Heather Blanton
Thanks for the question, Denise!
The Southern Folklife Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill is one of the finest historical collections in the country. It focuses, obviously, on Southern life. In a folklore class I took back in 2010, we studied a gentleman named Henry Berry Lowry (or Lowrie). The Lumbee Indians consider him a hero, sort of in the vein of Robin Hood. He was a man of mixed blood who was victimized by the ridiculous racist laws of North Carolina, but rather than cower or hide, Henry fought. He butted heads with the local sheriff and even had more federal troops after him than Jesse James. It is a fascinatingly bitter story.
Anyway, at one point, his wife and a relative's wife were arrested and used as bait. Henry was ticked off about that! He wrote the sheriff a note (written in pencil in beautiful script and everything was spelled correctly) that said, "Release our wives tomorrow by noon or you will call down such trouble as you cannot imagine." The sheriff released the ladies. Henry killed more people than the James Gang. He hid in the swamp to avoid capture. Legend says he had a pair of boots with heels on the toes to confuse trackers.
The Southern Folklife Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill is one of the finest historical collections in the country. It focuses, obviously, on Southern life. In a folklore class I took back in 2010, we studied a gentleman named Henry Berry Lowry (or Lowrie). The Lumbee Indians consider him a hero, sort of in the vein of Robin Hood. He was a man of mixed blood who was victimized by the ridiculous racist laws of North Carolina, but rather than cower or hide, Henry fought. He butted heads with the local sheriff and even had more federal troops after him than Jesse James. It is a fascinatingly bitter story.
Anyway, at one point, his wife and a relative's wife were arrested and used as bait. Henry was ticked off about that! He wrote the sheriff a note (written in pencil in beautiful script and everything was spelled correctly) that said, "Release our wives tomorrow by noon or you will call down such trouble as you cannot imagine." The sheriff released the ladies. Henry killed more people than the James Gang. He hid in the swamp to avoid capture. Legend says he had a pair of boots with heels on the toes to confuse trackers.
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