George W. Price

George W. Price Jr. (c. 1843 – October 22, 1901) was a laborer, sailor, and politician in North Carolina. An African American, he served in the North Carolina House of Representatives and North Carolina Senate during the Reconstruction era.

Enslaved from birth in North Carolina, he worked as a plasterer to build a number of Wilmington landmarks, including the Bellamy Mansion and Thalian Hall. In 1862, along with William B. Gould and others, Price ran from slavery and joined the U. S Navy. After Emancipation, Price was elected state representative and senator from New Hanover County, North Carolina.

Prior to the Civil War, Price was enslaved by George Benticott. During a rainy night on September 21, 1862, Price escaped with seven other enslaved men by rowing a small boat down the Cape Fear River. Just as the dawn was breaking, they rushed out into the Atlantic Ocean near Fort Caswell. There, the USS Cambridge of the Union blockade picked them up as contraband. Though they had no way of knowing it, within an hour and a half of their rescue President Abraham Lincoln convened a meeting of his cabinet to finalize plans to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Price enlisted into the United States Navy on board the Cambridge, but may have later deserted. He corresponded with William B. Gould throughout the war. After the war, Price grew to have considerable influence within the Black and Republican communities and was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1869-1870 and the North Carolina Senate from 1870 to 1872.

Price was known as an orator, and frequently spoke at ceremonies around North Carolina. In 1881, he led a Black delegation to Washington D.C. where they protested the unfair distribution of federal jobs to President James A. Garfield.

Early life George W. Price Jr. was born in 1843 or 1844. Enslaved in his youth, Price worked as a plasterer under his father, who, though enslaved, was a popular minister in the Wilmington area. In their capacity as plasterers they may have performed work on Bellamy Mansion and Thalian Hall.

American Civil War and aftermath One night in September 1862, amidst the American Civil War, Price, William B. Gould, and six other slaves escaped Wilmington by rowing a small boat out of its harbor to the USS Cambridge, a U.S. Navy ship enforcing the federal blockade. They subsequently enlisted in the navy. His delegation met with the president on March 17 and advocated for the replacement of Raleigh postmaster William Woods Holden by James H. Harris. He led an additional delegation for the same purpose in May. In 1885, he was invited to speak before the General Assembly about "The Negro in the South". In 1887 he worked as a federal customs inspector. In 1889, Price was elected president of the North Carolina State Emigration Bureau, an organization which advocated for the departure of poor black farmers from the state in search of economic prospects elsewhere.

Later life Price continued to work as an artisan and plasterer into the 1890s. By the latter part of the decade he was working as an auctioneer. In 1900, he was recorded as the owner of the "Brooklyn Jobbing House," a used goods store. Price was struck and killed by a freight train at the Wm. E. Worth & Company ice factory in Wilmington on October 22, 1901. Investigators believed that Price had been attempting to cross the railroad tracks quickly when the train surprised him. Newspapers accounts conflict on his surviving relations. A funeral was held for him at Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church and he was buried at Pine Forest Cemetery.