After visiting the Elizabeth II
we headed over to Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
and to the Freedmen's Colony.
Shortly after North Carolina's secession
from the Union,
the Confederacy established 3 forts on
Roanoke Island,
which lies between the North Carolina mainland
and the Barrier Islands known as the Outer Banks.
Capture of Roanoke Island, Feb. 8, 1862, by Currier and Ives.
After the Battle of Roanoke Island
waged between 20,000 soldiers and sailors
and over 60 ships,
the Confederate troops were forced to surrender
and Roanoke Island
became Union-occupied.
Once slaves heard that the Union army
had established a presence on Roanoke Island,
they streamed across Union lines with
hopes of obtaining freedom.
Roanoke Island became home
to thousands of former slaves,
organized into refugee camps.
General Burnside, who successfully commandeered
the Battle of Roanoke Island,
also known as the Burnside Expedition,
considered these former slaves
to be "contraband" of war
and granted them the status of freedmen.
Bit of trivia:
General Ambrose Burnside's
distinctive style of facial hair
is now known as sideburns,
derived from his last name.
At first, these refugees settled near the Union headquarters,
and created a community that included
churches and a school.
As word of the freedmen's camp spread,
more and more former slaves fled to the island.
This camp evolved into a
government-sanctioned colony in 1863.
Major General John G. Foster,
Commander of the 18th Army Corps,
ordered Horace James,
a Congregational minister from New England
who was serving as a chaplain in the Union army,
to establish a colony of former slaves on the island.
Anticipating that many of the black men
would be recruited into the Union army,
the military saw the need to provide a safe sanctuary
for their families.
Thus, the contraband camp
officially became a recognized colony.
Descendants of the Freedmen's Colony
have established an organization to preserve
and celebrate
the history and heritage of the colony.
The First Light Of Freedom
Former slaves give thanks by the creek's edge
at the sight of the island - "If you can cross the
creek to Roanoke Island, you will find 'safe haven.' "
National Underground Railroad
Network to Freedom
The First Light of Freedom monument
was dedicated to the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony.
It was unveiled on September 14, 2001
and stands outside the National Park Service's visitor
center at the Fort Raleigh Historic Site
on the north end of Roanoke Island.
"If you can cross the creek to Roanoke Island,
you will find safe haven."
The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony
is recognized as a historic
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site.
Bondage
and they made their lives
bitter with hard bondage
Exodus 1:14
For the millions of immigrants to this land,
America has not been so much a destination as
a promise: a promise of equality, a promise of
self-determination and a promise of a better life
for self and children. Not so for the slave.
With their arrival at the Jamestown colony in
August of 1619, twenty captive Africans began
a legacy of chattel bondage that by 1850 would
include 15 states, 4 territories and the District
of Columbia, with 3,952,760 enslaved.
Although mindless labor, physical abuse, and
family destruction were typical of slave life,
there was yet a greater tragedy. It was the
slaves' agony to witness the promise of America
enjoyed by others, to help build that promise
and be denied its fruits. This indeed may have
been the greatest horror of slavery.
You are loosed from your moorings
And are free. I am fast to my chains,
And am a slave! You move merrily before
the gentle gale, and I sadly before the
bloody whip! You are freedom's swift
winged angels, that fly around the world;
I am of iron! O that I were free!
Deliverance
Thus saith the Lord,
Let my people go.
Exodus 8:1
The bloodbath called the Civil War had
begun and would cost the lives of over
600,000 Americans. As the Union armies
advanced south, refugee slaves followed.
After the Norther capture of Roanoke
Island in February 1862 more than 3000
ex-slaves arrived on this island. At the
direction of Maj. Gen. John G. Foster,
Army chaplain Horace James organized a
formal colony with one-acre lots provided
for about 600 families on the northern
end of the island. Schools, mills, and
houses were built.
At the war's end almost 6000 ex-slaves
resided in Freedmen's Town. These people
tasted the sweet air of liberty for the first
time on the north end of Roanoke Island.
Marriages were legalized and equal rights
and privileges were granted in courts of law.
The promise seemed to be finally coming
true for African Americans and they
discovered what all free people know.
Freedom is never free.
With my hands against my breast I was going
to my work when the overseer used to whip me
along. Now, no more of that, no more of that.
We're free now, bless the Lord. They can't sell
my wife and child anymore bless the Lord,
no more of that, no more of that.
Harriet Tubman, 1862
The Promised Land
I have caused thee to see it
with thine eyes,
but thou shalt not go over thither.
The Proclamation of Emancipation gave the
military authority to enlist "such persons of
suitable condition ... into the armed service of
the United States" and the Bureau of Colored
Troops was established. Many African-
Americans served with distinction.
Despite the promise and participation,
African-Americans in many instances, would
continue to be denied their rightful place.
Reconstruction fostered a racist attitude,
creating the "Jim Crow" laws designed to
cheat them of their birthright. With the 1960's
and the Civil Rights movement, African-
Americans gained greater standing in
American society and on August 28, 1963,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave us a vision
of what the future could bring.
"When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring
from every village and every hamlet, from every state
and every city, we will be able to speed up that day
when all of God's children, black men and white men,
Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be
able to join hands and sing in the words of the old
Negro spiritua , 'Free at last, free at last. Thank God
almighty we are free at last.' "
We, as a nation, still seek for all the dream
that is American ... and the struggle continues.
Perhaps over the next hilltop lies the
"Promised Land."
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