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With their secret religious society now established, John Lewelling and his fellow members then had to find ways to recruit like-minded locals into their plot. In crafting the structure and recruiting process for the new society, Lewelling repeatedly referred back to religious terms and symbols.

Lewelling enlisted the help of a small circle of supporters and appointed them as senior wardens for the society. The term "senior warden" alluded to the religious nature of the society and its goals. In the Anglican church, senior wardens occupied leadership roles in the congregation. They could hold religious readings and acted as an intermediary between the rector and the people. For Lewelling, his senior wardens would have the authority to swear new members into the society in his absence. They were also distributed throughout the area, so for example, while John Lewelling inducted new members in Martin County, Daniel Leggett did so in Bertie and Tyrrell Counties.

Finding likeminded locals eligible for induction into the society was another matter. Senior wardens in the society such as James Sherrard, Daniel Leggett, and John Lewelling designated certain trusted members of the society as recruiters, who could approach people, gauge their interest,and refer them to a senior warden for more information.

Recruiters often approached their own family members. John Garrett of Tyrrell County, for example, likely recruited five of his family members into the plot. Aside from approaching people at their own homes, recruiters also often took advantage of community events where groups of men gathered together.

John Everett approached John Harrison and Thomas Rogers, both Tyrrell County farmers, at the end of a religious reading at Everett's father's house. Bertie County farmer Peleg Belote was recruited after attending a sermon near James Sherrard's house in Martin County.

Daniel Leggett approached Stephen Harrison, Bird Land, and William Howard during a wheat reaping at Jonathan Davis' house, wherein men from the community visited one farmer's homestead to assist in the labor intensive tasks associated with harvest time. Several other members of the conspiracy mentioned gathering at Thomas Harrison's peach and apple orchards.

In nearly all cases, the recruiter would approach a potential member and engage him in a discussion about the threats to religion of the day. If he answered that he too wanted to protect the Protestant religion, the recruiter would take him to a secluded area where they wouldn't be seen or overheard, such as a quiet path, an isolated field, or inside a barn. There the recruiter would ask him if he could keep a secret. If the man agreed to swear to keep a secret, he'd make an oath and become a preliminary member of the society.

Still as a preliminary member, men had no idea what they had signed up for, except for that it was a religious organization meant to protect the Protestant religion. In order to get more information, the recruit would refer them to a senior warden in the area. Still, it was a secret society, so how could they approach a fellow member without raising suspicion? Like any good secret society, the Gourd Patch conspirators used a complicated system of secret signs and passwords.

New recruits received a special stick with three notches cut into it, with instructions to present the stick to a senior warden of the society. They were to present their stick to the warden, and the protocol was as follows:

The religious symbolism in the secret signs of the society abounded. In some cases, rather than "Be True," the password was "INRI," an abbreviation of a Latin term meaning "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews." As one historian has noted, the society's members were quite literally telling one another "to be true to INRI."

Be true

INRI

There were also numerous references to the holy trinity in the society's symbology. Aside from the three cut notches on the stick, one member, Charles Rhodes, was instructed to "shut Three Fingers of the left Hand and draw the fore Finger over the Face." Further when a provisionary member met with a senior warden, there were up to three additional secret oaths they could take. These signs and symbols all pointed back to how these zealous farmers of the Albemarle Sound wanted to observe and protect their religion and values.

It's difficult to be certain just how many people were involved in the Gourd Patch Conspiracy. Because of the system of regional senior wardens and recruiters, many members only knew the handful of fellow members with whom they'd been recruited. Even though John Lewelling is widely regarded as the leader of the plot, only nineteen members implicated him in the depositions that found their way to the archives. In contrast, Daniel Leggett, a senior warden for Bertie, implicated fifty four people in the plot (most of whom he swore into the society) but never named Lewelling, and may not have even been aware that he was the movement's founder.

Only some cells of the secret plot's network may have been uncovered by state authorities. When the plot was eventually discovered in July 1777, many members destroyed any evidence in an attempt to escape criminal charges. Further, the records for some counties may not have survived. Still, based on the extant historical records, it is possible to make some conclusions about the plot.

Only one membership list for the society survives--one from Daniel Leggett, a senior warden for Bertie. In it, he implicates fifty four individuals, most of whom are from Martin and Bertie Counties. A number of depositions survive which implicate men from Tyrrell and Pitt county as well. While some relevant sources suggest that the society also had supporters in nearby Edgecombe and Halifax Counties, no records exist which can prove that definitively. Below is a map outlining the possible extent of the movement:

Map outlining North Carolina's counties and military districts at the time of the Gourd Patch Conspiracy. Counties highlighted in orange contain at least one confirmed member of the plot. Counties highlighted in purple were suggested to contain conspirators, but no records survive to prove such a claim. Courtesy Linda Reeves, State Archives of North Carolina.

Moreover, some members of the plot claimed that its extent went far beyond the Albemarle Sound. James Hays, a Martin County farmer, supposedly "travelled some thousand Miles endeavouring to get as many people to [Associate] as possible." William Skiles reported that he had learned the movement first started in Virginia, and that it also had supporters near the Haw River west of Hillsborough and also in South Carolina. Leggett claimed that the society extended as far south as Georgia. No evidence has been located which supports the claims that the plot operated to this large of an extent, however.

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A wide variety of Christian and Jewish people, including Quakers, Moravians, Baptists, and Catholics all called colonial North Carolina home. Despite this religious toleration, North Carolina, like all of the British Empire, only had one state-supported religion: Protestantism, and more specifically the Church of England, or Anglicanism.

In the colonial era, being Anglican, or at least Protestant, was a central part of British identity. British subjects, both at home and in the colonies, were united by the Book of Common Prayer, and by a conviction that their specific religious denomination was especially chosen by God.

British subjects felt that their Protestantism was what set them apart from their old enemies: France and Spain, both Catholic monarchies. Consequently, many British people not only celebrated their own religion, but also fervently opposed people who practiced anything different. For many people, to be British was to be Protestant. Britons believed they were among the only Europeans who were truly free, as they, unlike the Catholics in France and Spain, only answered to God rather than to the Pope.

A sense of animosity towards Catholics and the French more specifically was an undercurrent in British identity. Indeed Francophobia and anti-Catholicism was so strong that for many colonists, "no greater earthly enemy existed" than Catholic France.

Satirical print titled "Protestant & Liberty or the Overthrow of Popery & Tyranny," 1757. The print depicts Lady Justice, surrounded by Faith, Hope, Charity and Liberty. On the right, the devil and the pope attempt to weigh the scales of justice in their favor, but are unsuccessful. A metaphor for the triumph of good over evil, the print reinforces that attitude many Britons held that Protestantism and liberty were intertwined and both at odds with Catholicism. Courtesy of the British Museum.

When the American Revolution ignited and North Carolina became an independent state, religious North Carolinians found themselves lost. There was no longer a state religion, and now suddenly the state's elite spoke of a possible alliance with France and Spain, their oldest foes. Many colonists had learned every Sunday since their birth that their freedom as British subjects was constantly under threat from Catholics under the devil's influence. Now suddenly they heard that it was only through a Catholic alliance that Americans could truly be free. Such an abrupt change was hard for many of the Albemarle's farmers to accept. In contrast, it was easier to believe that a conspiracy was afoot, and that the revolutionary leadership was being led astray by evil Catholic schemers.

Sometime in December 1776 or March 1777 after a meeting of militiamen in Martin County, John Lewelling approached James Rawlings looking for a favor. Lewelling was a prominent planter in Martin County and owned over 600 acres on the Conetoe Swamp. A religious man, he had served as a justice of the peace in the county and was well-known and regarded. On the way home from the muster call, he and his friend John Carter came to Rawlings seeking his blessing. Rawlings was a lay reader, or local religious leader for the Anglican Church, and Lewelling wanted his thoughts on one of the leading concerns of the day: the tension between revolution and faith. Since the Declaration of Independence, North Carolina had become spiritually unmoored from its traditional Protestant foundations. Suddenly French people were coming and settling in Edenton, and there were talks of a military alliance with Catholic France and Spain. These changes were alarming to devout farmers like Lewelling, and he concluded that he may have to take matters into his own hands. He told Rawlings:

The community needed to take a stand against these new threats to their Anglican way of life, and the state's leadership were not doing enough to uphold and protect their religious values. In fact, the new state constitution written in December 1776 stated that there was no longer an official religion. This new law, as Lewelling saw it, was only a sign of what was to come for the state's attempts to erode the importance of religion. Religious tolerance meant that Catholics would be welcomed into the state, and Lewelling was concerned. In response to these recent acts, Lewelling and Carter proposed creating a society which would promote and protect Protestant values under the new government. All members would need to swear an oath to join, and they'd pay dues for a lay reader, such as Rawlings, who could lead the society in religious services.

The society had humble, peaceful beginnings, but there was one thing that made it notable: it was a secret. Men could only join the society by invitation, and the group's activities were not discussed openly. After all, as Lewelling believed, there was a conspiracy of pro-Catholics and atheists afoot in the Albemarle Sound, so they'd need to keep their group a secret lest the anti-religion North Carolinians in power squash it. The extent and goals of Lewelling's society soon snowballed and it became a sort of conspiracy in its own right. Though never named by it's members, historians today call it the Lewelling Conspiracy, or the Gourd Patch Affair.

North Carolina Constitution of 1776. While it said all office holders had to be Protestant, it also stated there was no longer an official state religion, which was controversial for Gourd Patch associators. Courtesy of State Archives of North Carolina.

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> Home: The Kirk Holden War of 1870

> Part 1: A Declaration of Insurrection

Introduction

In the summer of 1870, Governor William W. Holden and the reconstruction-era state government engaged in a police action—known informally as the Kirk-Holden War—against the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist terrorist group that had taken hold in North Carolina.

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A Declaration of Insurrection

The Kirk-Holden War transpired during the uncertain times following the Civil War, a volatile period known as the Reconstruction Era. From the ashes of the Confederacy rose a new threat known as the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist terrorist organization that sought to curtail Republican influence and Black suffrage through violence and intimidation. Growing Klan activity, in the counties of Alamance and Caswell particularly, forced Governor Holden into action.

The Way of War

As the Kirk-Holden War progressed, well-known guerrilla fighter George W. Kirk joined Governor Holden's campaign in June 1870. With men from the North Carolina militia under his command, Colonel Kirk set about arresting suspected Klan leaders. Federal troops, sent by President Ulysses S. Grant, helped deter violence and maintain order. 

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Who is Margaret Elizabeth Cotten?

Margaret Elizabeth Cotten (1835-1895) was a young woman who attended St. Mary's School in Raleigh prior to the Civil War. The daughter of John Whitaker Cotten and Laura Placidia Cotten (née Clark), she was born into two prominent and influential high society families, which afforded her a variety of connections in North Carolina society. Her status provided her with both the money and the education that many women of the time did not receive, but these privileges came as the result of her family's enslavement of various people.

This diary provides a look at Margaret Eliza Cotten's life from October 1853 to July 1854, from age seventeen to eighteen, ending a year before her marriage to Joseph Adolphus Engelhard. Most of her entries record her daily activities, ranging from traveling up to St. Mary's School, to visiting Wilmington for Christmas, to interactions with various close friends and potential suitors.

Suitors, Courtship, and Marriage

For a young eligible woman of means, marriage was seen as a necessary step. By her eighteenth birthday, it was likely that getting married and finding a husband was a chief concern among Margaret's friend groups and family. Marriages among the elite in 1850s Raleigh could be for love, but could also be for money, stability, and patriarchal expectations. Margaret was not naive of these outcomes and stated herself that she hoped to never fall in love or marry, perhaps for personal reasons or in recognition of her own rights and privileges. Several close female family members, such as Maria Toole Haywood and Eliza Eagles Haywood, never married, and lived their lives single with the money to do so.

Marriage for Margaret would have meant losing a level of her own financial independence and having to submit to a man's authority. Losing her father at a young age undoubtedly shaped her family dynamic, and though she was placed under the guardianship of her uncles, she also gained independence other young women did not have. Her interactions with potential suitors, who accompanied her on walks and to parties, demonstrate that many were interested in her hand in marriage. In the spring of 1854, Margaret received a letter from someone she would not name, stating he was in love with her, with feelings she did not reciprocate. 

Records show that in late 1855, a little over a year after the end of her diary, Margaret married Joseph Adolphus Engelhard, with whom she was close friends with during the time of her diary. As no other diary from Margaret exists, we do not know how she felt about her wedding and eventual marriage. They would go on to have four children together and lived in North Carolina until Engelhard's death in 1879. She never remarried.

"Popping the Question" created by lithographer Sarony & Major circa 1846. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

"The Marriage" created by lithographer Sarony & Major circa 1846. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

"Mary Bryce (or Brice) of Point of Honor, Lynchburg, Virginia" circa 1853. Taken by photographer Peter E. Gibbs. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Taken from around the time Margaret Eliza Cotten's diary, this daguerreotype shows one woman who was enslaved during the 1850s.

Slavery and Emancipation in Raleigh

Through the wills of the Cotten family and Margaret's diary, it is evident that they enslaved around twenty people. Unfortunately, these individuals are often omitted from the narrative. The Cotten family's wealth could only be amassed through the exploitation of the enslaved, but in Cotten's diary, enslaved people's contributions and stories are pushed to the background. Unfortunately, in Margaret's mind, they are an afterthought in the record of her day-to-day activities, even though these enslaved individuals were what made her life possible.

In 1870 census records, several individuals mentioned in the diary can be found, then living free in Raleigh. Fountaine and Malvina by 1870 were living in the area and working for a wage. While their whole story cannot be told from just these census records, it demonstrates the newfound freedoms that enslaved people had following the Civil War and Emancipation. Both of them had taken on the last name "Cotten" or some variation of it, as was common for emancipated individuals to take on their former enslaver's name. Other individuals, such as Virgil, Davy, and Henrietta could not be located post-emancipation and may have moved or taken on other names.

How Women are Remembered and How We Research the Past

Margaret Elizabeth Engelhard (née Cotten) died in January 1895, having outlived her husband by about sixteen years. Her obituary in the Raleigh News and Observer from February 1st of that year opens with the words: One of Raleigh's Best Known and Honored Women Passes Away. Little is said however, about her accomplishments or personality outside of her parentage, husband, and children. Noted, is her general unwillingness to leave Raleigh and to leave her husband's grave. It is possible that some of her fears about marriage were realized. With no other diary currently known, Margaret Eliza Cotten's diary from 1853-1854 is our main source that provides insight into her thoughts and perspectives. Often times, the sources from women are limited, and her diary in the North Carolina State Archives is a useful tool to look at Raleigh from the 1850s, but one of just a single perspective. 

The Gourd Patch Affair, or the Lewelling Conspiracy, was a failed uprising against North Carolina's Patriot government in the summer of 1777. A group of Martin, Tyrrell, Pitt, and Bertie County farmers met in a pumpkin patch and crafted a secret plot. Their aim? Assassinate North Carolina's governor, overthrow the state government, and protect the Protestant religion.

In the end their plot was discovered and the ring's leader, John Lewelling, was the first man ever granted clemency by the State of North Carolina.

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Gunpowder, Treason, & Plot: First Arrests

As membership grew, Lewelling and others formed a more radical plan. They planned to seize ammunition and assassinate the governor in Halifax, but it was not long before their secret got out.

Fight or Flight

When the State Government discovered the conspiracy, the group's leadership was faced with the choice of continuing the fight, or trying to flee from authorities to avoid punishment.

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> Home: North Carolina and the Space Race

> Part 2: Project Gemini

Mercury-Redstone 3, carrying astronaut Alan B. Shepard and his capsule Freedom 7, launched on May 5, 1961. Courtesy NASA.

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> Part 1: Project Mercury