Henry Berry Lowry

Henry Berry Lowry, leader of the Swamp Bandits

Henry Berry Lowry , other spellings Lowrie or Lowery (* around 1845 in Hopewell Community, Robeson County , North Carolina , lost 1872), was the leader and central figure of the so-called Lowry War . During this uprising, a group of Indian and African American outlaws rebelled against the white upper class of the southern states towards the end of the Civil War . In the course of these violent conflicts, Lowry became a symbol of his tribe, the Lumbee , and the Tuscarora , from whom he is understood as a fighter for self-determination and against the discrimination of the Indians in the southeast. He and his wife Rhoda Strong are still seen as heroes in the spirit of Robin Hood and are revered by the rural population of North Carolina.

Origin and descent

Henry Berry Lowry was one of 12 children of the Allen and Mary (Polly) Cumbo Lowry family, a distinguished Native American family. They lived in the area known as "The Settlement" or "Scuffletown" in the vicinity of Pembroke in Robeson County, the ancestral area of ​​the Lumbee. The family owned over 800 acres of farm near Hopewell which provided the family with some wealth and influence within the Native American community.

The ancestry of the Lowrys is unclear according to historical sources, the family is commonly referred to as Lumbee. In other records, they are referred to as the Tuscarora or Tuscarora mixed race, Henry Berry's grandmother belonged to this tribe. Occasionally Henry Berry is also described as "North Carolina Modoc " or "Robeson County Apache ". The Lumbee, to which the Lowrys belonged according to the predominant view today, were a tribe that was composed of the descendants of various Indian tribes, including the Tuscarora, free African American and whites. They understood and see themselves as Native Americans and, despite the contemporary classification, not as “free colored people”. In the 19th century they fought for their recognition both as a tribe and for the preservation of their tribal areas. It can be assumed that the Lowrys also understood themselves exclusively as Indians, regardless of the exact assignment to a particular tribe.

Henry Berry Lowry married his wife Rhoda Strong at the beginning of the war. At his wedding he was captured by the vigilantes and taken to the maximum security prison in Wilmington . He broke out again just a few hours later and returned to his wife.

Role in the Lowry war

Main article: Lowry War Henry Berry Lowrie vowed to be about 17-year-old after the illegal execution of his father and brother on March 3 in 1865 by the Confederate vigilante to avenge his family. He hid in the swamps of the area with some of his brothers and cousins ​​from the Melungeon tribe . From there they organized guerrilla- like raids on the region's plantations . After the group grew due to the influx of further members, including former slaves and deserters, and the supply situation for the poor population deteriorated significantly towards the end of the Civil War, the so-called "Swamp Bandits" ( English for "swamp bandits") went over to Stealing supplies and distributing them to those in need. White citizens from the upper class, who participated in the suppression and discrimination of the Indian and colored population and who took advantage of their situation, were murdered by the insurgents. This attitude earned Henry Berry Lowry the reputation of a modern hero in the style of Rob Roy and Robin Hood. This explains why the Lowry gang, despite the very high reward, was never betrayed by the people of the region or given any advice to the authorities.

Legends

The last major crime committed by the Outlaws occurred on February 16, 1872, when the gang raided Lumberton and escaped with around $ 28,000. Three days later, Henry Berry Lowry disappeared without a trace. After its mysterious disappearance, its story assumed increasingly mythical proportions. There are several accounts of his whereabouts, which the Lumbee in Robeson County preserved through oral tradition, some of which were not recorded until the end of the 20th century. These different stories range from plausible explanations to fairytale transfigurations. A well-known collection of these stories was taped by the historian Adolph L. Dial between 1969 and 1971 and referred to as the "Adolph L. Dial Tapes". The respondents assume that Lowry either accidentally killed himself, was taken out of the country in a large tool box, or died standing upright in a secret firefight. Other stories tell of a faked escape or his departure to South America or the Northwest, in which he is said to have led the Modoc uprising against the United States from 1872 to 1873. It is widely believed that he never really left the region. His great-nephew claimed in 1937 that Henry Berry Lowry was still alive.

Meaning Lowrys for the Lumbee

For the people of North Carolina, Lowry is and always was a controversial figure. The deeds and the people of the Lowry War were initially known to the American public through newspaper reports and perceived contradictingly. For the Lumbee and the Tuscarora, to which Lowry was also related, Lowry was of central importance for the self-image that developed in the 19th and 20th centuries and the demands for self-determination by the Lumbee. Lowry is seen as the source of the Lumbee's rising self-esteem and demand for recognition as one of those who oppose the oppression and discrimination of North Carolina Indians. The sustained admiration for the outlaw stems from this role as a symbolic figure in the rebellion of the multiracial population groups against the system of white supremacy in the south . A similar role for the Melungeon is played by John Dial, William Chavis, Henderson and Calvin Oxendine, and Shoemaker John, who were involved in the Lowry War.

Commemoration

The legend of Lowry has been remembered every summer since 1976 on the open-air stage in Pembroke with the play "Strike at the Wind" written by Randolph Umberger. There is also an information center for the North Carolina Indian Cultural Center on the premises of the theater, a museum for Indian art is maintained there and the rebuilt Henry Berry Lowries house is on display.

literature

• David Ball: The Swamp Outlaw: The Civil War Story of Henry Berry Lowery and His North Carolina Indian Raiders. 1st Books Library, 1999, ISBN 1-58500-408-1 .
• Karen I. Blu: The Lumbee Problem: The Making of an American Indian People. University of Nebraska Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8032-6197-7 .
• Adolph L. Dial, David K. Eliades: The Only Land I Know: A History of the Lumbee Indians. Syracuse University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8156-0360-6 .
• William McKee Evans: To Die Game: The Story of the Lowry Band, Indian Guerrillas of Reconstruction. Syracuse University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-8156-0359-2 .
• Tim Hashaw: Children of perdition: Melungeons and the struggle of mixed America. Mercer University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-88146-013-3 .
• Christopher Arris Oakley: Keeping the Circle: American Indian Identity in Eastern North Carolina 1885-2004. University of Nebraska Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8032-3574-7 .
• Lowry Volume In: William S. Powell, Jay Mazzocchi (Eds.): Encyclopedia of North Carolina , Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8078-3071-2 .
• Gerald M. Sider: Living Indian Histories: Lumbee and Tuscarora People in North Carolina. University of North Carolina Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8078-5506-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Frederick E. Hoxie: Encyclopedia of North American Indians: Native American History, Culture, and Life from Paleo-Indians to the Present. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1996, ISBN 0-395-66921-9 , p. 350.
2. ↑ Gerald M. Sider: Living Indian Histories: Lumbee and Tuscarora People in North Carolina. UNC Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8078-5506-5 , p. 269.
3. ^ ^{A b} Christopher Arris Oakley: Keeping the Circle: American Indian Identity in Eastern North Carolina 1885-2004. University of Nebraska Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8032-3574-7 , p. 22.
4. ↑ Tim Hashaw: Children of perdition: Melungeons and the struggle of mixed America . Mercer University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-88146-013-3 , pp. 52 (English).
5. ↑ Jefferson Currie: Henry Berry Lowry Lives Forever . In: North Carolina Museum of History - Office of Archives and History, NC Department of Cultural Resources (Ed.): Tar Heel Junior Historian Association . Spring, no. 39 , 2000 (English).
6. ↑ A copy of the tapes is provided by Adolph L. Dial: Lowry Legends - The Adolph L. Dial Tapes. (No longer available online.) North Carolina Museum of History, archived from the original on December 26, 2009 ; Retrieved April 12, 2009 (English, recorded 1969 to 1971). 
7. ↑ University of North Carolina - University Libraries, North Carolina Collection: March 1865 - Executions Spark the Lowry War ( Memento of the original from November 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ A representation and collection of relevant newspaper reports and mentions can be found under Glenn Ellen Starr Stilling: Lumbee Indians - Category: 33. The Henry Berry Lowry period. (No longer available online.) Appalachian State University, archived from the original on April 12, 2009 ; accessed on April 16, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ Lecture by William McKee Evans at the Native American Resource Center of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke on November 10, 2005: “Henry Berry Lowry is a source of strength for the Lumbee people, […] They have stood tall because of the legend. The greatest critics of Lowry have given ground, the legend friendly to Lowry has grown. "
10. ↑ Gerald M. Sider: Living Indian Histories: Lumbee and Tuscarora People in North Carolina . University of North Carolina Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8078-5506-5 , pp. 164-171 (English).
11. ↑ Website of the play Strike At The Wind ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• Lumbee Regional Development Association: The Hero of Robeson County: The Story of Henry Berry Lowrie (Engl.)
• Mary C. Norment: The Lowrie history (engl.) Digitization of the 1909 book on the events of the Lowry War, made available by the Eastern North Carolina Digital Library
• George Alfred Townsend: The Swamp outlaws, or, The North Carolina bandits: being a complete history of the modern Rob Roys and Robin Hoods (Eng.) Digitization of the book of the Red Wolf Series published in 1872, provided by the Internet Archive, original at the University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill .
• Website of the theater performance Strike at the Wind