteenth-Century Cabinet Shops and the Furniture-Making Trades in Newport, Rhode Island, Mack Headley; Simmon's Norfolk Directory for the year 1801; Chipstone.org; The Smithsonian Institution; Kaye Buffalo Whaley; Ethnicity and Race: German Immigrants and African-Americans in Charleston South Carolina during Reconstruction, Jeffery G Strickland; Blacks in British Boxing; The Tennessee Historical Society; Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin; Black Heritage Sites, Nancy C. Curtis; The Collaboration of Thomas Jefferson and John Hemings, Robert L. Self and Susan R. Stein; Windsor-Chair Making in America, Nancy Goyne Evans; The Diary of William Bentley, D.D., Volume 4; Derrick Beard, organizer of the Sankofa exhibit; Richard Warwick, Historian of The Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County, Tennessee; Journal of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers, Volume V; Paternalism in a Southern City, various contributors; Historical Raleigh: Sketches of Wake County and Its Important Towns, Moses N. Amis; African-American Art, Sharon F. Patton; The Hidden Legacy of Enslaved Craftsmen, Daniel Kurt Ackermann (from Antiques & Fine Art magazine); The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser of Charleston, South Carolina; Historical Markers of Hale County, Alabama; The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts, John Michael Vlach; The Tuscaloosa News; Off the Beaten Path: Alabama, Gay N Martin; Black and White All Mix'd Together: The Hidden Legacy of Enslaved Craftsmen, Daniel Kurt Ackermann (from Antiques and Fine Art magazine); Dr. Claude F. Jacobs, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan; Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library; The Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne, edited by Rupert Sargent Holland; Charleston, South Carolina City Directories: 1816, 1819, 1822, 1825 and 1829, James William Hagy; Black Property Owners in the South, 1790-1915, Loren Schweninger; Deed Abstracts of King George County, Virginia , 1735-1752; A Voice of Thunder: The Civil War Letters of George E. Stephens, Donald Yacovone; The Kansas City Star, 18 Feb. 1900; EmilyEVaughn.Com; The Alamance County Museum of Burlington, North Carolina; The Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winter 2005; The Kelton House Museum of Columbus, Ohio; The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture; FrenchQuarter.com; The International Boxing Hall of Fame; ArtsObserver.com; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts; New Orleans Architecture: Faubourg Treme and the Bayou Road, various contributors; John Gough, Free Black Cabinetmaker (Journal of Early Southern Arts, vol. 41), Grahame Long and Gary Albert; By His Hand: A Free Black Cabinetmaker's Sideboard, Jackie Mazzone (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation); Close to the land: The way we lived in North Carolina, 1820-1870, Thomas H Clayton; FindaGrave.com; A Carpenter's Testament: The John Brown Painted Corner Cabinet, Jerome Bias (from The Journal of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers, volume XII; North Carolina Architects & Builders: A Biographical Dictionary (ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu); Stewart Ellison, by Elizabeth Davis Reid, from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, edited by William S. Powell; NCpedia.org; USGenWeb Archives; Crafting Lives: African American Artisans in New Bern, North Carolina 1770-1900, Catherine W. Bishir; John "Quash" Williams: Charleston Builder, Dr. Tiffany Moman (Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts), On His Own Book, The Story of Chairmaker Richard Poyner, by Hunter S. Zyriek-Rhodes (Mortise and Tenon magazine, Issue 11); Thomas Sheridan by Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architects and Builders Biographical Dictionary (ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu); The Historical Marker Database (hmdb.org); Lost Art Press blog; Historic Hillsborough Black History Walk (www.historichillsborough.org/blackhistorywalkingtour); Black Craftspeople Digital Archive; The Captives Quest for Freedom, RJM Blackett; encyclopediavirginia.org; freedmenscemetery.org; blackcraftspeople.org; highland.org; decorativeartsgtrust.org; American Civil War Museum; yesweekley.com; The Zinn Education Project; Gardner Digital Library; Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts (2020); uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com; The Virginia Untold Project; Fourth Generational Inclusive; The Dallas Observer; Dallas Morning News