ABOUT
Home of Samuel Hall's master, Hugh Roddy Hall, his wife Mary Nesbit Hall, and their children. Hugh Hall taught at Ebenezer Academy, a preparatory school founded by his uncle, James Hall.
James Hall Adams, Sr. in front of Hall home.
An encounter with the family history that inspired this scholarship.
Samuel Hall was an enslaved man who lived on a plantation in Iredell County from 1818 until he was sold to another enslaver in 1855 and taken to a plantation near the Tennessee-Mississippi line. Samuel Hall was born and raised on the Hall plantation. As a young man, his master was Hugh Hall, an educator, who taught his slaves how to read and write. Many years later, after the Emancipation Proclamation when Samuel Hall was freed, he settled in Washington, Iowa.
At age 94, he decided to write a brief story of his life. In his book, Samuel Hall listed the names of his parents, siblings, half-siblings, wife, and children. This actual record of an enslaved person's life and family is rare. The book chronicles his life and experiences in slavery and afterwards. It gives an insight into what the life of a slave could be like. Most enslaved people's names were not listed in a census record, so their descendants were usually unable to learn about their family history before 1865, let alone the experiences of their ancestors.
The Hall plantation where Samuel Hall was enslaved until age 37 is near Freedom Presbyterian Church. It has remained in the Hall family and is now owned by Hugh Hall's great-great-grandson, James Hall Adams, Jr.
In 2023, James' wife Becky, through her genealogical research, was able to connect with two of the descendants of Samuel Hall. Since the descendants did not know where Samuel Hall and his relatives had lived, James and Becky Adams invited them to a gathering at the farm in July 2023. See the video below of the descendants of Samuel Hall Gathering (credits to Javis Hough, videographer).
Freedom Presbyterian Church, together with the descendants of Samuel Hall and the descendants of Hugh Roddy Hall, his enslaver, have established a scholarship in honor of Samuel Hall. Samuel Hall's half-brother, Ceasar Hall, was a founding member of Freedom Presbyterian Church.
The Samuel Hall Scholarship has been established to assist African American and other high school seniors in Iredell County to attend college and to assist those high school seniors who are descendants of Samuel Hall his half-brother Caesar or others who were enslaved on the Hall Plantation to attend college regardless of where they live in the United States. It is the hope of those who established this scholarship to enable students to continue Samuel Hall's legacy of valuing education, hard work, and family. They hope to encourage the study of African American history and the contributions that enslaved people made to Iredell County and North Carolina.