New Bern, the Newtons, and the Underground Railroad
NBHS Historian/Claudia Houston
New Bern has long stood as a crossroad of risk and resilience and a waterway toward liberty for many. From the meeting of the Neuse and Trent Rivers to the broad Atlantic the waterfront was a place where Black watermen, ship captains, abolitionists, and others helped people escape bondage. Today, the New Bern Waterfront has been designated by the National Park Service as a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site, acknowledging that legacy.
Among the stories of this waterfront is that of Mary Herritage Newton, a free woman of color living in New Bern. Her husband, Thaddeus Newton, was enslaved at the home of Dr. Peter Custis. Mary and Thaddeus married on February 14, 1837, but North Carolina law did not recognize marriage between a free person and an enslaved person. Against convention, Mary took the surname Newton for herself and her children.
In 1852, Alexander Herritage Newton, the Newton’s oldest child, was apprenticed to local merchant Jacob Gooding as an artisan bricklayer and plasterer. Alexander’s work brought him under the supervision of Henry Bryan, an enslaved artisan. When Alexander caused a work conflict, Henry could not punish him. Alexander was free, and he could not be punished by an overseer as an enslaved person might have been. However, his employer could punish him and lashed him thirty-nine times with a whip, a punishment he never forgot.
Alexander later wrote in his 1910 memoir, Out of the Briars, that he was “deeply interested” in the Underground Railroad and tried “to get all the passengers for this railroad” that he could. His opportunity to help came when Henry Bryan ran afoul of authority and became terrified of being whipped. Alexander disguised him as a woman and hid him in the home of a prominent merchant and enslaver. Henry’s owner searched the town and environs, offering a reward for his capture. When the search quieted, Alexander guided Henry to the waterfront and onto a northbound ship.
In Out of the Briars, Alexander remembered the moment with pride. He wrote that they found a chance to place Henry on “this mystic train” to a place where he could “enjoy his freedom,” calling it “a daring attempt…on the side of right and humanity.” It should be noted that New Bern had a large population of Black artisans, who were instrumental in the Underground Railroad.
In 1857, at age 19, Alexander completed his apprenticeship and worked his way north as a ship’s cook, arriving in Brooklyn, New York. There, he reunited with his mother, who had gone north earlier with her children, and connected with abolitionist leaders, including Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, who helped the family to raise funds to purchase Thaddeus’s freedom. Thaddeus was finally united with his family in the North.
Thaddeus’s health was poor, which limited his ability to work. He became a peddler, Mary took in laundry, and the family moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where their combined labor helped them save for a down payment on a mortgage.
The Newtons suffered a loss in the Civil War. In 1863, their son, Stephen Newton, joined the 54th Massachusetts Regiment and died in the assault on Fort Wagner. Later that year, Alexander enlisted in the 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry, bringing his younger brother, William Newton, then only 15, to serve as a captain’s attendant. Both brothers were discharged in 1865.
After the war, Alexander remained in New Haven, married, and became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, preaching widely before settling with his family in Camden, New Jersey. Thaddeus and Mary remained in the family home in New Haven, with Thaddeus dying in 1868 and Mary in 1904.
Alexander Herritage Newton, Civil War soldier and Underground Railroad Conductor, is buried in New Jersey. He died in 1922 at the age of eighty-three. His burial place is recognized as a National Park Underground Railroad site, as is the New Bern waterfront, where his freedom work began. For residents and visitors who walk along the river, this is an opportunity to remember the stories of those who chose liberty over fear.