Henry Berry Lowrie - Gang Leader

Gang Leader

Early in the Civil War, North Carolina turned to forced labor to construct her defenses. Several Lowrie cousins, excluded from military service because they were free men of color (also called free blacks), had been conscripted to help build Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, North Carolina. Other non-whites resorted to "lying out" or hiding in Robeson County's swamps to avoid being rounded up by the Home Guard and forced to work for low wages.

On December 21, 1864, James P. Barnes, a neighbor of Allen Lowrie, accused him of stealing hogs. Henry Lowrie killed him. He also killed James Brantley Harris, a conscription officer, in January 1865 for allegedly mistreating the Lowrie family's women. In March 1865, the Home Guard searched Allen Lowrie's home and found firearms, which he was forbidden as a free black to own. The Home Guard convened a kangaroo court, convicted Allen Lowrie and his son William, and executed them. Henry Lowrie reportedly was watching from the bushes.

In revenge, his gang embarked on a series of robberies and murders against the white establishment, an insurgency that continued until 1872. It 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 black men who were 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 responded with more revenge killings. On December 7, 1865, he married Rhoda Strong. Arrested at his wedding, Lowrie escaped from jail by filing his way through the jail's bars.

Lowrie's band became a powerful force opposing the postwar conservative Democratic power structure, which was pro-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.

In February 1872, shortly after a raid in which he robbed the local sheriff's safe of more than $28,000, Henry Berry Lowrie disappeared. It is claimed he accidentally shot himself while cleaning his double barrel shotgun. As with many folk heroes, the death of Lowrie was disputed, and he was reportedly seen at a funeral several years later. Without his leadership, every member except two were subsequently captured or killed.