IN MEMORIAM

Josh Halsey was murdered on November 10, 1898, around 2:30 PM during the Wilmington coup by members of the Wilmington Light Infantry as he ran out of the back door of his house. He was 46 years old.

What do we know about Josh Halsey?

He was born around 1852 in Wilmington, North Carolina, to Simon and Satira Halsey. Joshua, 23 at the time, used his formal name on the license when he married 25-year-old Sallie Franklin in 1875, three days before Christmas.

Christmas weddings were common among African Americans because the house sparkled, relatives visited, and the pine wreath decorated the door. Joshua and Sallie stood before the Justice of the Peace with their witnesses, friends, and family for this celebration of their love.

The two of them had four children. Three were alive in 1898. When Josh was killed, Mary was 20, Satira–named after Josh’s mother–was 14, and Bessie was 8.

Both Josh’s race–small c in parentheses for colored–and his occupation were listed in the phone book. He was a laborer.

Maybe he was one of the Black men who loaded ships at the dock with vegetables, fruits, cotton, or rice. Or maybe he worked on the outskirts of town collecting rosin, pitch, and turpentine from pine trees.

Maybe he and his family liked to watch the ships cleave the water a they sailed off to Boston or England with their cargo. Maybe he liked oysters or played the fiddle or made chairs for his house in his free time. Maybe he added his deep bass voice to Sallie’s alto when they sang “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” in their church.

What do we know about Josh Halsey?

We know that he was taking a nap in his house at 812 North 6th Street when one of his children woke him up to say that the Wilmington Light Infantry was searching houses looking for the Black man who had killed or shot at one of the members of the white mob.

What do we know about Josh Halsey?

He and Sallie were not able to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary on December 22,1898, because Josh Halsey was murdered on November 10, 1898, around 2:30 PM during the Wilmington coup by members of the Wilmington Light Infantry as he ran out of the back door of his house. He was 46 years old.

Special thanks to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Wilson Special Collections Library and their wonderful librarians for the research.

Wendy Jones is a writer and the president of Ida Bell Publishing, LLC. The company’s most recent publication is “The Culinary Art Portfolio of Josephine E. Jones,” where art and food intersect.