Republicans
Republican Perspective
During this period, the Republican papers took Henry Berry Lowry and placed him in a position of the hero fighting racial and social injustice being inflicted by the Democratic supported groups ranging from the Home Guard during the war, and the Ku Klux Klan and the many posses that came to attempt to apprehend the criminal during the Reconstruction years. Lowry himself is compared to many heroic figures in order to better position the man with the greater public, and his enemies are presented as low characters in their weak attempts to stop him. In the Harper’s Weekly article covering the outlaw, and the novelette “The Swamp Outlaw” by George Alfred Townshed, this is will be examined in greater detail.
In the article by Harper’s Weekly, the Republican periodical exhibits the criminal in a light that shows him more as a hero to the people of Robeson than as a villain. In regards to the event that catapulted Lowry into his criminal career, the murder of his father and brother, it is seen as a result of whites who took sadistic joy on diminishing the rights and livelihood of the Lumbee Indians. Near the beginning of the article, the Lowry family is depicted as being mistreated and forced into their situation by the power that be, “In 1835 the free blacks of North Carolina were deprived of the political and judicial rights of whites, and the seeds of animosity were sown among them. The loss of these rights led to depredations on their property, and the ultimate loss of nearly the whole of it. This induced a sense of injury, which was to breakout in violence in the next generation.”[1]
Even the execution of the Allan and William Lowry was described as an action of “cold blood” by the Home Guard, who only acted out when the Union army of Sherman was gone from the area.[2] And the band themselves were given a very warm depiction, such as being shown as “…invariably respected female virtue, and have committed no acts of arson. They have often spared life where there was a temptation to take it, and have had the provocation of several recent murders committed with less discrimination against their color by the whites…”[3] While this was mentioned in both Republican and Democratic accounts, it is in the Republican writings that try to use this fact to be a corner stone of Lowry and his gang’s code of honor, and not simply a mode of operations, as seen in the Democratic writings. Throughout the rest of the piece, the article shows the band as being a group that is dedicated to protecting their own people, federal soldiers trying to escape Confederate authorities during the war, and defeating all those who tried to extinguish the band’s activities.[4]
In the latter half of the article, Lowry, and certain events that have been associated with his legend, were depicted as if the man was on the same level of American heroism as Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. In one event, Lowry is shown single handedly holding off a larger posse searching for him;
“The adventures of these bandits would make a volume of thrilling interest. Their escapes have been at times almost incredible. Last fall a party of twenty-three soldiers were at a spot called Wiregrass Landing, and as they looked up the narrow channel of the Lumber River they saw Henry Berry Lowery paddling a small flat-bottomed scow, his belt of arms unbuckled and thrown in the bottom of the boat. Instantly the whole party opened fire, when Lowery, with the agility of a terrapin, threw himself into the water on the remote side of the scow, tilted it up like a floating parapet, and reaching inside successfully for his weapons, aimed and fired as coolly as if he were at the head of his band on solid ground. In this position he actually wounded two of the men and put the whole posse to flight.”[5]
As one can see, this is not a version that depicts a blood thirsty and inherently dangerous individual. In fact, we are presented with a man who is fighting an enemy that is worse due to vile nature in which they operate against the people of Robeson County, and can be used to criticize the methodology of the Democratic approach to Reconstruction.
This is evident in how when the democrats claim Lowry as a black form of the Ku Klux, the response is how the Ku Klux, and with that the Democrats, are worse because of the heinous methods of attacking people at night and without a chance to defend themselves.[6] That while purportedly trying to uphold the same laws that the people of the North, and the Republican party particularly, are saying should be enforced, are still seen as vile and even evil in the eye’s of the reader. In this article the people who are hunting the outlaw down are presented as not only the instigators of the problems in Robeson county, but are shown as only making the problems worse through their simple presence.[7]
The book “The Swamp Outlaw”, written by George Alfred Townshed, offers a more dynamic and even a romantic view of the man in both his appearance and in his behaviors to the general public. Even in the subtitle of his account, Townshed calls the outlaw a “Modern Rob Roy and Robin Hood”.[8] Townshed uses other historical figures including the Roman Marc Antony and even the literary lothario Don Juan to enhance the heroic demeanor of Lowry.[9] An interesting note is that during the description of the outlaw, he is also compared to two famous men from the British Isles. Rob Roy, a man who fought a long a bloody feud against the English ruling class, and in a sense of irony, William the Conqueror, who is best known for taking over the English kingdom from the Saxon king, Harold Godwin.[10]
In addition to Townshed comparing the outlaw to famous heroic figures, the writer discussed how the Democratic side tried to present the outlaw as a “Black Ku Klux”.[11] In another part of the same paragraph, a man was quoted by the reporter to say “"The democrats,…as soon as they upset the republicans in Robeson county started to annihilate Scuffletown and its vote by terror. They have been beaten in it. That chap Lowery has made them a laughing stock. He ought to be killed, but they skulk out of his reach."[12]
Both sources emphasize two important points. The first and foremost one is that the outlaw was shown in a way that made him a hero that the American people could rally around. He represented the common man’s ability to stand up to oppressive forces that were determined to stop him. Secondly, the Home Guard in the Harper’s Weekly article are presented as men who persecuted and mercilessly executed an honest citizen and one of his sons, and were unable to contain the vengeance that they well deserved from a member of the victim’s immediate family. This will be the same view shared with the posses formed to try and capture the outlaw. In the Democratic writings, there is an opposite view, with the Home Guard seen as protectors of order and civility, and the Lowry family as a whole the cause of almost all of the troubles occurring in the county.
[1] Harper’s Weekly, "The North Carolina Bandits," Harper's Weekly, March 30, 1872, 251
[2] Harper’s Weekly, "The North Carolina Bandits," Harper's Weekly, March 30, 1872, 251
[3] Ibid
[4] "The North Carolina Bandits," Harper's Weekly, March 30, 1872, 251
[5] "The North Carolina Bandits," Harper's Weekly, March 30, 1872, 251
[6] "The North Carolina Bandits," Harper's Weekly, March 30, 1872, 251
[7] Townshed, George Alfred, The Swamp Outlaw, (New York, Robert M. DeWitt; 1872), 10
[8] Townshed, George Alfred, The Swamp Outlaw, (New York, Robert M. DeWitt; 1872) 1
[9] Townshed, George Alfred, The Swamp Outlaw, (New York, Robert M. DeWitt; 1872), 15
[10] Ibid
[11] Townshed, George Alfred, The Swamp Outlaw, (New York, Robert M. DeWitt; 1872) 10
[12] Townshed, George Alfred, The Swamp Outlaw, (New York, Robert M. DeWitt; 1872) 10