When the Bellamy’s left their newly built house on Market Street in 1862 to escape the Civil War and Yellow Fever epidemic, little did they know that they would not officially return for over two years, in the fall of 1865. After leaving Wilmington, the Bellamy’s lost their house due to the Confiscation Act of July 17, 1862, which “authorized in rem procedures against the property of Southern rebels and their sympathizers” and “stated that the properties seized were to be used for supporting the Union cause in waging its war” (Kochan). It was thanks to Dr. Bellamy’s efforts after the war to obtain a presidential pardon from President Johnson that the family regained their property and house. Yet, what did it take to get his pardon after the war? The troubles that the Bellamy’s went through are in part due to the reconstruction efforts of President Andrew Johnson.

Johnson was caught between the two sides that had appeared due to the war--the union supporters and the Secessionists. He himself was a Democrat from Tennessee, and in his government positions, “generally adhered to the dominant Democratic views favoring lower tariffs and opposing antislavery agitation” (“Andrew Johnson”). Yet, after Lincon’s election in 1860, Johnson broke away from the Democratic party when he voiced his dissent against Southern secession. When Lincoln eventually selected Johnson to run as his Vice President in 1864, it was merely to gain the support of  “loyal ‘war’ Democrats” (“Andrew Johnson”). No one thought that he would be anything other than Vice President of the United States.

But then Lincoln was assassinated, and suddenly Johnson found himself president of a divided nation that needed to rebuild itself, with a Congress intent on doing what it determined was best for reconstruction, no matter what the new president thought. However, there was one power that President Johnson had, which he used as an attempt to pull the country back together: presidential pardons. These pardons were an attempt to bring the secessionists back into the Union, while also appeasing the Republicans who called for even harsher punishment. Johnson’s pardon gave clemency to many white Southerners, excepting those who fell under one of the fourteen exceptions listed in his Amnesty Proclamation decreed on May 29th, 1865. In addition, the pardon restored all property (except former slaves) and rights of a US Citizen to the former Confederates.

As for the pardon process itself, it involved a number of steps before an individual could obtain one. Johnson first “pardoned all who would take an oath of allegiance, but required leaders and men of wealth to obtain special Presidential pardons” (“Andrew Johson” whitehouse.gov). These leaders and men of wealth had to make a trip to Washington D.C. or send a representative in their stead. However, it is possible that these individuals were more successful if they appeared themselves to request a personal pardon from President Johnson (“Restoring the Union”). These men were additionally required to also swear an oath of allegiance to the Union and promise to uphold the 13th amendment which abolished slavery.

While we don’t know everything about John D. Bellamy’s pardon process, the aforementioned steps to obtain a pardon are likely the same that Dr. Bellamy had to go through himself. As Dr. Bellamy fell under the 13th exception to President Johnson’s Amnesty proclamation, that “All persons who have voluntarily participated in said rebellion, and the estimated value of whoso taxable property is over twenty thousand dollars” (“President Johnson's Amnesty Proclamation”), he was an individual who had to receive a personal pardon. We know from records that he began the process of obtaining his pardon in July 1865 and continued into August and early September when he finally received it. Dr. Bellamy and his family did not move back into their home until late September or early October of 1865. It would not be improper to surmise that he was traveling back from getting his pardon during the gap in events. Else, if he had sent a representative to get his paperwork in order, this time would account for the paperwork being sent to Dr. Bellamy. Despite the fact that this time period is murky in that the exact events and processes that transpired were not recorded, we know for sure that Dr. Bellamy did indeed receive his pardon from the president and was able to finally settle back into the home that he had built for his family five years earlier. ​

Those in Wilmington without enough money to own a slave but enough to commission a dressmaker or a seamstress to create a garment had many options, as newspaper ads from 1850-1865 show. After the Civil War ended in 1865, many former enslaved women with seamstress skills also began advertising themselves in local newspapers alongside other seamstresses. These ads usually wouldn’t give clues as to the race of the advertiser, leaving the details of their identity to local knowledge. ​

So why do stories about the Bellamy Mansion being haunted persist? It is true that around a half dozen Bellamys indeed died in the house. From all accounts, they all peacefully passed away in the home, and their funerals were held in the mansion at 503 Market Street-see the excerpt from Mary Elizabeth Bellamy Duffie's 1900 obituary below.  One theory as to why some people spend their leisure time seeking out sites associated with death and those reported to be haunted is the theory of "thanatoursim" or "dark tourism." Defined by A.V. Seaton as being, “motivated by the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death,” this phenomenon has been steadily gaining popularity since the latter part of the 19th-century. Scholars surmise that as death and dying became more removed from Americans' lives with the modernization of hospitals and the use of mortuaries and funeral homes, individuals began to seek out encounters with death, even ghosts, in an attempt to come to terms with their own mortality.  ​

​In September, Hurricane Florence descended on North Carolina’s southeastern shore. The storm battered the Wilmington area including the historic downtown. The Bellamy Mansion Museum was one of the many historical homes that sustained significant damage.

The mansion’s roof, which had just been through repairs two weeks before the hurricane, suffered the most damage. A large portion of the roof peeled away during the height of the storm, allowing rain to pour into all five levels of the mansion.

The water soaked into the plaster walls and caused extensive damage, softening the plaster and producing conditions ripe for mold growth. The water also soaked into the plaster’s wood lathe structure, causing the wood to swell and the subsequent movement to shift and crack the plaster.

It was March 31, 1952, when Emmett Hargrove Bellamy and his assistant, Lloyd S. Elkins, boarded the seventh-floor elevator of the Charlotte Law Building in Charlotte, North Carolina. Suddenly, a gunman, later identified as Albert Raymond Reinhart, 50, stormed the elevator and opened fire using a .38 caliber revolver. Elkins was injured in the shooting, but Bellamy was killed from a gunshot wound to the stomach. Bellamy was 61 years of age and Elkins, just 25.
 
Emmett H. Bellamy was born in Wilmington on February 12, 1891, to John Dillard Bellamy, Jr. and Emma May Hargrove. Bellamy attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his law degree from Columbia University. Additionally, Bellamy served in the military during World War I and was honorably discharged with the rank of First Lieutenant.

Upon his retirement from the military, Bellamy practiced with his father’s law firm, John D. Bellamy & Sons, based out of Wilmington. In addition to his work as a lawyer, Bellamy was a prominent political figure in North Carolina. The Democratic lawyer was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1921 and to the Senate in 1923. Bellamy also served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from 1940 to 1944.
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At the time of his murder, Bellamy had retired from politics and was practicing law in Charlotte. During police questioning, Bellamy's murderer, Albert Reinhart, was quoted as saying he was “incensed” at Bellamy over the handling of his case. Reinhart, a hotel owner from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, traveled to Charlotte to "show down" with Bellamy regarding the real estate deal in which he believed Bellamy had "taken advantage of" his elderly mother.

During the preliminary hearing, Reinhart made an insanity plea, but was ruled sane enough to stand trial upon examination by two Duke University doctors. In addition to a murder charge against him, Bellamy's assistant who was wounded in the shooting, filed a $100,000 damage suit against Reinhart. Reinhart was eventually found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

Emmett Bellamy is buried alongside his wife, Lillian Frances Maxwell, in Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina.

http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/19514.html
http://cdm16072.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16072coll5/id/334/
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Written by Bellamy Mansion intern and UNCW English major, Sydney Simmons

​When people tour the Bellamy Mansion, one of the first things they notice when they enter the house is the elaborate plaster moldings in the more public parts of the house. The house, designed with Greek Revival and Italianate styling, was the product of the hard work and labor of  both enslaved skilled carpenters, and local, freed black artisans.

The skilled and unskilled enslaved workers in Wilmington were hired out and whatever wages they earned were given directly back to their masters. Unfortunately, we do not know the names of all of the black artisans who worked on the house. We do, however, know a great deal about one of these men thanks to his journal and the extensive work of his great-grandson, William B.
​ Gould IV. 

William B. Gould was born November 18th, 1837, to an English man and a slave woman in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was owned by Nicholas Nixon, who was a successful peanut planter and prominent member of the Wilmington Community. Around 1859, Gould began his work as plasterer and mason under the employment of Dr. John D. Bellamy for the construction of the Bellamy Mansion. Alongside other slaves and freeman, Gould created beautiful works of art within the molding of the house.

It was common practice for those who hired out slaves to clothe, feed, and shelter them for their duration of their work. So, it is more than likely that Gould resided in the slave quarters during his time at the Bellamy Mansion. As a credit to his hard work, Gould signed his name into the plaster of the house; forever cementing his place in the Bellamy Mansion’s history (pictured above). This is incredibly significant, because following a series of laws passed in 1830 it was declared illegal to teach slaves how to read or write in the state of North Carolina. It is probable that Gould learned how to read through the church. Nixon was Episcopal and they were notorious for looking the other way when it came to slave literacy. Peter Hinks writes, "perhaps the most common avenue to literacy for blacks was instruction by a white person who considered it their religious duty to teach their slaves how to read Scripture (2). Christopher Hager supports this claim, saying, "many slaveholders wished to make exceptions [to slave literacy laws] for religious instruction (usually by white preachers)" (114). 
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On September 21st, 1862, Gould, and seven other men, escaped off of Orange Street and into the Cape Fear River. Six days later they were picked up by The USS Cambridge and recorded as “contraband of war.” Gould began his three-year journal on September 27th, 1862, following his daily life in the United States Navy. After the Civil war he settled in Dedham, Massachusetts with his wife, Cornelia Read, and had eight children, six boys and two girls. He joined the Grand Army of the Republic in 1882 and held almost every position possible including the highest position, Commander. William B Gould IV, Gould’s great-grandson, wrote a book that includes Gould’s journals called Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor. In this book he writes about the history surrounding his great-grandfather’s life and discusses the chronology of Gould’s diary. 

Gould IV, William B. Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor. Standford University Press, 2002. 
Hager, Christopher. Word by Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing. Harvard University Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uncw/detail.action?docID+3301209.
Hinks, Peter P. To awaken my afflicted brethren: David Walker and the problem of antebellum slave resistance. Penn State Press, 2010.

Written by Bellamy Intern and UNCW English major Moriah Yancey

With over 200 volunteers, the Bellamy Mansion Museum is able to operate daily. From conducting tours to working the cash register, the work the volunteers do at the Bellamy cannot be understated.
This month, we're shining the light on Angie Yelverton. Angie, along with her Rise and Shine group, have been volunteering at the Bellamy for 5 years. On the first Monday of each month, Angie and her crew make their way to the Bellamy and give it a cleaning from the inside out. Earlier this month, Angie spoke out about about her mission here at the Bellamy and what the Rise and Shine group has in store for the future. 
​Angie, a Virginia native and Virginia Tech alum, has been living in Wilmington for roughly 33 years. Angie says her desire to volunteer at the Bellamy Mansion arose when she kept driving by the home everyday, not knowing much about it, but wanting to get involved somehow. Angie's idea to create a volunteer group to clean the mansion came about when she spotted some dust on a banister as she was helping take town Christmas decorations, following the Bellamy's annual Christmas Stroll. And thus, the Rise and Shine group was born.
From roughly 9AM until noon, the Rise and Shine group, normally consisting of 6 to 8 people, get right to work cleaning the mansion. Even with a decent sized group, the Bellamy is no quick, in-and-out cleaning job. According to Angie, the most difficult and time consuming sections of the mansion to clean are the downstairs and basement.

   In Waterloo, New York, tucked along the Cayuga Seneca Canal, lies the American Civil War Memorial. The Memorial, constructed in 2008 by sculptor and author Pietro del Fabro, serves to honor the sacrifices made by citizens of Waterloo as well as both Union and Confederate soldiers and sailors that lost their lives during one of America’s most arduous times- the American Civil War.  
 
   The North South Cenotaph features stones from each of the 36 states that were in existence at the end of the Civil War. ​Pietro used a handmade hearth brick from the Bellamy slave quarters to represent the state of North Carolina in the memorial. The Cenotaph pictured above rests on a base of Indiana silver buff limestone. The brick from the Bellamy is located on the top south side of the cenotaph. What an amazing way for history to be displayed! We were lucky enough to be paid a visit by del Fabro himself in 2016, who was excited to photograph where the brick came from. Be sure to follow the link to the Memorial’s website and read the description of the Bellamy brick: 
http://americancivilwarmemorial.com/NSCenotaph.html .
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​   Pietro del Fabro authored a Civil War novel Savages Station that follows three stories that move back and forth between Civil War times and present-day America, opening up little-known aspects of the conflict and revealing new viewpoints into the major and minor characters of the era. You can follow a link to the book’s website here: https://savagesstation.com/ . 

Written by Bellamy intern and UNCW Communication Studies major Savannah Russell.

The bottles, branded with the Bellamy name, are from Robert Bellamy’s Bellamy and Son Drug Company here in town. The business, began in 1885, was located at the corner of Front and Market Street, and operated until its sale by Robert’s grandson sometime after 1950.

While some of the bottles are missing their labels, a few remain which provide insight into some of the popular medicines of the time: quinine, cathartic pills, Godfrey’s Cordial, and white pine compound syrup.

​These are just four examples of the many interesting drugs Robert sold in his pharmacy; just like today, there were a variety of medicines available for nearly any conceivable ailment – though whether or not they were all safe for human consumption is another question. In any case, Robert “[devoted] his closest and constant personal attention to the details of his enterprise” and was regarded as one of the most prominent and successful physicians in Wilmington during his working years.

Researched and written by Bellamy intern and UNCW Professional Writing/Philosophy major Chantai Thomas.

​     Volunteering is a gift that keeps on giving. Here at the Bellamy, we thrive thanks to our dedicated staff of over 200 volunteers. Volunteer tasks range from giving guided tours, greeting visitors at the front desk, lending a hand with special events, and even gardening. We love to see the passion our volunteers have for what they do, and one person who brings this passion to life is Beth Mentesana!
     Beth has been lending her time here at the Bellamy since she and her husband moved from Pennsylvania five years ago. Before their move, working full time in the communications field and being married to a college basketball coach didn’t leave her much time to volunteer. She grew up watching her parents be very active in their community and her mother was even a docent (a tour guide) at a Revolutionary War house in New York. Beth decided she wanted to try her hand at volunteering herself when she moved to Wilmington and had a little more time on her hands. She says, “Everyone falls in love with downtown, and at some point, you become aware of the historic houses here.” Beth is a docent on weekends and she especially loves when there are children present. She reflects on giving tours: “Thanks to all the information we have, you can really paint a story on true facts and there’s something about that- it’s like you transport yourself back in time. I get so engrossed in the whole thing it doesn’t matter if anybody’s there or not! That’s the fun of it.” She also lends her talents in taking part in composing and editing our volunteer newsletters that are sent out via email every week. She enjoys featuring topics that vary from the architecture of the house to the stories of the Bellamy’s and the slaves that called this place home.
     One of Beth’s favorite memories is when she helped with the fifth-grade pilot program where fifth graders from across New Hanover County are cycled through and given tours. It’s very important to Beth that children get the opportunity to see history unfold before them. “The story of the back of the house is as important as the house itself and the family that lived in it. For children, I think they might learn about it in a textbook but when they come here and they hear it, it helps bring it alive for them. It’s critical these young minds see what happened in this country” she shares. She appreciates the freedom she has while volunteering at the Bellamy and how relaxed and comfortable the environment is. She loves that she can come here to give a tour and be whoever she wants to be. She also loves dressing up for the annual Christmas stroll. Check out one of her outfits from years past in the fun picture down below! If Beth could meet one of the Bellamy’s, she would have to choose Ellen. The stories in Ellen’s memoirs of her spirited antics as a little girl are something Beth would love to have seen. We are so thankful for Beth and all she contributes and so happy that she has such a love for what she gets out of volunteering.
     We are always looking for volunteers to add to our family! Check out the volunteer form on our website, give us a call, or stop by and get your part of the gift that keeps on giving! 
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Written by Bellamy intern and UNCW Communication Studies major Savannah Russell.