The Bellamys Paid Their Taxes

by Leslie Randle-Morton, Associate Director & Research Historian, Bellamy Mansion Museum

Tax records for John Bellemee of South Carolina, father of Dr. John D. Bellamy, reveal some fascinating details about this family's wealth. In 1784, when South Carolina devised its first tax structure, it was based on differing values for different types of land, which the legislature revised in 1815. By 1824 (the tax year represented in the record shown below), these valuations were still in effect. Along with land, residents were taxed on the number of slaves they owned -- listed as “Negroes,” the number of “Free Negroes" and "Mulattoes,” and even Theatrical or Public Shows, which were taxed at a hefty $20 per day.

In his 1824 tax assessment John Bellemee was taxed on 4,320 acres of land and 29 slaves in Horry County, South Carolina. John Bellemee paid anywhere from 20 cents an acre on his least valuable land all the way to $4.00 per acre on his most valuable. He paid a total of $27.92 for taxes on his town lots and enslaved workers. John Bellemee was the fifth largest landowner in Horry County according to the 1824 tax assessments, and he possessed a considerable number of enslaved people for the number of acres he owned.

1824 tax record for John Bellemee, All Saints Parish, Horry County, SC.

By comparison, another Horry County taxpaying resident, John Rogers, owned 14,000 acres and enslaved 39 people.

​Although individual states, including North Carolina, had experimented with income taxation during the 19th century, it was not until 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln and Congress established a Commissioner of Internal Revenue that the country’s first income tax was levied to help with the mounting costs of the Civil War.​

George S. Boutwell, the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The income tax rate was progressive, taxing 3% on incomes between $600-$10,000 and 5% on incomes of more than $10,000. Changes in 1864 increased the tax and lowered the ceiling levying a 5% tax on incomes between $600-$5,000 and 10% on incomes of more than $5,000. This first income tax effort raised around $55 million for the war effort, and paying income taxes was viewed by Unionists as a patriotic duty.

The Confederacy also collected income taxes. The Confederate Congress levied its first income tax measure in 1863. The tax was a graduated income tax which exempted wages up to $1,000, levied a 1% tax on the first $1,500 over the exemption, and 2% on all additional income. Numerous Confederate states did not collect these taxes effectively, if at all, so it is unclear whether Dr. Bellamy ever paid any taxes to the Confederacy. Seceded states, such as North Carolina, were not subjected to federal income taxes until Union forces took control.

In reference to wealthy men like Dr. Bellamy, the Committee on Ways and Means, begun in 1789 and the the oldest tax-writing body in the U.S. House of Representatives, stated,
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​"Owners of carriage valued at over $300, and gold watches and silver plate, are among those persons best able to contribute something to the support of the Government under whose protection they have been able to acquire articles indicative of wealth and assured means of support.”

Luxury taxes had been repealed in 1817 after being levied to help raise revenue during the War of 1812, but with the escalating Civil War came the return of such excise taxes. During the Civil War specific items such as carriages, gold and silver plate, billiard tables, pianos, and even watches were all taxed as luxury items. Civil War excise taxes on luxury items were all repealed by 1871, except those levied on liquor and tobacco which remain to this day.

The 1865 tax assessment above shows Dr. John D. Bellamy paid luxury taxes on several items at his Wilmington home. He was taxed $2.00 on one carriage, $2.00 on one watch, $4.00 on one piano, and $1.50 on a 30 ounce silver plate for a total luxury tax of $9.50.

The Bellamy parlor piano, built in 1854 for $400 (which was the price of an average home) was subject to a luxury tax.

This document is an 1866 Brunswick County tax assessment for Dr. John D. Bellamy. He was assessed a three cent tax for every pound of cotton produced. In 1866, Dr. Bellamy paid a total of $228.39 on 7,613 pounds of cotton produced at his Grovely plantation. The cotton tax was considered unfair and even illegal by many Southern men who paid it between 1862 and 1867. Some considered it unfair because it affected the deep South states more than northern ones, and its continuation after the conclusion of the Civil War left many Southern planters, like Dr. Bellamy, contemplating whether the cotton tax was even punitive in nature.