Johnsons of NC - Part I

That man right there is my grandfather Thomas Johnson (with his daughter Gloria). Thomas was a good man my mom would say. He was father to all his children, and then some that weren't his. For example, many of my grandmother's children have the Johnson last name and they were born well before my grandmother and my grandfather even met! That is a good man.

Thomas' father was James Edward Johnson (Gloria would later name her son James Edward Johnson, but it's not certain if she named him after her grandfather James, or his own father whose name was also James). James married a woman named Mary Wilson. he family history says Mary was Indian. She was told to have long black straight hair and very light-skinned. In fact, Thomas used to be talked about among Mary's family because he was the darkest one in the family. They'd say things like, "why is he so dark, none of the other children are as dark as him". My mom said Mary used to also eat "funny", not like the rest of them. She would eat different cheeses, and foods that were not typical "black southern foods".

My research on James and Mary has led me to their birth place in North Carolina. There was a great historical research done on Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia by Paul Heinegg. http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Acknowledge.htm. I had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Heinegg by email one day to discuss the findings on these light-skinned/mulatto/Indian people in the Roanoke area. The story goes, there were a bunch of light-skinned free people in North Carolina who no one knew exactly what they were. The could pass for Indian, Portuguese, mulatto, or just about anything but either pure Black or White. The myth tells that they are descendants of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. A story which tells of Sir Walter's group of Europeans who landed on the shores of NC. They ran out of resources and Sir Walter chartered the ship back to Europe to return for supplies, leaving behind the Europeans. They were instructed to not go into the woods, but to stay close to the shore, but should they run into Indians or danger to carve in the tree their location. When Sir Walter returned, all the Europeans were gone and carved into the tree was an Indian name. When Sir Walter went into the interior of the shore, he came upon a group of people that were no longer European, but a mixed bunch. The theory is, the Europeans and the Indians had mixed.

In my great grandparents part of NC, it was not uncommon for Native Americans and Blacks to hook up. In fact, they did often. It also was not uncommon for Blacks and Whites to have relationships. This could contribute to the "confused" make-up of the race of the people in this part of town.

The Johnsons and Wilsons are listed as among those families living in Southeast. They lived in Plymouth, Washington, North Carolina on the 1900 census and later on the 1910 and 1920 census they lived in Harnett, North Carolina.