The America 250 kickoff event, held Feb. 21, featured a number of historical presentations focusing in on events and people in southeastern North Carolina — including one unsung hero who fought for independence in the Revolutionary War.
This presentation was given by Coharie Tribal Historian Cory Brewington, and focused primarily on Revolutionary War veteran Joshua Brewington.
“Events like this are important because they remind people that indigenous history is not a footnote — it is foundational,” a post on the Coharie Tribe’s Facebook page reads. “Our ancestors were here. Our people were involved. Our voices mattered then, and they still matter now.”
According to Cory, Joshua Brewington was born around 1759 in what was then Duplin County but has since become integrated into Sampson County. Brewington served four tours during the war thoughout North and South Carolina.
“During that time, he did serve with some pretty well known individuals,” said Brewington. “He served with James Craig, Colonel Little, Major Anthony Sharpe and a couple other guys. There’s more literature written about them out there. Sadly, Brewington never got his pension before he passed away. The person who was in charge of that was supposedly really lazy and didn’t turn in multiple people’s applications.”
While not much information exists about Joshua Brewington’s time in the service, it is his time after the war where the story truly begins.
“After his tours, he actually ended up retiring in Wilmington at Masonboro Sound,” said Brewington. “From that, whenever he retired and got his land down there, what is basically a Native American community was built around him. Through census documents, you can see a neighborhood starting to form and Native American names that are pretty well known throughout the North Carolina Native American community from different tribes start popping up.”
In the census from his time, Joshua Brewington was classified as an “other freed person.” In census documents from around this time, this category was typically reserved for free African Americans, mixed race people, and Native Americans who lived among the white population. This indicates that Brewington was likely a member of some tribe himself, perhaps the Coharie.
“It’s just really interesting to see a lot of the different tribes of North Carolina, interacting with each other back in the 1820s and ‘30s,” said Brewington. “Nowadays, Native Americans communities conflict over what tribe we are when in reality, 200 years ago we were living back and forth amongst each other pretty heavily.”
A lot of Native American tribes that exist today are actually part of a larger number of tribes that banded together as a way of survival and cultural preservation in the midst of the European colonization of America. In modern day North Carolina, there are eight recognized tribes throughout the state including the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Tribe, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Meherrin, Occaneechi Band of Saponi, Sappony and Waccamaw Siouan. According to the 2020 census, North Carolina is home to over 130,000 Native American and Alaska Natives and has the second largest tribal population east of the Mississippi River.
“To see Cory standing in that space, sharing truth, history, and the legacy of our people was powerful,” the Facebook post continued. “Representation matters. Authentic voices matter. And having one of our own knowledgeable tribal members speak on such a platform ensures our story is told correctly and respectfully.”
To find more about the state’s tribes, visit the NC Department of Administration’s Division of American Affairs at www.doa.nc.gov/divisions/american-indian-affairs.