- Title
- North Carolina historical review [1939 : April]
-
-
- Date
- April 1939
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
North Carolina historical review [1939 : April]
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The North Carolina
Historical Review
Volume XVI
April, 1939
Humber 2
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA
ABOUT 1780
By Francis Grave Morris and Phyllis Mary Morris
Part I
Landholdings
There exist among the records collected at Raleigh by the
North Carolina Historical Commission a number of tax lists,
belonging to the Revolutionary period, from various counties in
the State, which appear to be of considerable value in recon¬
structing certain aspects of the economic conditions of the
period since for the first time in the history of the Colony or
State, taxation based on property replaced the poll tax. In the
April session of the assembly in 1777 there was passed βAn Act
for levying a tax by General Assessment and other Purposes,β
which enacted that βa tax of one penny value be levied on each
pound value of all the Lands, Lots, Houses, Slaves, Money, Money
at Interest, Stock in Trade, Horses and Cattle in this State.β1 AlΒ¬
though by subsequent acts passed later in the same year, in 1779,
and again in 1782 modifications in the method of assessment and
collection were made, property as thus defined remained the
basis of taxation until 1784, when fresh legislation re-introduced
the poll tax combined with a land tax, other kinds of property
being exempted. From the assessments made in the counties
from 1777 to 1783, it is therefore possible to gain considerable
information about certain kinds of property, particularly lands
and slaves, held by the inhabitants at that time. Although by
no means all the lists have survived, there are still sufficient to
warrant a fairly general survey of the State. In order to make
1 Laws of North Carolina, 1777 (April session). Chap. II, Sec. 2. The entire act is in
State Records of North Carolina, XXIV, 6-9.
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