William P. Mabson of Freedom Hill “…” held state political office. After the Civil War he came to Edgecombe County from Pennsylvania as a teacher and Methodist minister. In the 1870s Mabson
served as the head of the Republican Party in Edgecombe County, was elected to the state House of Representatives and Senate, and was a member of the state Constitutional Convention of 1875. As a black legislator, Mabson worked to ensure that blacks had a voice in the political process, attacking on
one occasion the Democrats (formerly Conservatives) for attempting to diminish black influence by legislative gerrymandering of Tarboro wards. He also spoke out against the violent outrages of the Ku 14
Hugh Talmage Lefter and Albert Way Newsome, North Carolina: The History of a Southern State (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, third edition, 1973), pages 487-491;
15 For an account of the Ku Klux Klan as a violent component of the Conservative party and the Klansmen’s avoidance of areas of black strength, see Otto H. Olsen, “The Ku Klux Klan: A Study in Reconstruction Politics
and Propaganda, “North Carolina Historical Review, XXXIX (July 1962), pages 340-362.
16 Eric D. Anderson, Race and Politics in North Carolina, 1872-1901: The Black Second (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981), pages 4-5 and pages 56-57, hereinafter cited as Anderson, The Black Second. In 1875
the Democrats (formerly Conservatives) amended the state Constitution to prevent blacks and Republicans from holding most county offices. Thus, after that year, blacks in Freedom Hill, as those throughout the state, continued to help elect congressman, state legislators, and some county officials. But until the Republicans-Populist coalition of the 1890s, they had little voice in the politics of county government. John A. Hyman (1840-1891) served in the national House of Representatives from 1875-1877. James E. O’Hara (1844-1905) was a member of the House from 1883 to 1887, and Henry P. Cheatham (1857-1935) served in the House from 1889-1893. George H. White
(1852-1918) of Tarboro, the last black congressman until 1929, represented North Carolina in Congress from 1897 to 1901.
17 North Carolina Assembly Sketch Book, Session 1885 (Raleigh: Edwards and Broughton, 1885), page 6; North Carolina Legislative Biographical Sketch Book, Session 1887 (Raleigh: Edwards and Broughton, 18870, Page 4; Anderson, The Black Second, page 323; Frenise A. Logan, The Negro in North Carolina, 1876-1894 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1964), pages 150-151, and 159 cited as Logan, The Negro in North Carolina.
Klux Klan in the state and served on the important Proposition and Grievance Committee in the state
Senate. 18
Furious with Mabson’s efforts in the House to aid blacks politically, Tarboro Democrats
attempted to have him expelled from the General Assembly. On one occasion they claimed he had
committed perjury in giving testimony against the Ku Klux Klan activity in Orange County; on another
that he was not a resident of Edgecombe County and therefore not entitled to that county’s district seat in
the House. In January, 1873, the House declared Mabson’s seat vacant on the basis of the latter charge,
but he was elected to the state Senate from Edgecombe in the following year and again in 1876.19
Although Edgecombe whites generally considered Mabson a radical with a “rancorous nature,” they
reluctantly admitted he “was a negro of some ability.” Following his political career, Mabson returned to
Freedom Hill for a time and became one of the county’s foremost leaders in education.. . . William P. Mabson was an outspoken leader in urging blacks from Freedom Hill and Edgecombe County to relocate in the Midwest and thereby gain better political and economic opportunities. Although he personally chose to remain in the state, Mabson attempted to raise a party of blacks from Edgecombe to make the journey under the leadership of three out-of-state exodus “bosses.” Despite the thirty people he promised to enlist for the trip, only nine or ten showed up for the journey, and those were mostly curious children. A few of Freedom Hill’s residents may have departed to seek improved conditions, but
most of them rejected the lure of Kansas or other places. They preferred the safety and stability of an imperfect, yet cohesive black community to the uncertainty of a journey into the unknown. The Tarboro Southerner noted the reluctance of local blacks to migrate and announced, “Although the exodus of the
negro in other portions of this State has been large, the Edgecombe County negro does not seem to fall into line very fast. The general sentiment of the negroes here is that Edgecombe is good enough for them and that they intend staying in it.” Some blacks in the state at this time also entertained notions of emigrating to Liberia in Africa, but no evidence exists that those living in Freedom Hill ever undertook such a move. 24
24 Carolina Banner (Tarboro), March 22, 1889, hereinafter cited as Carolina Banner; Logan, The Negro in North
Carolina, pages 120-121.