Thomas Day, "a first rate workman," needs a special law to bring his wife home (Milton, NC, 1830)

SUMMARYThomas Day, "a first rate workman," needs a special law to bring his wife home (Milton, NC, 1830) [Connections: Tech & skilled labor, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDNCpedia says the 1830 petition calls Day "a free man of colour." He married Aquilla Wilson, a free Black woman of Halifax County, VA, on 7 Jan. 1830. North Carolina's 1827 law against free Black people moving into the state kept him from bringing her to Milton. About sixty-one white citizens signed a petition calling him "a first rate workman," and the General Assembly passed a special act letting her enter. He bought the Union (Yellow) Tavern for his workshops and trained white apprentices. A letter by Saunders calls him "an excellent mechanic" and says Day owned slaves.
STATUS: free (own shop) (per the 1830 petition and census). He was also an enslaver himself (per Saunders's letter; NCpedia gives no number)

PATTERNEven a leading craftsman needed the state legislature's permission to live with his wife, and the same records show he also held people in slavery

LENS (WW9)The legislature had to vote on whether a master craftsman could bring his wife home

OPENThe 1850 and 1860 slave schedules for Day's household; the workshop payroll

SOURCENCpedia, "Day, Thomas". Primary: 1830 petition to the NC General Assembly.