Tim Harrison was born around 1795. It is possible in his early life he was enslaved by a man named Dr. Simmons Baker (Simmons Baker also enslaved Arthur Baker, another worker on the Capitol’s construction project. For more information on Arthur). Tim’s name appears on the 1834 Report of the Commissioners appointed to superintend the re-building of the State Capitol. Tim is listed on the Capitol project as a “laborer” and his enslavers were compensated $.50 per day for Tim’s work.
Tim appears to have been enslaved by two different men over the course of the Capitol’s construction (1833-40). Entries in the 1833 Laborer’s Time Book show Robert Harrison, a local merchant, collecting payment from the state for the days Tim worked. Robert Harrison also collected payment for the work of three other enslaved men named Peter, Isam, and Isaac Harrison.
A map from 1834 shows that Robert Harrison owned a half lot near the intersection of Jones and Blount Streets. It is possible that Tim, Peter, Isam and Isaac also lived on this property, which was adjacent to the construction site on Union Square and several blocks north of the state quarry where Isam and Peter worked as quarry hands.
In July 1836, Robert Harrison placed an ad in Raleigh area newspapers offering a $100 reward to find Tim, who escaped a few months prior. The ad describes Tim as “about 41 years of age, dark complected, 5 feet 10 or 11 inches, well built, [and] has lost some of his jaw teeth.” Robert Harrison surmises that Tim “has made for the Roanoke, as I purchased him some years ago from Doctor Simmons Baker of Martin County.”
Although the details of Tim’s whereabouts during that time are not known, researchers assume that he was apprehended and returned to Raleigh. Once back in the city, he was forced to continue laboring on the construction of the Capitol, as evidenced by a receipt from 1838. On April 27, 1838, A.G. Drake submitted a payment request to architect David Paton, which read “Sir please settle with Mr. Wicker for the present month work done for the state by Tim Harrison, my man.”
It appears that Robert Harrison sold Tim to Archibald Drake sometime after he was captured, perhaps as punishment or because he feared Tim would run away again. In the fall of 1841, three men placed a newspaper ad offering a $30 reward for the return of “Three Negro Fellows, Tim, Anthony and Luke” who self-emancipated while traveling to Alabama. The ad details that “Tim was purchased of Archibald Drake, of Raleigh,” indicating Tim was enslaved by yet another enslaver.
The physical description of Tim and his purported age in the ad share some similarities to the language used in the ad placed by Robert Harrison five years earlier. We can’t be sure what happened to Tim, Anthony, or Luke after this ad was printed in 1841. (For more on the topic of resistance to slavery)
References:
- Report of the commissioners appointed to superintend the re-building of the State Capitol. Philo White, Printer to the State, Legislature of North Carolina, 1834. Accessed in the Raleigh History Collection, State Archives of North Carolina.
- State Capitol Construction Records, Treasurer’s and Comptroller’s Papers. State Archives of North Carolina.
- Plan of the city of Raleigh first published in the year 1834. Map printed by Walters, Hughes and Company, Raleigh, N.C. From the book, Early Times in Raleigh Addresses Delivered by the Hon. David L. Swain, 1867. Accessed in the Raleigh History Collection, State Archives of North Carolina.
- The North-Carolina Star (Raleigh, North Carolina), Thursday, August 25, 1836.
- The Raleigh Register (Raleigh, North Carolina), Friday, December 10, 1841.
