Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Way back
Speaker 1: in our colleague Christopher Hassiotis sent Holly and meet a
Speaker 1: note about the Lowry War as an episode suggestion. This
Speaker 1: isn't our first Christopher hassi otis episode suggestion that we've
Speaker 1: done on the show He's Got. He sends very good ideas,
Speaker 1: but it has taken me this long to do it
Speaker 1: because my short list of topics that I keep talking
Speaker 1: about has about three years of episodes on it, and
Speaker 1: then in addition to having a quote short list of
Speaker 1: three years of episodes, I also just frequently get sidetracked
Speaker 1: off of it into stuff that's not even on there.
Speaker 1: So the Lowry War is named for a group of
Speaker 1: outlaws that was headed by Henry Barry Lowry, and there
Speaker 1: are lots of different spellings for his name and consequently
Speaker 1: different spellings for the war, so you'll see it l
Speaker 1: O w r Y, l O w r I E,
Speaker 1: l o w r e Y, and l O w
Speaker 1: e r Y A lot of potential options there. Henry
Speaker 1: Verry Lowry though was Lumby and the Lowry Gang, as
Speaker 1: it became known, included other members of the Lumbi tribe
Speaker 1: as well as black and white men, and they fought
Speaker 1: against Confederate authorities in southeastern North Carolina during the U
Speaker 1: s Civil War and then during reconstruction. They came to
Speaker 1: be known or came to be viewed as either kind
Speaker 1: of Robin Hood esque folk heroes or dangerous murderers and thieves,
Speaker 1: depending on who you were asking. The Lowry War took
Speaker 1: place in and around Robinson County, North Carolina. That's in
Speaker 1: the southeastern part of the state, in a swampy region
Speaker 1: around the Lumber River. Although Lumber is the river's official
Speaker 1: name today, too many locals, including the Lumbi tribe, it's
Speaker 1: the Lumbi. The origins of that name are a little
Speaker 1: bit hazy, but it's sometimes described as coming from the
Speaker 1: Algonquian term meaning dark water, and locals were using it
Speaker 1: for the river by the early nineteenth century. This part
Speaker 1: of North Carolina has been home to indigenous peoples for
Speaker 1: nearly fifteen thousand years, and the Lumbi have lived there
Speaker 1: for centuries. The Lumbi traced their ancestry to indigenous tribes
Speaker 1: and nations from at least three different language groups who
Speaker 1: have lived in what's now eastern North Carolina, southeastern Virginia,
Speaker 1: and northeastern South Carolina. And her books on Lumby history,
Speaker 1: historian Melinda Maynor Lowry, who is Lumby, describes three hundred
Speaker 1: years of migration and cultural exchange taking place within this region.
Speaker 1: Indigenous people and people who had liberated themselves from slavery
Speaker 1: and white indentured servants and others all eventually settled and
Speaker 1: what's now Robinson County for various reasons, including fleeing from
Speaker 1: wars and diseases and persecution, and then together they formed
Speaker 1: one tribe that is deeply connected to the ideas of
Speaker 1: kinship and place. This tribe has been known by a
Speaker 1: series of names over the years. During the period of
Speaker 1: the Lowry Wars, they were often just called Indians or
Speaker 1: described as a combination of multiple races. The state of
Speaker 1: North Carolina first recognized the tribe under the name croaton
Speaker 1: in five Okay, if you're thinking, wait, isn't that a
Speaker 1: lot like Croatoan? The word that was found carved into
Speaker 1: a tree at the former site of the lost colony
Speaker 1: of Roanoke. Yes. Hamilton McMillan, who introduced the legislation for
Speaker 1: the state to recognize the tribe with this name, had
Speaker 1: concluded that they were descended from survivors of the Lost Colony,
Speaker 1: and that was based on his own research. Two other
Speaker 1: formal name changes followed this before members of the tribe
Speaker 1: chose the name name Lumby in ninetift two, drawing that
Speaker 1: name from the place that the tribe calls home. There
Speaker 1: are also people within this group who trace their ancestry
Speaker 1: back to the Tuscarora and continue to use that name.
Speaker 1: The Tuscarora were living mainly in what's now North Carolina
Speaker 1: when Europeans started arriving in North America, and many of
Speaker 1: them moved northward to join the Hood and Ashawnee Confederacy
Speaker 1: in the eighteenth century. That was after the Tuscarora War.
Speaker 1: In this episode, we're just going to stick to the
Speaker 1: name Lumby, even though we are mostly talking about a
Speaker 1: period before the tribe had chosen that name. This part
Speaker 1: of North Carolina is isolated, which made it a good
Speaker 1: place for people who were fleeing from wars or disease outbreaks,
Speaker 1: or enslavement, or any number of other things to take
Speaker 1: refuge and recover. It's also swampy, so it really wasn't
Speaker 1: very appealing to European colonists. So during the Revolutionary War era,
Speaker 1: a lot of Lumby ended up formally owning the land
Speaker 1: that they are already living on and considered there's This
Speaker 1: included being granted land by either the crown or the
Speaker 1: State of North Carolina, sometimes in exchange for service to
Speaker 1: one or the other, or for military service. By their
Speaker 1: early nineteenth century, many Lumby owned their land outright as individuals,
Speaker 1: rather than living on land that belonged to the tribe
Speaker 1: collectively or was outlined in a treaty with the United States.
Speaker 1: From about the eighteen twenties through the eighteen fifties, the
Speaker 1: US government systematically removed indigenous peoples from the eastern part
Speaker 1: of the country to land west of the Mississippi River.
Speaker 1: We have talked about this in some of our previous episodes,
Speaker 1: including our twenty eighteen episode on the Georgia gold Rush
Speaker 1: and our twenty nineteen two part on the occupation of Alcatraz.
Speaker 1: This process involved federal laws such as the Indian Removal
Speaker 1: Act of eighteen thirty and multiple Supreme Court cases and
Speaker 1: exploitive treaties between the United States and indigenous nations, and
Speaker 1: forced displacements. During this period, multiple indigenous nations that had
Speaker 1: historically lived in what's now North Carolina were forced to move,
Speaker 1: sometimes literally at gunpoint. This included the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek,
Speaker 1: and Seminole nations, who were forced to move more than
Speaker 1: two thousand miles to what's now Oklahoma. Although some resisted
Speaker 1: and stayed behind. This removal was an active genocide, and
Speaker 1: nearly a quarter of the people who were forced to
Speaker 1: move died as a result of it. The Lumby, however,
Speaker 1: were largely protected from this removal. Many of the nations
Speaker 1: that the federal government forcibly removed during this period were
Speaker 1: living on land that was valuable in some way, so
Speaker 1: there was gold there or timber or prime farming land.
Speaker 1: But the Lumby were mostly living among the swamps on
Speaker 1: land that wasn't considered particularly valuable, and as we've said,
Speaker 1: a lot of them owned that land outright as individuals
Speaker 1: through documentation that the government recognized as legal. That didn't
Speaker 1: make it impossible for anybody to take their land, but
Speaker 1: it did make it more challenging to do so, and
Speaker 1: also from a legal perspective, at this point, the Lumbie
Speaker 1: weren't legally classified as Indians. North Carolina revised its constitution
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty five, and under that constitution and various laws,
Speaker 1: the Lumby were considered free persons of color. So even
Speaker 1: though they weren't forced off their land as many other
Speaker 1: tribes were, they also were not treated as equal citizens
Speaker 1: of the state. For example, free people of color were
Speaker 1: not allowed to vote in North Carolina, and although this
Speaker 1: law didn't specifically mentioned the indigenous people of Robinson County,
Speaker 1: a lot of people interpreted this provision as applying to them.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty four, North Carolina also passed a law
Speaker 1: that voided marriages between a white person and a free
Speaker 1: person of color if that marriage had taken place since
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty nine. That applied to a lot of Lumby marriages.
Speaker 1: These and other laws followed Nat Turner's Rebellion of eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty one, which was an uprising of enslaved people in Virginia.
Speaker 1: Authorities were deeply fearful of a similar uprising taking place
Speaker 1: in other slave states, and so they passed a lot
Speaker 1: of laws to restrict any kind of rites that free
Speaker 1: black people might have, and then more broadly free people
Speaker 1: of color. When the US Civil War started in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty one, North Carolina was a slave state, but the
Speaker 1: state and the people living in it were divided over
Speaker 1: whether to secede and support the Confederacy or to remain
Speaker 1: part of the United States, and this included the Lumby
Speaker 1: Although at least one Lumby family had historically owned slaves,
Speaker 1: most Lumbi supported the Union, even though free people of
Speaker 1: color had to have a special permit to carry web
Speaker 1: in North Carolina. Lumby people served on both sides of
Speaker 1: the war. Some went to another state or passed for
Speaker 1: white to enlist, and some may have just found a
Speaker 1: recruiter who didn't know or didn't care about that prohibition.
Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty two, the Confederate Army started fortifying Fort
Speaker 1: Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Pier River as
Speaker 1: protection for the nearby port of Wilmington's. This was an
Speaker 1: earthen fortification, so it's construction and maintenance were both labor
Speaker 1: intensive and dangerous. At first. A lot of this work
Speaker 1: was done by Confederate soldiers and enslaved Africans. Diseases were rampant,
Speaker 1: especially malaria, dysentery, and yellow fever, which could be deadly. Eventually,
Speaker 1: landowners started refusing to send their enslaved labor to work
Speaker 1: on the fort because of all this, and at that
Speaker 1: point the Confederates started conscripting indigenous people to do it,
Speaker 1: particularly the Lumbi. Although there were a few you lumby
Speaker 1: who willingly went to work on the fort, most did
Speaker 1: not want to be forced to travel to the coast
Speaker 1: to do difficult, dangerous work for a military they didn't
Speaker 1: even support, and possibly get sick or die in the process.
Speaker 1: So many responded by lying out in the swamps. As
Speaker 1: we said earlier, the swamps were easy to hide in,
Speaker 1: especially if you had lived there your whole life and
Speaker 1: had your own ancestral knowledge to help you navigate. But
Speaker 1: this made life difficult for the men who were lying
Speaker 1: out and for their families. Whether you usually worked your
Speaker 1: on your own land or somewhere else, you couldn't if
Speaker 1: you were hiding out from the Confederates. All this fed
Speaker 1: directly into the Lowry War, which people gets you after
Speaker 1: a sponsor break. During the Civil War, Alan and Mary
Speaker 1: Lowry were two of the most affluent and prominent of
Speaker 1: the Lumby people in Robinson County. Their family was large.
Speaker 1: They had twelve children, almost all of them were sons.
Speaker 1: Allan was a church leader and also ran a successful farm,
Speaker 1: but he was also under a lot of suspicion from
Speaker 1: the Home Guard. The North Carolina General Assembly had established
Speaker 1: the Home Guard in eighteen sixty three, and it was
Speaker 1: made up of men who for whatever reason, were exempt
Speaker 1: from military service. The Home Guard was tasked with things
Speaker 1: like finding deserters and guardings strategic points within the state,
Speaker 1: helping to protect the local people, but in some areas
Speaker 1: they really had a reputation for harassing or even terrorizing
Speaker 1: the local community. This is a big plot point in
Speaker 1: the book and movie Cold Mountain if anyone is familiar
Speaker 1: with that. The Home Guard accused Alan Lowry and other
Speaker 1: Lumby of harboring Union sympathizers and Confederate deserters and of
Speaker 1: things like stealing, and some of this really was going on.
Speaker 1: For example, Lumby Territory wasn't far from a stockade in Florence,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, and Union soldiers who escaped from there often
Speaker 1: wound up with the Lumby, including with the Lowry's. In
Speaker 1: December of eighteen sixty four, someone stole two pigs from
Speaker 1: James P. Barnes, who was a wealthy landowner and a
Speaker 1: slaveholder and a Confederate official. Barnes didn't live far away
Speaker 1: from Alan and Mary Lowry, and he thought one of
Speaker 1: the Lowrys had done it. Basically they didn't have food
Speaker 1: because they were lying out in the swamp, and said
Speaker 1: they stole his pigs. Possible culprit in Barnes's mind was
Speaker 1: their son, Henry Barry Lowry, who at about eighteen, was
Speaker 1: one of their youngest children. Barnes supported the Home Guard
Speaker 1: and trying to round up the Lowry's, many of whom
Speaker 1: were lying out in the swamp. On December one, eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty four, Barnes was shot in an ambush, and before
Speaker 1: he died he said that Henry Barry Lowry and two
Speaker 1: other men had done it. Not long after Barnes was killed,
Speaker 1: j Brantley Harris, known as Brandt, shot and killed Jarman Lowry,
Speaker 1: who was one of Henry Barry Lowry's cousins. Harris was
Speaker 1: a conscription officer for the Home Guard, and while the
Speaker 1: details on all of this are a little fuzzy. He
Speaker 1: seems to have mistaken German for one of the other Lowry's.
Speaker 1: Two of Jarman's brothers, Wesley and the Lalon, had been
Speaker 1: working at Fort Fisher and they came home on furlough.
Speaker 1: Harris claimed that they were both deserters, and so when
Speaker 1: both of them were killed, most people thought Harris was
Speaker 1: the person responsible. Although a grand jury charged Harris and
Speaker 1: their deaths, he wasn't arrested for it, so the Lowry's
Speaker 1: and a lot of the other lumby were outraged. Then
Speaker 1: on January sixty five, Brant Harris was killed, presumably Henry
Speaker 1: Barry Lowry or one of his brothers, in retaliation for
Speaker 1: Harris having killed Jarman. Wesley, and little Allen Lowry had
Speaker 1: done it. In some accounts, this all circled back to
Speaker 1: the pigs that had been stolen from James p Arns,
Speaker 1: and Harris had been investigating that theft when he was killed.
Speaker 1: After this, Henry Barry Lowry and some of his brothers
Speaker 1: stole some guns and ammunition, and they turned their attention
Speaker 1: to the wealthy white farmers of the area, especially wealthy
Speaker 1: white farmers who were clearly supporting the Confederacy. On February
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five, a group of Flowers, along with some
Speaker 1: escape Union soldiers, raided one of the wealthiest farms in
Speaker 1: the area, which belonged to the McNair family. Some of
Speaker 1: that family were at home, along with several Confederate soldiers,
Speaker 1: and although there was an exchange of gunfire during all
Speaker 1: of this, it doesn't appear that anybody was killed. The
Speaker 1: McNair's and their guests eventually surrendered, and then the gang
Speaker 1: stole things like food, blankets, and other supplies from the
Speaker 1: farm and then distributed them to the poorest people in
Speaker 1: the area where they lived. At this point, that area
Speaker 1: had been given the derisive nickname of Scuffletown, although the
Speaker 1: lumby usually called it the Settlement. On March three, the
Speaker 1: Home Guard rallied a mob of about one hundred people
Speaker 1: and went to Alan Lowry's home. The Home Guard claimed
Speaker 1: to find stolen property there, and they put Alan Lowry
Speaker 1: on trial along with his sons, Calvin Sinclair and William,
Speaker 1: and one of their neighbors. The Home Guard held Allan's wife,
Speaker 1: Mary and some of the other women in the family
Speaker 1: captive in a smoke house. During and after the trial,
Speaker 1: questioning them about the whereabouts of other Lowry's. After this
Speaker 1: sham trial, everyone but Allen and William was allowed to go,
Speaker 1: but the Home Guard executed Allen and William by firing
Speaker 1: squad Henry Barry Lowry reportedly witnessed this execution from the bushes.
Speaker 1: At this point, General William T. Sherman and the Union
Speaker 1: Army were moving north. This was after Sherman's march to
Speaker 1: the Sea at the end of eighteen sixty four and
Speaker 1: his capture of the South Carolina capital of Columbia in
Speaker 1: February of eighteen sixty five. Around Mark ninth, the army
Speaker 1: was near Lumby Territory, bogged down by heavy rain in
Speaker 1: the swampy terrain, some of the Lumbi, including some of
Speaker 1: the Lowry gang, guided Sherman's troops through the swamp and
Speaker 1: across the Lumber River. After the army had moved through,
Speaker 1: a Lumbie man named Hector Oxendine was murdered by White
Speaker 1: planters for having helped them. General Robert E. Lee surrendered
Speaker 1: on April ninth, eighteen sixty five, which is often marked
Speaker 1: as the end of the Civil War, even though the
Speaker 1: fighting continued for some time. After that, Henry Berry Lowry
Speaker 1: and his gang continued to rob wealthy planters and raid
Speaker 1: their farms, and they evaded capture for months. On December seven,
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five, Lowry got married to Rhoda Strong, whose
Speaker 1: father was Scottish and whose mother was Lumby, and the
Speaker 1: militia tried to take him into custody at his own wedding,
Speaker 1: falsely claiming that they had a warrant for his arrest.
Speaker 1: There were about two hundred guests at that wedding and
Speaker 1: a lot of people left after the militia five, but
Speaker 1: this still turned into a standoff in front of a crowd.
Speaker 1: It ended when the Justice of the Peace, who was
Speaker 1: officiating the wedding, that was a white man named Hector McLean,
Speaker 1: offered to be arrested along with Lowry, and both of
Speaker 1: them were escorted away. The militia did not think the
Speaker 1: local jail was secure enough, so they took Lowry to
Speaker 1: nearby Whiteville. Turned out that jail was not secure enough either,
Speaker 1: because he escaped from it. According to some accounts, Rota
Speaker 1: brought him a cake with a file in it. At
Speaker 1: this point, the United States was moving into the post
Speaker 1: war reconstruction period with attempts to both recover and rebuild
Speaker 1: after the war and to rectify the inequities that resulted
Speaker 1: from the institution of slavery. Congress passed laws and constitutional
Speaker 1: amendments to try to protect the civil rights of previously
Speaker 1: enslaved people and others of African descent. Since North Carolina
Speaker 1: had seceded from the United States, it was required to
Speaker 1: write a new state constant tuition and to ratify the
Speaker 1: Thirteenth and fourteenth Amendments to the U s Constitution before
Speaker 1: it could be readmitted to the Union. A lot of
Speaker 1: the indigenous people living in and around Robinson County thought
Speaker 1: their lives would get better during this process. A lot
Speaker 1: of them, even most of them, had supported the Union
Speaker 1: even after North Carolina had succeeded. People in the tribe
Speaker 1: had also sheltered escaped Union prisoners of war. They directly
Speaker 1: aided Sherman in his move through the area, and there
Speaker 1: were some changes. The Reconstruction Acts of eighteen sixty seven
Speaker 1: required the new state constitutions to include universal manhood suffrage,
Speaker 1: so North Carolina's eighteen sixty eight constitution restored voting rights
Speaker 1: for Lumbie men. There was a pause in the Lowry
Speaker 1: Gang's raids around this time. The general conclusion is that
Speaker 1: Lowry and others hope that by being able to vote,
Speaker 1: they would be able to make the changes they wanted
Speaker 1: to see in the government and in their own line house.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, the Lumbi were also largely
Speaker 1: excluded from the Reconstruction era policies, programs, and assistance that
Speaker 1: were meant to help bring racial, economic, and political equality
Speaker 1: to the newly freed people. Overall, radical Republicans who were
Speaker 1: driving these kinds of programs were focused on people of
Speaker 1: African descent rather than on indigenous people, and even though
Speaker 1: some of the Lumbi did have some African ancestry, and
Speaker 1: there were people living at the time who thought that
Speaker 1: the tribe as a whole were mixed race or even black,
Speaker 1: they were largely overlooked. So by late eighteen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: as North Carolina's new constitution was still being drafted, the
Speaker 1: Lowry Gang, presumably frustrated by this lack of progress, went
Speaker 1: back to rating. Or at least somebody started robbing stores
Speaker 1: and plantations in the area, and most people thought it
Speaker 1: was the Lowry's. People started demanding that the Lowry Gang
Speaker 1: be declared outlaws and brought to justice Henry Berry. Lowry
Speaker 1: events we agreed to turn himself in after being promised
Speaker 1: a fair trial, but soon there were rumors that he
Speaker 1: was going to be killed, that basically a lynch mob
Speaker 1: was going to get him out of his cell and
Speaker 1: drown him. Somehow he managed to get a knife and
Speaker 1: a gun and he broke out of jail on December twelfth,
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight, when he was brought his evening meal.
Speaker 1: After Lowry's escape, the situation became increasingly violent after the
Speaker 1: deaths of James P. Barnes and Brant Harris in late
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four. In early eighteen sixty five, no one
Speaker 1: had been killed in the gang's raids, but between January
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty nine and June of eighteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: multiple prominent people in and around Robinson County were killed,
Speaker 1: and those murders were pinned on the Lowry Gang. This
Speaker 1: included Robinson County Sheriff Reuben King, who was killed in
Speaker 1: March of eighteen sixty nine, and Colonel Owen Normant who
Speaker 1: was killed in March of eighteen seventy. At least twenty
Speaker 1: deaths are attributed to the regang during this period, the
Speaker 1: vast majority of them Democrats or former Confederate officials, Although
Speaker 1: many were believed to have been involved in the execution
Speaker 1: of Allen and William Lowry, or we're bounty hunters trying
Speaker 1: to bring the Lowry's in, or were spies trying to
Speaker 1: infiltrate the gang. A few were essentially bystanders. We get
Speaker 1: to how the Lowry War ended after another sponsor break.
Speaker 1: By eighteen sixty nine, opinions about the Lowry Gang were divided. Too.
Speaker 1: Many of the poorest people in Robinson County they were
Speaker 1: Robin hood asked heroes, not only robbing from the rich
Speaker 1: and giving to the poor, but also exacting vengeance from
Speaker 1: people who had been oppressing them. Wealthy white landowners, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, generally thought they were murderous thieves. The
Speaker 1: Republican Party, which was in charge of the North Carolina
Speaker 1: legislature at this point, was divided as well. Some vehemently
Speaker 1: denounced the violence and especially the killing, while others saw
Speaker 1: it more as the inevitable outcome of the long history
Speaker 1: of oppression in the area, and even as something that
Speaker 1: might be necessary for the lumby to reach their political goals.
Speaker 1: In the end, though, the Republican Party took a law
Speaker 1: and order approach, focusing on the need to end the
Speaker 1: violence and to bring the Lowry Gang to justice, and
Speaker 1: they made their arguments with some false equivalence, drawing parallels
Speaker 1: between the Lowry Gang and the Ku Klux Klan, equating
Speaker 1: the gang's targeting of former Confederate officials with the clan's
Speaker 1: campaign of intimidation and terror against the state's non white population.
Speaker 1: On March five, eight sixty nine, Judge Daniel L. Russell Jr.
Speaker 1: Issued a proclamation of outlawry. It declared that quote one
Speaker 1: Henry Barry Lowry one, Andrew Strong one Boss Strong, one,
Speaker 1: Shoemaker John one, John Dial one William Chavis of Robinson
Speaker 1: County have committed sundry and diverse murders, burglaries, robberies and
Speaker 1: other felonies. And that said Henry Berry, Lowry, Andrew Strong,
Speaker 1: Boss Strong, Shoemaker, John John Dial and William Chavis do
Speaker 1: conceal themselves and evade arrest and service of the usual
Speaker 1: process of law. Now Therefore, I the said Daniel L.
Speaker 1: Russell Jr. Judge, as aforesaid, by virtue of the authority
Speaker 1: vested in me by an Act of the General Assembly
Speaker 1: in such case made and provided, do issue this my
Speaker 1: proclamation hereby requiring the said Henry Berry, Lowry, Andrew Strong,
Speaker 1: Boss Strong, Shoemaker, John John Dial, and William Chavis, and
Speaker 1: each and every one of them forthwith to surrender themselves
Speaker 1: to the Sheriff of Robinson County or to any other
Speaker 1: sheriff or lawful officer of the state. And I do
Speaker 1: also empower and require the Sheriff of Robinson County or
Speaker 1: of any other county where the said felons are to
Speaker 1: lurk and conceal themselves, to search for and pursue with
Speaker 1: all power of the county and effectually apprehend said fugitives
Speaker 1: from justice. It went on to say, quote, and I
Speaker 1: do further declare that if the said fugitives, or any
Speaker 1: of them continue henceforth to stay out, lark, or conceal themselves,
Speaker 1: and do not immediately surrender themselves, any citizen of the
Speaker 1: State may capture, arrest and bring them or him to justice,
Speaker 1: And in case of flight or resistance, after being called
Speaker 1: on and warned to surrender, may slay them or any
Speaker 1: one of them, without accusation or impeachment of any crime.
Speaker 1: Bounties were announced for the Lowry Gang, including one of
Speaker 1: twelve thousand dollars for Henry Barry Lowry, who was to
Speaker 1: be brought in debt or alive. The Governor of North
Speaker 1: Carolina also asked for help from federal troops, and those
Speaker 1: troops arrived in November of eighteen seventy A posse was
Speaker 1: also formed hunt for the gang, and there was a
Speaker 1: series of shootings, ambushes, and other violence. In February of
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, Henderson Oxendine was captured within the Lumbi community.
Speaker 1: He's believed to have intentionally allowed himself to be caught
Speaker 1: with the hope that he could take the blame for
Speaker 1: the gang's activities. He was tried, convicted, and executed for
Speaker 1: killing a man named Steve Davis, who had been killed
Speaker 1: during a confrontation with the gang. Later in eighteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: Francis Marion Wishart captured the wives of several members of
Speaker 1: the Lowry Gang, basically holding them hostage unless the gang
Speaker 1: surrendered themselves. Henry Berry Lowry and some of the other
Speaker 1: men replied to this threat with a note on July fourteenth,
Speaker 1: demanding that the women be released by that Monday morning,
Speaker 1: otherwise quote, the bloodiest times will be here than ever
Speaker 1: was before, the life of every man will be in jeopardy.
Speaker 1: And the end the women were all let go, and
Speaker 1: to like that attempt to arrest Henry Berry Lowry at
Speaker 1: his own wedding. This whole incident wound up bringing the
Speaker 1: Lowry Gang even more popular appeal. On February sixteenth, eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy two, there was a raid on Pope in McLeod's
Speaker 1: store in Lumberton, North Carolina, and thieves also stole a
Speaker 1: safe from the sheriff's office. Together they got away with
Speaker 1: about twenty thousand dollars and Henry Berry Lowry disappeared. Not
Speaker 1: long after that, word spread that he had died, possibly
Speaker 1: by an accidental self inflicted gunshot, but there were also
Speaker 1: a lot of stories about a possible escape and where
Speaker 1: he may have gone afterward. In one he went all
Speaker 1: the way to the West coast, was part of the
Speaker 1: Modoc War between the Modoc people in the U. S.
Speaker 1: Army in eighteen seventy two. In eighteen seventy three, regardless,
Speaker 1: he was never captured, and that twelve thousand dollar reward
Speaker 1: went unclaimed, although the violence continued in North Carolina after
Speaker 1: Henry berry Low's disappearance. Over time, most of the rest
Speaker 1: of the gang either disappeared or were killed or captured.
Speaker 1: Francis Wishart was killed in May of eighteen seventy two
Speaker 1: after having agreed to a meeting with Stephen Lowry and
Speaker 1: Andrew Strong. The end of the Lowry War is usually
Speaker 1: marked us sometime in February of eighteen seventy four, when
Speaker 1: Steve Lowry was killed by a bounty hunter. A year
Speaker 1: after that, Mary C. Normant, who was the widow of
Speaker 1: Colonel Owen Norman, who the gang had previously killed, she
Speaker 1: published a history of the Lowry Band, which is both
Speaker 1: the earliest written account of all this uh and also
Speaker 1: really unfavorable in the treatment of the Lowry's, unsurprisingly given
Speaker 1: that they murdered her husband. Over these years, the Lowry
Speaker 1: Gang had become famous notorious outlaws. Frank and Jesse James
Speaker 1: claimed to be members. At some point their activities were
Speaker 1: covered in national newspapers like The New York Times and
Speaker 1: Harper's Weekly published a write up on March thirtieth, eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy two. In more recent years, The musical drama Strike
Speaker 1: at the Wind made its debut on July one, nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy six, after years of work on it. It was
Speaker 1: written by a white playwright, but it involved the work
Speaker 1: of a tri racial organization and planning committee, and it
Speaker 1: was a mostly Indigenous production. There were other dramatic productions
Speaker 1: before this point, but most of them were biographical treatments
Speaker 1: focused on Henry Berry Lowry, and this was focused more
Speaker 1: generally on the Lowry War. The hope was that this
Speaker 1: play would provide a sense of cultural cohesion and pride
Speaker 1: among the Lumby and educate non Lumby about Lumby culture
Speaker 1: and history, and there were hopes that it would become
Speaker 1: an ongoing tourist attraction, like some of North Carolina's other
Speaker 1: outdoor historical dramas. This includes The Lost Colony, which started
Speaker 1: in the thirties, and Unto These Hills, which is about
Speaker 1: Cherokee history up through the removal, and that was first
Speaker 1: performed in the fifties, although that didn't happen, and the
Speaker 1: play was performed annually for about ten years, and then
Speaker 1: it returned in seventeen after a ten year hiatus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think if either is being performed or has been
Speaker 1: performed for some showings this year. Um I do not
Speaker 1: remember if that was before or after this episode will
Speaker 1: be out there. Some historians have concluded that the Lowry
Speaker 1: Gang and the government's response to the gang had an
Speaker 1: enormous impact on North Carolina politics towards the end of
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, with the Republican Party's division over how
Speaker 1: to handle it, and then the ultimate decision to take
Speaker 1: a law and order approach, leading the Lumbi vote to
Speaker 1: swing towards the Democrats and then hastening the Democrats returns
Speaker 1: to power in North Carolina, and the Lumbi tribe continues
Speaker 1: to be influential in North Carolina politics. North Carolina is
Speaker 1: a swing state, and the tribe has been described as
Speaker 1: a group of swing voters within that state. In there
Speaker 1: were so many news reports about how Robinson County had
Speaker 1: been quote a Democratic stronghold before voting for Donald Trump
Speaker 1: in and electing Trump by an even larger margin in
Speaker 1: One of the factors that was cited in this Trump's
Speaker 1: announcement that he supported the Lumby Recognition Act. That's an
Speaker 1: act that would grant the tribe full recognition by the
Speaker 1: federal government. Because currently the Lumbi tribe is not fully
Speaker 1: federally recognized. In ninety six, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a
Speaker 1: law that recognized the Lumbi as an Indian tribe, but
Speaker 1: quote nothing in this Act shall make such Indians eligible
Speaker 1: for any services performed by the United States for Indians
Speaker 1: because of their status as Indians, and none of the
Speaker 1: statutes of the United States which affect Indians because of
Speaker 1: their status as Indians shall be applicable to the Lumbi Indians.
Speaker 1: This makes the Lumbi the largest non federally recognized tribe
Speaker 1: in the United States, with fifty five enrolled members and
Speaker 1: seventy thousand people identifying as Lumby or part Lumby in
Speaker 1: census records. Although many Lumbi live in and around Robinson
Speaker 1: County today, there are also significant Lumby communities in other
Speaker 1: parts of the US, including Baltimore, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Although
Speaker 1: that nineteen fifty six legislation barred the Lumby from most
Speaker 1: federal programs, many took part in the Urban Relocation Program
Speaker 1: that was a federal program to move indigenous people out
Speaker 1: of reservations and into cities. This was another attempt to
Speaker 1: get Indigenous people to assimilate with white society. Today, Baltimore
Speaker 1: is home to the largest Lumbi community outside of North
Speaker 1: Carolina as a result of that program. The idea of
Speaker 1: federal recognition for the Lumbi tribe has been controversial. Legislation
Speaker 1: has been reintroduced at the federal level a couple of
Speaker 1: times over the last few years, and each time there
Speaker 1: have been vocal opponents to it, including in some cases
Speaker 1: from the leaders of other indigenous nations. For example, in
Speaker 1: twenty Principal Chief Richard's Need of the Eastern Band of
Speaker 1: Cherokee Indians argued against federal recognition for the Lumbi before
Speaker 1: the House Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples. Sneed cited a number
Speaker 1: of reasons for this opposition. One of the tribes earlier
Speaker 1: names that we talked about in the top of the
Speaker 1: show was the Cherokee Indians of Robinson County, a name
Speaker 1: that was outlined in a law introduced by a white legislator,
Speaker 1: but also had the support of some members of the tribe.
Speaker 1: Another reason is that federal law generally recognizes indigenous nations
Speaker 1: that have a governing body and political structure that predates
Speaker 1: the establishment of the United States, but the Lumby have
Speaker 1: described themselves as an amalgamation of multiple tribes and language
Speaker 1: groups that came together in one geographic area. Sneed's testimony
Speaker 1: before the House also contends that the Lumby have no
Speaker 1: indigenous ancestry. Obviously very complicated. Sneat is not the only
Speaker 1: person who has um spoken out against this recognition. That
Speaker 1: is just the congressional testimony that I had access to.
Speaker 1: Most recently, this legislation to recognize the Lumbie has passed
Speaker 1: the House. It was received in the Senate in November one.
Speaker 1: This legislation would strike out section two of that act
Speaker 1: that had been signed into law in nineteen fifty six.
Speaker 1: That was the section that specified that the recognition didn't
Speaker 1: extend to the tribe receiving any benefits as an indigenous nation.
Speaker 1: So this would extend federal recognition to the tribe and
Speaker 1: quote all laws and regulations of the United States of
Speaker 1: general application to Indians and Indian Tribes shall apply to
Speaker 1: the tribe and its members. As a side note, something
Speaker 1: else that has been on Tracy's shortlist forever is the
Speaker 1: Battle of Hayes Pond. That is the name given to
Speaker 1: a nine eight incident in which the ku Klux Klan
Speaker 1: was planning a rally in Maxed in, North Carolina, which
Speaker 1: is partly local aided in Robinson County. Fifty or so
Speaker 1: klansmen arrived for the rally, where they were vastly outnumbered
Speaker 1: by hundreds of Lumbie, many of them armed. After someone
Speaker 1: shot out the one light bulb the clan had for illumination,
Speaker 1: they fled and although other gunfire was exchanged, no one
Speaker 1: was killed. Yeah. One of the reasons that's never made
Speaker 1: it into a full episode is that, um that's without
Speaker 1: all the context that we just covered here. That is, uh,
Speaker 1: that's most of the story. But it is one that
Speaker 1: the Lumby take a whole lot of bride in and
Speaker 1: is generally described as like the Lumby running the clan
Speaker 1: out of North Carolina. So that is the Lowry War.
Speaker 1: Do you have a listener, Manil as well? I do.
Speaker 1: I have listener mail from a net. Annette wrote and said, Hi,
Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy, my husband and I have the good
Speaker 1: fortune but to be traveling to Germany in Austria in September,
Speaker 1: and I wondered if there are a past podcast related
Speaker 1: to Munich Salzburg Halstat milk Abbey, the Habsburg's Vienna. It's
Speaker 1: ra I missed the archive. I also wanted to share
Speaker 1: a couple of things related to recent podcasts I think
Speaker 1: you will find interesting. The first item relates to William
Speaker 1: marsh Rice. My husband and I are both alumni of
Speaker 1: Rice University and have been following with interest the work
Speaker 1: of Rice's Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice.
Speaker 1: One of the co chairs, Alex Bird, is a friend
Speaker 1: of ours. Among the task forces changes was what to
Speaker 1: do with the Founder's statue that is in the main
Speaker 1: campus quadrangle. You can read more at the links below.
Speaker 1: The second item is a sculpture that was inspired by
Speaker 1: the Laocoon. The work is by the South African artist
Speaker 1: when both the end is entitled Prism ten Dead Laocoon.
Speaker 1: We've seen it a two different hotels. It's very powerful,
Speaker 1: sea below and attached REALOK. Forward to another live show
Speaker 1: in Houston when you're touring again. I was the one
Speaker 1: who gave you a postcard from the Mutual Museum. This
Speaker 1: is from Anette, so thank you so much. Annette. I
Speaker 1: wanted to read this because number one I had missed
Speaker 1: that update. About Rice University's decision to move the statue
Speaker 1: of the founder William marsh Rice to another place. That
Speaker 1: is something that we had talked about briefly in that episode,
Speaker 1: and so that is a decision that was made earlier
Speaker 1: this year to relocate that statue. Uh. The other thing
Speaker 1: is I also missed the archive, even though our old
Speaker 1: website went away at this point, I feel like three
Speaker 1: or four years ago. It was before the pandemic that
Speaker 1: the old website went away. We'll still occasionally get emails
Speaker 1: from folks saying something like, what happened to the old
Speaker 1: website and we no longer have it? And it was
Speaker 1: it was not within our ability to change. We also
Speaker 1: missed the archive, but our archive wasn't quite granular enough
Speaker 1: to have made it I think easy to find episode
Speaker 1: podcasts related to these particular places related to German in Austria.
Speaker 1: UM so I did dig up a few. We have
Speaker 1: stuff on Rudolph the second of Austria and Empress Cissy
Speaker 1: Lola Montez tangentially related also a fun listen uh, and
Speaker 1: then Maria Anna Mozart would be classified as related to that. Also.
Speaker 1: We've said this before on the show, but at this point,
Speaker 1: the easiest way to find episodes on specific topics is
Speaker 1: either to use a podcast player that's searchable, because our
Speaker 1: our website is not, or to google the topic that
Speaker 1: you're looking for along with the words stuffy miss in
Speaker 1: history class. I have found that recently the Google algorithm
Speaker 1: just as also wants me to have the word I
Speaker 1: heart in there, because nothing can be easy. Um so
Speaker 1: that would bring up things like Germany and Austria if
Speaker 1: they were referenced in the episode description. The tags that
Speaker 1: we used for the episodes were not ever something that
Speaker 1: was part of the actual RSS feeds, So even though
Speaker 1: they were are part of the old website, it's not
Speaker 1: a thing that is like facing users anymore. And it
Speaker 1: also wasn't quite as granular as the topics that Annett
Speaker 1: asked for suggestions related to. So thank you again, Annette
Speaker 1: for this hope that folks are looking for old episodes
Speaker 1: of the show, we're able to find them by something
Speaker 1: more searchable than our website, which is not searchable. If
Speaker 1: you would like to write to us, we're a history
Speaker 1: podcast that I heart radio dot com. We're all over
Speaker 1: social media ad missed in History. That's where you will
Speaker 1: find our Facebook Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to our show on the iHeart Radio app and
Speaker 1: wherever else you'd like to get podcasts. Stuff you Missed
Speaker 1: in History Class is a production of I heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from i Heeart Radio, visit the iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.