". . . The most fertile brain never conjured up such deeds of courage, cruelty and skillful military stratagem as have marked the career of these undaunted men, in whose veins the blood of the Indian and Negro is strangely commingled. . . ."
George Alfred Townsend (1841 – 1914), was a noted war correspondent during the American Civil War and later became a famous author, whose most famous work was "The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth."
In 1872, Townsend published "The Swamp Outlaws or the North Caronina Bandits" which is a true story of a gang of North Carolina swamp outlaws led by Henry Berry Lowrie or Lowry during and after the American Civil War. He is sometimes viewed as a Robin Hood type figure, especially by the Lumbee people, who consider him a Native American ancestor and a pioneer in the fight for civil rights and tribal self-determination. Lowrie was described by George Alfred Townsend, a correspondent for the New York Herald in the late 19th century, as “[o]ne of those remarkable executive spirits that arises now and then in a raw community without advantages other than those given by nature."
The attempts to capture the gang members became known as the Lowry War. The Lowrie gang consisted of Henry Lowrie, his brothers Stephen and Thomas, two cousins (Calvin and Henderson Oxendine), two of his brothers-in-law, two escaped slaves, a white man, and two other men of unknown relation.
Lowrie's gang continued its actions into Reconstruction. Republican governor William Woods Holden outlawed Lowrie and his men in 1869, and offered a $12,000 reward for their capture: dead or alive. Lowrie's band opposed the postwar conservative Democratic power structure, which worked to reassert its political dominance and white supremacy. The Lowrie gang robbed and killed numerous people of the establishment. Because of this, they gained the sympathy of the non-white population of Robeson County. The authorities were unable to stop the Lowrie gang, largely because of this support.
Strange, unlikely and almost Incredible as the deeds may appear which crimson the sluggish swamp streams of the Old North State, and which are graphically narrated in the following pages, they may be relied on as perfectly authentic.
George Alfred Townsend (1841 – 1914), was a noted war correspondent during the American Civil War and later became a famous author, whose most famous work was "The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth."
In 1872, Townsend published "The Swamp Outlaws or the North Caronina Bandits" which is a true story of a gang of North Carolina swamp outlaws led by Henry Berry Lowrie or Lowry during and after the American Civil War. He is sometimes viewed as a Robin Hood type figure, especially by the Lumbee people, who consider him a Native American ancestor and a pioneer in the fight for civil rights and tribal self-determination. Lowrie was described by George Alfred Townsend, a correspondent for the New York Herald in the late 19th century, as “[o]ne of those remarkable executive spirits that arises now and then in a raw community without advantages other than those given by nature."
The attempts to capture the gang members became known as the Lowry War. The Lowrie gang consisted of Henry Lowrie, his brothers Stephen and Thomas, two cousins (Calvin and Henderson Oxendine), two of his brothers-in-law, two escaped slaves, a white man, and two other men of unknown relation.
Lowrie's gang continued its actions into Reconstruction. Republican governor William Woods Holden outlawed Lowrie and his men in 1869, and offered a $12,000 reward for their capture: dead or alive. Lowrie's band opposed the postwar conservative Democratic power structure, which worked to reassert its political dominance and white supremacy. The Lowrie gang robbed and killed numerous people of the establishment. Because of this, they gained the sympathy of the non-white population of Robeson County. The authorities were unable to stop the Lowrie gang, largely because of this support.
Strange, unlikely and almost Incredible as the deeds may appear which crimson the sluggish swamp streams of the Old North State, and which are graphically narrated in the following pages, they may be relied on as perfectly authentic.
