Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island
The Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island, also known as the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, or "Freedman's Colony", was founded in 1863 during the
The island colony started as one of what were 100 contraband camps by the war's end, but it became something more. The African Americans lived as
As commanding officer of the
In 1865 President Andrew Johnson ordered the return of all property under his "Amnesty Proclamation", and the lands cultivated and occupied by contraband camps were returned to owners. The freedmen were not given rights to their holdings in the Colony, and most left the island. Its soil had proved too poor to support many subsistence farmers. In later 1865, the US Army directed the dismantling of the three forts on the island. By 1867, the colony was abandoned, but about 300 freedmen still lived there independently in 1870. Some of their descendants live there today.
History
Long used for fishing camps by varying cultures of
By the mid-1600s, English settlers colonized the island and established a permanent settlement. They gradually tried to develop
When North Carolina seceded from the Union in 1861, the Confederacy made plans to fortify Roanoke Island to protect the bay and inland waterways. By that winter, the army had built three forts, although they were relatively weak and too small for the number of occupying troops. On February 8, 1862, the Union general
As slaves learned of the Union victory, they migrated to the island for freedom with Union forces and protection from the Confederacy. They quickly began to form refugee camps. General Burnside declared the refugees "contraband" of war, in a policy initiated by General
In 1862 General
Based at New Bern, James took a special interest in the Roanoke Freedmen's Colony.[5] He believed it could be an important model for resettlement of other freedmen after the war. President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves in Confederate areas occupied by Union troops. Many of them moved to Union camps for protection.
Life in the Colony
Enlistment of freedmen in the Union Army
The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony was a safe haven for slaves seeking refuge with the Union Army during the Civil War. Most freedmen on Roanoke Island assisted the Union Army: others joined the army as soldiers when the United States Colored Troops were founded, and some men worked as spies, scouts and guides, since they knew the area and its waterways well. They completed dangerous and crucial missions for the Union cause.[5] Freedmen recruited from Roanoke Island formed the "first company of the North Carolina Colored Volunteers".[6]
Major General Rush Hawkins, who succeeded Foster in 1863 at the command on the island, ordered the freedmen who enlisted in the army or worked for the military be paid "ten dollars a month plus one ration and a soldier's allowance of clothing."[7] According to an article by the National Park Service, "of nearly 4,000 North Carolina enlistees, over 150 men were recruited from the Roanoke Island community alone."[5] The Union Army allowed families of black soldiers to live at Roanoke Island as a place of refuge. Those men who were not recruited by the army served as woodcutters, teamsters, longshoremen, carpenters, blacksmiths, and workers in other trades. Many freedwomen worked as cooks and laundresses at the Union camp.[5]
Self-sufficiency
Hawkins provided for payment for the labor of freedwomen and older boys, and allotting supplies to families:
Each woman and each boy aged twelve to sixteen were to be paid four dollars a month plus one ration; in addition, each woman was to receive money equal to a soldier's allowance of clothing, while each boy aged twelve to sixteen would receive a soldier's allowance of clothing. Each child under twelve would receive one ration and remain with his or her parents.[7]
The Army allocated small plots of land to the households of the colony, and encouraged the freedmen to produce crops for
Horace James
Reverend Horace James was an evangelical Congregational minister from Worcester, Massachusetts. He was born to Galen James, a deacon, and his wife in the city of Medford. After studying at common schools, James attended Yale College, graduating in 1840. He went on to study theology, graduating from seminary school in 1843. He first served as the pastor at a church in Wrentham, Massachusetts, beginning in November 1843.[9] He married Helen Leavitt of Walpole, New Hampshire.[9]
After the American Civil War started, James joined the Union Army as a chaplain, by then having had nearly 20 years experience as a pastor. By 1862, he was assigned to the forces that occupied North Carolina.
In April 1863, the general appointed him as the "Superintendent of Negro Affairs for the District of North Carolina". He was to arrange for food, shelter, adequate clothing and medical care for the many blacks in the area, who had come to Union lines for freedom and refuge.
James believed that a lumber industry would help the Roanoke colony grow and become economically self-sufficient. He had a sawmill built on the island, so that lumber could be processed and sold to the government. Other natural resources could be sold elsewhere. He hoped to show that "free labor and technology was always superior to the slave system."[7] The sawmill had a seventy-horsepower engine, powerful for that time and venue. The mill was located at Pork Point near Union headquarters. A soldier stationed on the island described it in 1864 as "a first class affair, like most anything belonging to the Government."[7] James intended to arrange for the freedmen to get some of the lumber, so they could build sturdier cabins than their traditional split-pine one-room structures:
Each house contains but one room, no rooms above. The boards used for building are made as follows. They cut down a pitch pine tree, then cut it in logs eight feet long, then with the ax and wedge, split into boards about 3⁄4 inches in thickness, the grain being perfectly straight, but makes a very uneven surface. The wind blows through the crevices.[7]
James advocated a "New Social Order in the South," to replace slavery with free institutions. The freedpeople had a variety of skills: many were artisans, who made baskets, shoes, barrels, shingles, and boats, which could be traded or sold. James intended to market both the natural resources and the freedmen's crops, such as cotton, corn, turpentine, resin, tar, timber, fish, oysters, wood, reeds, and grapes, to make the colony self-sufficient.[7] While thinking freedmen should have the rights of citizens, he also held that "there was a natural stratification of society" and African Americans were near the bottom.[7]
Missionary aid
Much of the aid, education, and social work on the island was planned and carried out by representatives of the
Other organizations, such as the National Freedman's Relief Association and the New England Freedmen's Aid Society of Boston, also sent representatives and aid to the colony. In contrast to the AMA, however, the National Freedman's Relief Association was not evangelical. It promoted abolition of slavery and encouraged the freedmen to "develop self-discipline, self-reliance, and self-support."[7]
Religious practices formed a core of activities during this time. Missionaries held Sunday schools each week, often taught by the same teachers who led reading and writing classes during the week. Monthly Sabbath school concerts featured students' singing hymns and reciting passages from the Bible. Sunday evening worship services were "well attended" by the freedmen.[7]
Education
Education was viewed as the key to "prepare the freedpeople for citizenship".[1] Under the supervision of the Union military, the freedmen built schools, churches, and about 600 cabins. The schools were simple log cabins. Both children and adults were eager to learn to read and write, as most of the slaves had not had any formal education in these skills.[8] Missionaries, mostly unmarried women teachers from New England, were the prime teachers.[7] There was a core group of about seven teachers, but altogether 27 teachers served at the island.
First teachers and schools
In October 1863, Elizabeth James arrived from the AMA.[5] She was a cousin of the Reverend James, and had experience as a teacher and as the principal of a school in Milford. In February 1864, she founded the Lincoln School in Camp Foster. She noted the students had "an intense desire to learn."[7]
Ella Roper opened the Whipple School, which had a roster of 200 students. In March 1864 Samuel Nickerson started the Cypress Chapel School. Although the facilities and supplies were limited in each case, the freedmen's eagerness to learn kept each classroom filled "to its utmost capacity".[7]
Decline of the Colony
As the number of freedmen grew to 3900, the colony had difficulty in providing housing. Sanitation suffered on the island as there were no systems to handle it.
As more freedmen entered the Union Army, their families became more dependent on the government and military for aid because of the island's isolation.
When President Johnson issued his "Amnesty Proclamation" in 1865, he ordered all "property seized by the Union forces during the war be returned." The lands used for the contraband camps were returned to their former Confederate owners, and all the camps were dismantled. At the Roanoke Island Colony, the freedmen were told they had no rights to the plots they had cultivated for years. The US Army helped most freedmen return to the mainland, at their choice. Some returned to former plantations and became
In late 1865, the Army dismantled the forts on the island, which further disrupted the colony. By 1867, the colony was abandoned, although some freedmen continued to live on the island. The 1870 census recorded 300 blacks in 60 households.
Legacy
The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony was important for educating hundreds of freedmen in literacy, paying adults and older children for their work, helping them to establish churches and community, and helping preserve their families at a time of war.[5]
Letters from Roanoke Island
Numerous transcribed letters by Horace James and the missionary teachers, as well as some of the freedmen, may be viewed at the website, "Documents", Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony. They express vividly the conditions of the freedmen and the colony.
Commemoration
- 2001, the Dare County Heritage Trail committee erected a marble monument to the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony on the island at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, which commemorates the first English colony.
- 2004, the monument and island were added as sites to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, developed by the National Park Service.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Click, Patricia C. "The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony" Archived February 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony Website, 2001, accessed 9 Nov. 2010
- ^ a b c "History of Roanoke Island", Manteo History, Roanoke Island, 11 Nov. 2010
- ^ Stick, David. Roanoke Island: The Beginnings of English America, University of North Carolina Press, 1983
- ^ Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony, New York: Arcade Pub., 2001
- ^ a b c d e f g h "The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony" Archived September 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, provided by National Park Service, at North Carolina Digital History: LEARN NC, accessed 11 November 2010
- ^ "The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony" Carolina Country Magazine, date?, accessed 10 November 2010
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Click, Patricia C. Time Full of Trial: The Roanoke Island Freedman's Colony, 1862–1867, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 2001
- ^ a b c d e f g http://www.carolinacountry.com/storypages/ourstories/freedmen/freedmen.html "The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony," Carolina Country Magazine, accessed 10 Nov. 2010
- ^ a b Blake, Mortimer. A Centurial History of the Mendon Association of Congregational Ministers, Boston: Sewall Harding, 1853, p. 197
External links
- "The Roanoke Voyages", Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, U.S. National Park Service, 6 December 2010