A Queer North Carolina Race

Are These Descendants of Members of the Lost Colony of Roanoke?

New York Sun
November 15, 1894

There live in the swamps of Robeson County, North Carolina, a strange race of people. Their manners, customs and personal appearance are unlike those of any other race on the American continent. They live within themselves, and their intercourse with their neighbors, both white and colored, is limited to the extent which necessity demands. Among the citizens of the county they are called Portuguese and mulattoes. They are neither. Recent investigations by antiquarians who have closely studied their characteristics, in cline to the opinion that they are the descendants of the Croatan Indians and the lost colony of Roanoke Island.

It is an historical fact that on the arrival of the relief expedition fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Richard Grenville the colony planted on Roanoke Island a few months before had totally disappeared. Years afterward, when the country had become sparsely settled by the English, and when the Tuscorora Indians were the dominant tribe, it was a tradition among them that in the interior there were white men who wee members of a smaller tribe of Indians, and that these men possessed many of the gifts of the English. It is generally thought that when the English vessels sailed to England for supplies for the infant colony those left on Roanoke Island were too weak to defend themselves against the Croatan Indians, their nearest neighbors, and that in an incursion the men were killed and the women and children carried away into captivity.

Whatever may be the supposition, the fact, nevertheless, remains, that in this remote county of the Old North State, thee exists today a strange and peculiar people. Their associations have, in the main, been with those who, previous to the war, were known in the Southern States as free negroes. They inter-married with these free negroes and the majority of them are more or less tinctured with African blood. this admixture, however, does not change their characteristics. There are among them certain families who have held aloof from such alliances, and these occupy a position of superiority. while they are not, in the strictest sense, tribal in their government, they bow in implicit obedience to their rulers who are always members of the pure blooded families. These pure bloods in personal appearance resemble the Portuguese, but in every other characteristic they are more like the Indian. They are brave, generous, natural hunters, fine
shots and very truthful. The swamps abound in game, such as bear, deer, ducks, turkeys and smaller animals and birds. They never forget an injury and treasure up their feelings of vengeance till they find a way to gratify it. They live in houses of peculiar architectural design resembling the "dug out" of the primitive Western settler.

A few years ago these people became a source of terror to their white neighbors. One of their principle men, Henry Berry Lowrey, organized a band of them and wrought as much crime in Robeson and the adjoining counties ad did the James gang in its more extensive field of operations. This man, on account of a real or fancied wrong, waylaid and murdered a wealthy and influential white man, a Mr. Townsend. The horrors of an Indian war, except the scalping of the victims, followed. Women and children were killed as well as able bodied men. No race was exempt. It was a war of extermination. Houses were burned, stock destroyed, and the country laid waste. After committing depredations, the band would return to the swamps, which are almost as impenetrable as the jungles of India. they are covered with dense underbrush, and only those familiar with their recesses are able to find the hidden paths that lead into their depths. Lowery possessed
considerable intellect, and, being familiar with every inch of the ground, showed himself an adept in the warfare. His second in command, Stephen Lowery, his uncle, was a capable lieutenant, and was often sent on a marauding expedition with a part of the command, while the chief would strike at a distant Point.

This was continued for several years, and became so disastrous to that portion of the state that the Legislature passed an act granting amnesty to all the desperadoes except Henry Berry and Stephen Lowery, for whose capture of death a reward of $10,000 was offered. This action of the State had desired effect and the war came to an end. What became of the leaders is not known. they were never captured and no one ever claimed the reward for killing them. they disappeared, and their followers resumed the even tenor of their way.

These people are legal citizens of the United States, but seldom avail themselves of their privileges. They take no interest in either local or national affairs. They have fought against all efforts for their improvement, and live today the same lives their ancestors did.