A slave named Dave, who belonged to Sheriff Thomas K. Morrisey, was planning to march to Wilmington with a group of conspirators, killing white landowners on the way.
[1] This display was also used to warn children of how to treat whites and what would happen if they did not behave, creating a scared and submissive younger generation at the time.
Colonel Timothy Bloodworth (sometimes spelled Bludworth) discovered a hollow tree 7 feet in diameter at Point Peter on Negro Head Road.
When Colonel Bloodworth discovered this tree, he believed he could create a rifle to pick off British troops in the town while remaining concealed and far from danger.
He and his teenage son at the time, Thomas, set up camp for two weeks in that tree and created an opening targeting Market Dock, where the British troops tended to assemble themselves.
[9] Timothy Bloodworth was born in North Carolina and began designing muskets and bayonets for the Continental Army in 1776, carrying on his father's expertise and using the hollow tree to his advantage against the redcoats in the town.