Nancy Midgette Spruill
(Tyrrell County)
Featured Character – The Home Front
Nancy
M. Spruill
Courtesy of the Museum of the Albemarle
Born on March 13, 1813, Benjamin Spruill married Nancy
Midgette in 1835. Upon his father’s death, Benjamin Spruill inherited a
large plantation on the Little Alligator River in Tyrrell County.
The 1850 Census lists Benjamin Spruill as the owner of thirty-four slaves, and
the operator of a shingle factory that produced 350,000 cypress shingles in a
single year. By 1860, Spruill owned 58 slaves and grew 11,500 bushels of
corn on his plantation. Although the Spruills left no record of their
feelings on secession, Benjamin Spruill belonged to the Whig Party, which
tended to hold Unionist views. However, his kinsman Eli Spruill voted for
secession at the state convention in 1861 that took North
Carolina out of the Union.
Neither Benjamin Spruill or his two oldest sons served in the Confederate Army,
a further indication of their probable Unionist feelings. Unlike with the
Pettigrews, the end of slavery only marginally affected the Spruills’ lively
hoods. The 1870 Census appraised Benjamin Spruill’s assets at $1,110,
although it also listed him as owner and operator of a sawmill worth $900 and a
grist mill that produced over $5,000 in cornmeal. By 1873, the Spruills
felt secure enough to buy the neighboring Free & Easy Plantation from the
financially-distressed Pettigrew family. Unfortunately, the era of good
feelings did not last beyond the deaths of Benjamin Spruill in 1880 and his
wife’s a year later. After a period of bitter disagreement over Benjamin
Spruill’s will, the Supreme Court of North Carolina ultimately divided the
estate among the surviving heirs.