The majority of incarcerated people on the railroad were Black men and boys. They worked alongside smaller numbers of Black women and girls, as well as white men. These people were from all across the state of North Carolina, and occasionally neighboring states like South Carolina and Virginia. Most of these individuals were convicted of crimes relating to poverty and lack of employment opportunities.

A letter concerning Lucy Morgan, a woman imprisoned on the Western North Carolina Railroad, in the UNC Wilson Library Special Collections. Photo by Jess Abel.

William Anderson was an African American man born in Virginia around 1849. William may have been enslaved prior to the end of the Civil War. Later, he worked much of his life as a tenant farm laborer before eventually being able to purchase his own farm.

William married his wife, Fannie, in 1870, and the couple settled down in Sampson County, North Carolina. The couple had several children, including two daughters named Lucy and Rena. William was twenty-eight years old when he was charged with larceny on December 3, 1877. During his one-year prison sentence, he was sent to work on the Western North Carolina Railroad. William was discharged from his prison sentence on November 3, 1878.

Though prison records state that William was illiterate when he was arrested, by 1900 he was able to both read and write. By 1920, he owned a farm in North Clinton, where his grandchildren, Ollie, James, and Joseph, lived with him. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 79 on February 22, 1926, and was laid to rest in South Clinton.

African American farmworkers in Ablemarle, North Carolina, 1881. Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

A young African American woman in a maid's uniform with a girl, circa 1904-1918. Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Laura Barrow was an African American girl born around 1859 in North Carolina, possibly into slavery.  Laura received little formal education in her youth, and from an early age she worked as a house servant. She reportedly sometimes used the alias “Laura Zegler.” Laura was convicted of larceny on May 16, 1873, when she was fourteen years old, and sentenced to four years of hard labor.

Sometime after 1875, Laura was sent to work on the Western North Carolina Railroad. There, Laura worked alongside a group of women to cook, clean, launder, and mend clothes for the incarcerated men and boys doing railroad construction. Laura was discharged from her prison sentence on March 24, 1877, when she was eighteen years old.

African American man unloading a cart loaded with turpentine barrels, circa 1880s. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Photograph of a turpentine still, circa 1895. Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Jack McNatt was an African American man born around 1844 in South Carolina. He spent much of his life in Robeson County, North Carolina. In 1874, the Wilmington Weekly Star reported that Jack had attempted to vote in an election, and Daniel McNatt challenged Jack’s ballot, getting it rejected. Daniel McNatt, who prevented Jack from voting, was a Confederate veteran and a former slave owner. Because they share the same last name, it seems likely that Daniel McNatt had been Jack’s enslaver.

Jack was accused of burning Daniel McNatt’s turpentine still in retaliation for the obstruction and was sent to jail in Lumberton. Jack was charged with burning the still on October 3, 1874, when he was thirty years old. He was sentenced to three years of hard labor and sent to work on the Western North Carolina Railroad. He was discharged from the railroad on August 1, 1877.

A house near Lake Waccamaw in Columbus County, perhaps similar to where Darry Woods would have resided, circa 1915. Courtesy of North Carolina Digital Collections.

Two African American men on horseback during the late 19th or early 20th century. Underwood crafted saddles and harnesses such as those pictured. Courtesy of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

African American man driving a wagon in Asheville, North Carolina, circa 1895-1910. Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Parrish Ray was a biracial man born around 1858 in North Carolina, to his parents Levi and Judia Ray. Parrish had several siblings, including Stanly, Gracy, Francis, and Moses. He and his family lived in Durham, North Carolina. Parrish was convicted of larceny on May 13, 1878, when he was nineteen years old, and sentenced to one year of hard labor on the railroad. Parrish was released on April 18, 1879. He was shot and killed by a Durham police officer on February 7, 1887, when he was around twenty-nine years old.