Part Two The North Carolina Constitution and Commentary, Art.X Homesteads and Exemptions

The personal property of any resident of this State, to a value fixed by the General Assembly but not less than $500, to be selected by the resident, is exempted from sale under execution or other final process of any court, issued for the collection of any debt. Economics has its casualties, no less than war. Article X on homesteads and exemptions aims to protect economic losers from utter destitution. The state’s first constitution prohibited the imprisonment of a debtor once he had surrendered “all his estate, real and personal, for the use of his creditors,”...