Thomas Day (1801- ca. 1861)
Desk that Day made.Image courtesy of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History, Raleigh, NC.
Famous for his craftsmanship, Thomas Day, a free African American, became one of North Carolina’s most prolific furniture makers. Born to free parents in Dinwiddie, Virginia, Day and his brother, John Jr., were well-educated.
Between 1817-1820, Thomas’s father, John Day Sr., moved the family to Warren County, North Carolina to obtain employment from Thomas Reynolds, a well-known cabinetmaker in Warrenton. In 1823, Day moved to Milton, North Carolina, a town in Caswell County, to work with his brother in starting a furniture enterprise. John Jr., however, left North Carolina in 1825 and returned to Virginia, leaving Day to operate the business.
As his business grew, Day purchased property on Milton’s Main Street and advertised his goods in the Milton Gazette and Roanoke Advertiser newspapers. In addition to his business ventures, Day became a major stockholder in the local branch of the North Carolina Bank and owned property outside of Milton. He produced a standard line of furniture and made custom furniture for the wealthy. Day also made mantles, stairs, window and door frames, newel posts, and other decorative and functional trim.
In the late 1850s, Day’s successful business took a turn for the worse. Experiencing the economic downturn that the Panic of 1857 and the increasing restrictions placed on free African American's economic and everyday lives, Day and his business were in receivership- a term meaning that a business avoided liquidation by being reorganized by a court-appointed trustee. The court turned his business over to his friend and business partner, Dabney Terry, as a trustee of his property. In 1859, Day’s son, Thomas Jr., executed a note for his father’s debts, and the property was returned. Following the execution of the note, Thomas Jr. sold the business in 1871 and left Milton.
In 1861, Day disappeared from public records. It is possible that he died that year and that town locals supported him during his final years. His body is buried near Milton, on property that he once owned.
Sources:
Thomas Day: North Carolina’s Best Cabinet Maker http://www.ncdcr.gov/features/thomas_day.asp (Assessed May 21, 2010); Thomas Day. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncccha/biographies/thomasday.html (Assessed May 21, 2010); John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (New York, 1994); William Powell ed. The Encyclopedia of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, 2006).
By Adrienne Dunn, North Carolina History Project
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Related Categories: Entrepreneurship, Business and Industry, African American