Thomas Day was born in 1801 to free Black parents and was highly educated.
He had access to an apprenticeship and eventually became a massively successful cabinetmaker in North Carolina.
He owned land, made furniture for local elites, and was so well-respected that despite a ban on free Black emigration to North Carolina, authorities let his wife move there.
He was the only Black person allowed to sit in the main area of the local church. One reason they liked him so much? He owned slaves himself!
So was Thomas Day a turncoat who gave up on his own people to gain assimilation privileges? Not so fast.
Those privileges only extended so far. He couldn’t testify against a white person in court. If a white person refused to pay him for his work, he was out of luck.
As for slavery, he was secretly traveling to the North to attend anti-slavery meetings. Some believe he only owned enslaved people as a cover.
And when an economic collapse happened in 1857, it affected Blacks the hardest, and he was quickly thrust into bankruptcy and died broke.
Thomas Day’s legacy lives on in the many museums that display his master craftwork.
Much like today, Black people of the past had to move carefully to protect themselves and their families. We can’t be too quick to judge how any Black person tries to survive in an anti-Black society!