A Precarious Balance

Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715–1865

Antwain K. Hunter

$229

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

The University of North Carolina Press
11 November 2025

Spanning the 1720s through the end of the Civil War, this book explores how free and enslaved Black North Carolinians accessed, possessed, and used firearms—both legal and otherwise—and how the state and white people responded. North Carolinians, whether free or enslaved, Black or white, had different stakes on the issue, all of which impacted the reality of Black people’s gun use.

Antwain K. Hunter reveals that armed Black people used firearms for a wide range of purposes: They hunted to feed their families and communities, guarded property, protected crops, and defended maroon communities from outsiders. Further, they resisted the institution of slavery and used guns both against white people and within their own community. Competing views of Black people’s firearm use created social, political, and legal points of contention for different demographics within North Carolina and left the general assembly and white civilians struggling to harness Black people’s armed labor for white people’s benefit. A Precarious Balance challenges readers to rethink how they understand race and firearms in the American past.

By: Antwain K. Hunter
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 25mm, Spine: 155mm
ISBN: 9781469689883
ISBN 10: 146968988X
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 11 November 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Antwain K. Hunter is assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Reviews for A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715–1865

""A vital scholarly contribution that powerfully illuminates how Black North Carolinians, both free and enslaved, used firearms as tools of labor, survival, and community-making, even as their use was constantly contested by white citizens and lawmakers. Drawing on an impressive range of sources, the book reveals the layered tensions over armed Black labor and challenges dominant narratives by showing how central Black firearm use was to shaping life--and conflict--in early North Carolina.""--Jennifer Tucker, director of the Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan University ""No previous study has looked as carefully, thoroughly, or thoughtfully at the history of firearms in the South.""--Randolph Roth, author of American Homicide ""The scholarly effort that went into building A Precarious Balance is evident.""--Sally Hadden, author of Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas