North Carolina law puts "Mustee" into the tax code (Edenton, NC, ca. 1723)

SUMMARYNorth Carolina law puts "Mustee" into the tax code (Edenton, NC, ca. 1723) [Connections: Carolinas, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDA North Carolina colonial act passed at Edenton declares "all free Negroes, Mulattoes, and other Persons of that Kind, being mixed Blood, including the Third Generation" to be "Tithables" (taxable), and extends the same taxes to any white person "married with any Negro, Mulatto, Mustee, or other Person being of mixed Blood" (University of New Brunswick, Slavery and Freedom Laws database, catalogued as North Carolina 1723). Hostile witness: the proprietary colony's assembly

PATTERNFree people with Indian or other mixed ancestry were taxed under the same heading as free Negroes. Later lists sorted people by this tax category, not by nation, so a person of Indian descent could appear on the list only as a "free Negro" or "mulatto" tithable

LENS (WW9)The tax collector filed Indian-descended families under "free Negro," and the paper trail starts there

OPENThe database page leaves the date and citation fields blank; confirm 1723 and the chapter number in The State Records of North Carolina, vol. 23

SOURCESlavery and Freedom Laws, North Carolina 1723 (UNB).