New Books Network Antwain K. Hunter, "A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865" (UNC Press, 2025)
Mar 16, 2026
Antwain K. Hunter, historian of slavery and freedom in the Carolinas and author of A Precarious Balance. He traces how free and enslaved Black North Carolinians accessed and used firearms for hunting, protection, labor, and resistance. The conversation highlights county-level politics, visual sources of everyday armed life, tensions between practical use and deadly risk, and wartime complications for armed labor.
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Project Sparked By 1831 Delaware Petitions
- The book's research began when Hunter found 1831 Delaware petitions seeking to disarm free and enslaved Black people.
- That discovery reframed firearms history through a racial lens and shaped his dissertation and first book project.
Guns As Tools Of Labor And Community
- Guns were central to Black labor and daily life, not only rebellion or military uses.
- Antwain K. Hunter shows enslaved and free people used firearms for hunting, guarding property, and workplace tasks across antebellum North Carolina.
Images Of Osmond And Everyday Armed Life
- Hunter collected images showing everyday armed life, like a maroon named Osmond in the Great Dismal Swamp and a hunter on the book cover.
- He used Harper's and other illustrated sources to emphasize routine hunting, family, and labor uses of guns.
