They Stole a City — Interactive Mindmaps

Key concepts: Prologue: Wilmington, North Carolina, springtime, 1993

Prologue: Wilmington, North Carolina, springtime, 1993

Cynthia Brown's Return and Discovery

• Returned to Wilmington in 1993 as first HR director
• Lunch with former teacher led to family memoir
• Memoir revealed erased family and community history

Family Lineage and Ancestry

• Traced through James Brown, Louise McCoy, Athalia Whitfield
• Great-great-grandfather William C. Howe, son of Fred Howe
• Fred and brothers Pompey and Anthony built Black economic life
• Their father Anthony Walker Howe kidnapped from Nigeria

The 1898 Wilmington Coup and Massacre

• White supremacists killed Black citizens and seized government
• A coup and massacre, not a spontaneous race riot
• Athalia survived and later cooked for planner Walter Parsley
• Her dying warning: 'Run if it ever happens again'

Demographic and Economic Transformation

• Black population dropped from 56% in 1898 to 34% by 1990
• Before 1898, thriving Black economic elite existed
• Success built under system designed to keep Black people down
• After 1898, Black community transformed and that lasted

Private History and Public Violence

• One family's private history bound to city's public violence
• Memoir reached Brown through a distant cousin
• Athalia's warning carried history forward as ongoing threat

Key concepts: Chapter 1: The Howes Arise

Chapter 1: The Howes Arise

Anthony's Enslavement and Family

• Igbo boy from Calabar, taken to Howe's Point in 1770s
• Repaired cabin, then moved to skilled labor and hired out
• Married Tenah after Howes initially refused permission
• Had seven children; family remained enslaved until mid-1800s

Life in Wilmington

• By 1820, Anthony was a carpenter in thriving port town
• Free Black community dominated building trades
• Received half-acre lot on Queen Street in 1835
• Property passed to descendants after his death in 1837

David Walker and the Appeal

• Born free in Wilmington around 1785; father enslaved
• Published An Appeal in 1829, sent bundles to Wilmington
• Authorities seized 200 pamphlets there, 60 in Savannah
• Georgia offered $10,000 bounty; Walker died in 1830

Control and Resistance

• Howes controlled marriage, labor, and manumission for reputation
• Anthony gained property and respect but not legal freedom
• Free Black artisans built networks spreading antislavery writing
• Southern authorities cracked down with sedition laws

Legacy of Defiance

• Possible father-son link between Anthony and Walker debated
• Both showed defiance rooted in their own communities
• Anthony died prosperous patriarch; Walker died a fugitive author
• Their lives illustrate persistent struggle for freedom

Key concepts: Chapter 2: Those Pestiferous Moores

Chapter 2: Those Pestiferous Moores

A Dynasty Built on Enslavement

• Moores reached South Carolina around 1675
• James Moore got rich by raiding Native peoples and selling them as slaves
• Sons seized over 80,000 acres along Lower Cape Fear
• Brought over 1,000 enslaved people; relatives were top slaveholders

The Heir

• Alfred Moore Waddell born at Moorefields in 1834
• Descended from a Supreme Court justice and two generals
• Moved to Wilmington in 1856
• By 1860, claimed no assets of value

Key Takeaways

• Moores built fortune by turning captives into land, power, influence
• Small web of relatives controlled most slave operations
• Fighting Stamp Act earned king's scorn but didn't loosen grip
• Waddell carried family name with no declared assets

Key concepts: Chapter 3: The Bellamys Build

Chapter 3: The Bellamys Build

The Bellamy Mansion

• 10,000 sq ft, five levels, 22 rooms, Corinthian columns
• Built and paid for by slavery
• Public show of wealth and power

Source of Fortune

• Pine-forest plantations: turpentine and crops
• Enslaved 113 people across three counties by 1860
• Bank of Cape Fear; largest shareholder in railroad

Secessionist Politics

• Chairman of New Hanover Democratic Association
• Pushed hard for secession; alienated Whigs
• After fatal duel, mansion proved his importance

The Kuners

• Enslaved performers in rags, masks, moss beards
• Skits mocked white greed; Bellamys remembered fondly
• Shows slaveholders enjoying owned people's culture

Cost and Profit

• House cost a third more than First Presbyterian Church
• Only one year's profit at Grist
• Slavery produced fortunes for extraordinary luxury