Henry Berry Lowry: Confederate forced Indian labor, then the Lowry War (Robeson County, NC, 1860s–1872)

SUMMARYHenry Berry Lowry: Confederate forced Indian labor, then the Lowry War (Robeson County, NC, 1860s–1872) [Connections: Carolinas, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDNCpedia (W. McKee Evans): Lowry (ca. 1846–ca. 1872), of "native American and Scottish" ancestry, was born near present-day Pembroke. During the war the Confederacy made "compulsory Indian labor" central to building forts at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Lowry joined Indian men hiding in the swamps to avoid conscription officers. His brother William and their father were "captured and executed by the Home Guard in March 1865." Governor Jonathan Worth "declared him an outlaw" with a $300 reward, and later legislatures raised it to $11,000. He "disappeared in February 1872." NCpedia's Lumbee history adds that he led a "triracial band" in an eight-year war (1865–72) "to avenge those deaths and, indirectly, other injustices suffered by the Lumbee people."

PATTERNIndian men classified as "free colored" were forced into the same labor gangs as enslaved Black men, and resistance brought together Indian, Black and white fighters

LENS (WW9)Henry Berry Lowry is a named Aboriginal man in the "free colored" record who fought back, and his band crossed every color line

OPENThe NCpedia biography does not itself say the Lowrys were listed as "free persons of color"; check the 1850/1860 Robeson census entries for Allen Lowry's household

SOURCENCpedia, "Lowry, Henry Berry"; NCpedia, Lumbee 19th century.