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Thomas Day Statue 4--Holding a Planer
Image by Universal Pops
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Taken outside the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh. I had many interior shots of his finely-crafted furniture, but they were awful, overpowered by visual noise. This is a series of 7 images.
The following is from the Wikipedia article on Thomas Day. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Day_(North_Carolina)
“Thomas Day (c1801-c1861) was a free black American furniture designer and cabinetmaker in Caswell County, North Carolina. Day's furniture-making business became one of the largest of its kind in North Carolina, employing at one point up to twelve workers, and distributing furniture to wealthier customers throughout the state. Much of Day's furniture was produced for prominent political leaders, the state government, and the University of North Carolina.”
“Day began his cabinetmaking business in Milton, North Carolina with his brother, John Day, Jr., but his brother left Caswell County by 1825, leaving the cabinetry business solely to Thomas. John Day would later emigrate to Liberia and serve as Chief Justice of Liberia.”
“Day's furniture-making business, though owned by a free black American, employed the use of both black slaves and of white apprentices, despite the general belief that Day, as a free man, was of lower social stature than his white apprentices.”
“As a businessman, Day was quite successful, at one point becoming a stockholder in the State Bank of North Carolina, and Day owned significant real estate, including his place of business and residence. This was highly unusual for a free person of color in the era before the American Civil War. Day had even managed to steam-power much of his furniture-making implements, which aided greatly in his production volume and efficiency. A national economic panic in 1857 caused Day's furniture business to suffer heavily, and in 1861 or at some time shortly after, Thomas Day died, although his exact death date is not known due to the lack of local public records. Day's home and workshop have been restored and are significant points of local and state history. In addition, his furniture was and is still seen as some of the highest quality antebellum, native furniture in North Carolina. Pieces of Day's work have been displayed at various museums throughout North Carolina and Virginia, and an exhibit of Day's work opened at the North Carolina Museum of History in May, 2010.”
“Due to Day's status as a free black, and his unique achievements given the social and racial restrictions of the era, he is hailed as a highly important figure in the history of North Carolina's African American culture.”
1] www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncccha/biographies/thomasday.html
2] www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-antebellum/5082
3] Thomas Day Education Project—http://thomasday.net/
4] North Carolina Museum of History press release—http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/wgo/press_04122010a.html
5] photos of furniture—http://www.ncdcr.gov/features/thomas_day.asp
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
John C. Westbrook
Image by Dystopos
J. C. Westbrook was born August 25, 1819, in Sampson County, North Carolina. He was the youngest of thirteen children. His father was a farmer of the slaveholding class, but relied upon the labor of his children, also, at the plow. The educational advantages he was able to give them were limited, and were confined, as far as they went, to a few months' attendance at the neighboring common schools. He set before them an example of industry, honesty, and patriotism, and thus instructed we will see that John C, of whom we have particularly to write, received a foundation of character upon which from early manhood he has erected a substantial and useful life. In 1827 his father moved his family southward in search of better land. He located in Fayette County, Georgia, and, after six years of hard work on the farm, both parents died. There were ten sons and three daughters left, and John C, then fifteen years of age, was the youngest. Immediately after the loss of his parents he set out to gain something more of an education, leaving an older brother in charge of the home. The Creek War breaking out at this time (1836) this brother volunteered under the American flag, and his course compelled John C. to abandon his laudable purpose to go to school. He took his brother's place on the farm, and labored faithfully to keep up the support of the household. In 1837 he succeeded in acquiring a few more and final months at school. In 1838 he enlisted in the ranks of the Federal volunteers, and the command to which he belonged was ordered to Fort Scudder, Cherokee County, Georgia. The Seminole war was then in its last stages, and the removal of the Cherokees was soon consummated. Upon the fulfillment of these purposes, which originated the call for volunteers, the troops were disbanded.
In 1839 Mr. Westbrook was employed by a clock manufacturer as traveling agent. In the fall of 1840 Mr. Westbrook immigrated to Tallapoosa, one of the central counties of Alabama, where he opened a farm, established a grist and saw mill, run by water power, and carried on a mercantile business, all on a small scale. His peaceful nature, but frank and courageous bearing, gave him good standing in a new country. He married in November, 1840, Elizabeth A. Lamberth, of Tallapoosa County, whose family had immigrated to Alabama that year.
In 1883 Mr. Westbrook moved to Birmingham. For ten years before that date he had bought and sold real estate in the city. Upon his removal to the city he entered largely into the market, buying eight thousand dollars worth of property, and improving it as he invested. Some example of his operations may be cited as illustrious of the success which good judgment and pluck and square dealings may attain. He offered some suburban real estate in 1884 at two hundred and fifty dollars per acre. It commands, January, 1887, two thousand dollars per acre. He bought seventeen acres in the spring of 1886 for one hundred and sixty dollars per acre. This now commands two thousand dollars per acre. Upon this latter tract he discovered a limestone bed, the stone being 75 per cent. lime. Besides operating on the suburbs, Mr. Westbrook has bought and sold some of the choicest lots in the business part of the city, with high profits. He had been a practical coal miner in the meantime, and in mercantile business in the produce line.
His marriage bore five children, one of them a son. The four daughters, now married and living near him in Birmingham, are the only survivors. He is connected with several corporations, among which we name, president of the Western Valley Street Railway; also, holds a directory in the Birmingham Agricultural Works.
A physical peculiarity Mr. Westbrook mentions in regard to himself may be worthy of mention. His average sleep out of twenty-four hours has not exceeded four hours as far back into his youth as his memory goes.
- from Jefferson County and Birmingham Alabama: History and Biographical, edited by John Witherspoon Dubose and published in 1887 by Teeple & Smith / Caldwell Printing Works, Birmingham, Alabama
