01:12 AM Saturday, February 11, 2012
Little-Known Black History Fact: The Lowery Gang
Date: Wednesday, December 02, 2009, 5:33 am
By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show
By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show
George Applewhite (above) and the Lowery Gang are the subject of today's "Little-Known Black History Fact."
Escaped slave George Applewhite and Henry Berry Lowery formed The Lowry Gang together in the early part of the 19th century to fight against racial oppression of Native Americans and black slaves in Robeson, North Carolina.
Lowery, a Lumbee Indian, was away when his family was assaulted and murdered by the Confederate militia home guard. He vowed justice. Applewhite, an ex-slave and friend of the Lumbee, was one of two black men who joined Lowry’s band of Robin Hoods.
The soldiers of the Confederacy made many bogus accusations of theft and murder against the Lumbees and slaves, fueling the fire. Both groups went into hiding and were starving in swamps, so Applewhite and the rest of the Lowery Gang took action. Applewhite and former slave Eli Ewin rode with Lowery, robbing banks, and stealing, shooting anyone in their way.
In 1870, Applewhite had a $6,000 reward for his capture. He was working on a railroad under an assumed name when he was captured, convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. But as usual, Applewhite escaped from prison. He was later pardoned under the Amnesty Act of 1873 and married into the Lumbee Oxendine family. The Lowery Gang would go down as heroes in Robeson, N.C. Their nine-year quest for revenge would be called the Lowery War.
Right now, the National Museum of American Indians at the National Mall in D.C. have an exhibit called “IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas,” running through May 31, 2010.
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