How Robert Morehead died on George Wakefield's farm.

Greensboro Telegram, 06 July 1900

On Friday, July 6, 1900, a man named Robert Morehead, an employee on George Wakefield's dairy farm south of Greensboro, was gored by a bull and died that afternoon.

Robert Morehead was a black man. He had a wife and small children. He lived in a place then outside the city limits called Warnerville.

Published Monday, 09 July 1900

In those days, there was no Occupational Safety and Health Administration coming to investigate. There were no Workmen's Compensation laws, and likely no life insurance to provide for surviving spouses and children. The social safety net was still decades away.

George Wakefield placed a statement in the newspaper a few days after the accident, essentially washing his hands of any responsibility, and it's likely that his account of the event is factual and complete, but we will never know.

A black man, born into slavery in 1849, was still valued little more than a horse, a bull, or a good dog to most white people 117 years ago, even in progressive Greensboro, North Carolina.

Had the farmhand involved in this accident been a white man, or a family member, we would probably have a much more detailed record of what happened. The investigation would have been much more thorough, and the newspaper items more detailed. Charges; criminal, or civil, or both, might even have been filed.

I wish I knew more about what happened to Robert Morehead, and his widow, and their children. I am sorry he lost his life that way.

Greensboro City Directory, 1896-97,  listing Robert Morehead and his wife, Clara.