Antwain K. Hunter, "A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865" (UNC Press, 2025)

About this episode

Antwain K. Hunter discusses his book on the role of firearms in the lives of Black North Carolinians from 1715 to 1865.

Spanning the 1720s through the end of the Civil War, A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865 (UNC Press, 2025) 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. Historian of slavery and freedom, 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, and in its present. Author Antwain K. Hunter is a historian of slavery and freedom in North America…

People in this episode

Guest: Antwain K. Hunter

Topics covered

• firearms
• race
• community
• North Carolina
• history

Keywords

• slavery
• freedom
• Civil War
• Black history
• armed resistance

Mentioned in this episode

Products: A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865

Books & works: A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865, A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, A Precarious Balance

Places: North Carolina, North America, Carolinas

More episodes of New Books in the American South

• Sarah McNamara, "Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South" (UNC Press, 2023) · June 11, 2026 · 1h 20m
• Mollie Barnes, "Paper Heroines: Women Writers in Conversation and Community Across the Sea Islands, 1838-1902" (U South Carolina Press, 2026) · June 4, 2026 · 50 min
• David Cunningham on Contesting Confederate Monuments (JP) · June 4, 2026 · 51 min
• Annette Gordon-Reed ed., "Jefferson on Race: A Reader" (Princeton UP, 2026) · May 30, 2026
• Ashley Rose Young, "Nourishing Networks: The Public Culture of Food in New Orleans" (Oxford UP, 2025) · May 29, 2026 · 52 min
• Claudia Smith Brinson, "Stories of Struggle: The Clash over Civil Rights in South Carolina" (U South Carolina Press, 2020) · May 25, 2026 · 1h 7m