Agenda 02-03-2026; 8-i - National Register Recommendation for Moorefields

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31 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service/National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB Control No.1024-0018 Moorefields (Additional Documentation) Orange County, N.C. Name of Property County and State But a shift occurred in 1820, when the fourth U.S. census enumerated Moore, Jr. as the owner of both Moorefields and Buchoi for the first time. At Moorefields, one free white male between the ages of 16 and 25 was enumerated along with 12 enslaved individuals: four boys under the age of 14,three young men aged between 14 and 25, two men aged 26 to 44, one man over the age of 45, one girl under the age of 14, and one young woman aged 14 to 25. Seven of the 12 enslaved at Moorefields were engaged in agriculture and an undisclosed "commerce."54 Since the free white man's age does not correspond with Moore, Jr.'s age (he would have been 37 years old in 1820), the man was likely an overseer or, less likely, kin. Regardless, the enumeration of an enslaved community at Moorefields for the first time since the first (1790) decennial census suggests that under Moore, Jr.'s ownership, Moorefields was becoming more developed and perhaps inhabited year-around.ss Very little is known about the enslaved community at Moorefields in this early antebellum period, but it is probable that the 12 enslaved individuals who were enumerated at Moorefields in 1820 came from Buchoi. Between 1809 and 1836, Moore, Jr. was involved (either as a grantor or grantee)in at least 12 known transactions of enslaved individuals; all but two of these transactions were recorded in Brunswick County deed books. Some of transactions provide the ages, familial relations, and racial descriptions of the enslaved persons being bought and sold, in addition to first names. A few of the records provide the trades and skills associated with the enslaved individuals in question.But from these small descriptors, a picture of the Moore family's enslaved community begins to emerge. Other sources that shed light on these enslaved communities at Moorefields and Buchoi include newspaper advertisements for runaway slaves. For example, S. Turrentine, the Sheriff of Orange County, placed a notice in The Weekly Raleigh Register in January 1809 announcing that "BEN, well known to be the Property of Alfred Moore, sen. Esquire, unless he may have changed the Property is now in Hillsboro' Jail as a Runaway."56 Moore Jr. placed a runaway advertisement in the Elizabeth City Star as well as the North Carolina Eastern Intelligencer in February 1826, which reads, Twenty Dollars reward. Ranaway from the subscriber on Saturday the 28th ult. Without any cause (as he has twice before done)negro man JOE, about 24 years old, five feet nine inches high and well formed, a little yellow, and has a scar over one eye. He has a wife living in the neighborhood of Mrs. James Pool's Paquotank county where he is probably lurking—The above reward will be paid if delivered to me or secured in gaol so that I get him. Alfred Moore. Hertford, Feb. 11. Et.57 Joe is very likely the mixed-race man described in a January 1812 transaction between Moore, Jr. and his sister-in-law's father, George Mackenzie. Another source of information is Moore's 1810 will, in which he bequeathed several enslaved individuals to his four children.58 Moore listed Young Tony, Israel, and Job as enslaved men he gave to Moore,Jr. in 1809 and also noted that Israel and Job had died before the writing of the will in July 1810. The will also mentions an enslaved woman named Mary, a cook, who was Section 8 page 29