September 10th 2023.
Thomas Day was a renowned Black furniture maker in North Carolina during the 1800s. His legacy will live on through his home, located in Milton, NC, which is set to become an official historic site.
Thomas was born in approximately 1801, and his home was decorated with a historic marker, signifying Day as a “Free Black cabinetmaker” in the city. His home doubled as his shop in the old Union Tavern, where he worked for a decade beginning in 1848.
Day’s furniture business was widely praised for its expert craftsmanship and beautiful pieces. To honor his memory, volunteers have worked to make sure his home is properly displayed. “By 1850, he is the largest furniture marker in the state of North Carolina,” shared Joe Graves, one of the volunteers. “By a factor of four times, so he was huge.”
Graves showed WUNC reporter Colin Campbell all of the tools Day used to build his renowned furniture, including a saw to cut the veneer pieces for his works.
Volunteers like Graves want the site to grow, especially as it highlights the accomplishments of the historic Black residents within the town. With the assistance of the State Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, they will now be able to showcase and upkeep the “overlooked” site more regularly. Deputy Secretary Dr. Darin Waters detailed the agency’s mission, “We will be able to kind of tell that story, not only through the lens of one man, Thomas Day, but the broader story of free people of color across the state of North Carolina during the antebellum period.”
Despite being a free man, Day still faced racial discrimination and restrictions even as his business flourished. This included his quest to marry a free Black woman from Virginia, which was prohibited by local legislation. Historians believe that Day was “aligned” with abolitionists, but his story, including the alleged use of enslaved labor as part of his operations, is still largely unknown.
Now, with the management of the Thomas Day house, visitors can learn more of his layered history, and the livelihoods of many other Black North Carolinians.
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