Bedsole - NCGenWeb

Patrick Henry, dated 25th April, 1781, a few days after the actual happening, wherein he says: " The
Northward (Shawnee) Indians have been troubling the people very much this spring, in small parties; killing
and captivating and wounding. They come up Sandy River generally, and on the last occasion, penetrated as
far as the settlement on Holston, carrying off a son of Captain Bledsoe's". (Abraham Bedsole, Jr.)
Abraham Bledsoe (Sr.) settled on the upper part of Reedy Creek in the year 1730, according to his land
survey, but he was certainly in the area earlier than this date (In fact, he owned land there in 1726) , and on
February 14th, 1728, he was appointed by the Court of Botetourt Co., VA, "Constable in the precinct he lived
in upon Reed Creek." He later moved to Moccasin Creek of the North Fork of Holston River, where he died
near Moccasin Gap in the summer of 1801. His wife was named Catherine, and among his children were:
Thomas Bledsoe, born in North Carolina in 1760 (Actually 1750) and who married on 6 November 1769;
(After all, he could not have married at 9 years old) Margaret Eakin; Abraham Bledsoe, III, and he was
perhaps the one who was captured by the Indians; three daughters, Thely, who married James Eakin,
brother of Margaret who married Thomas Bledsoe; Hetty Bittle and Polly Bledsoe. This is almost certainly our
Thomas Bedsole, Sr., and accounts for the reason I could not locate him in NC from prior to his birth until he
was about 27 years old (1777, when he was in the Revolutionary War).
Sharecroppers And Their Annual, End-Of-Year "Settling Up" : My Own Experience
For those Bedsoles fortunate enough to own their own land, harvest-time meant they picked, hauled, traded,
stored and sold their produce and crops, for cash and/or trade-goods. But the vast majority of them, like us,
ended up being share-croppers.That means they would work all year for a landowner and when the crops
were harvested and sold in the fall and the costs deducted, the landowner would theoretically share the
difference with the sharecropper. However, since the landowner had made advance arrangements with a
store owner to allow the farmer a specified amount of credit during the year for food, clothing, and farming
tools, the cost of all that had to be deducted from the profits before any profit was divided between them.
In sharecropping, the landowner would guarantee payment in the fall to the store owner and the farmer was
always forced to almost starve his family because the landowner would set such a low credit limit, such as
$300 for the entire year. Even back then, that was not a lot of money. The farmer simply could not adequately
provide for his family on such a small pittance. Imagine, $25 a month for 12 people, which was to pay for any
and all expenses.
Therefore, hunting and fishing were meaningful activities, for acquiring meat. In addition, the landowner and
storekeeper but not the farmer, kept “the record” all year, since the farmers could neither read nor write, this
left the storekeeper and landowner free to overcharge the poor farmers, whatever they could get away with.
But, that’s how share-cropping was done and had been done as far back as anyone could remember. My
own parents also were typical share-croppers their whole lives and that’s how we lived. In late 1926, when
his own father died, my dad, being the oldest son and responsible for his fathers estate, entered into verbal
agreements with a store owner in Alabama, who eventually foreclosed on him and took all my grandfathers
land, eleven houses and property and left us no choice but to become share-croppers.
This did not mean a lot of difference in living for us, though. Although my dad could probably have prevailed
in court in this case, he was very ignorant of the law and procedures and his word was his bond.
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Unfortunately, he thought everyone else with whom he did business was also as honest. That was and still is,
a very big, very costly, and very sad mistake. One I still make myself, which gives you some indication of my
level of stupidity and total lack of intelligence. Anyway, share-cropping meant the landowners made their