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 Civil War after Union Major General John G. Foster, Commander of the 18th Army Corps, captured the Confederate fortifications on Roanoke Island off North Carolina in 1862. He classified the slaves living there as "contraband", following the precedent of General Benjamin Butler at Fort Monroe in 1861, and did not return them to Confederate slaveholders. In 1863, by the Emancipation Proclamation, all slaves in Union-occupied territories were freed.
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 freedmen and civilians. They were joined by former slaves from the mainland, seeking refuge and freedom with the Union forces. They were paid for their work and sought education, along with their children.
As commanding officer of the Department of North Carolina, in 1863 Foster appointed Horace James, a Congregational chaplain, as the "Superintendent of Negro Affairs in the North Carolina District", to supervise the contraband camps and administer to freedmen. James was based at New Bern, where he managed the Trent River contraband camp. James believed the Roanoke Island Colony was an important experiment in black freedom and a potential model for other freedmen communities. Freedmen built churches and set up the first free school for black children here; and they were soon joined by Northern missionary teachers who came to the South to help the effort. There was a core group of about six teachers, but a total of 27 teachers served at the island.Click, Patricia C. "The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony" , The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony Website, 2001, accessed 9 Nov. 2010 As the war went on, conditions became more difficult at the crowded colony, whose residents suffered infectious diseases.
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 indigenous peoples, Roanoke Island was first colonized by an English explorer in 1584. Sir Walter Raleigh tried to settle people there, to found a colony on what is now American soil."History of Roanoke Island", Manteo History, Roanoke Island, 11 Nov. 2010 Raleigh sent 100 men to Roanoke Island. The settlement was unsuccessful and abandoned within a year.Stick, David. Roanoke Island: The Beginnings of English America, University of North Carolina Press, 1983 In 1587, another 110 colonists were planted on the island. Captain John White, named governor by Raleigh, returned to England in August that year for more supplies. Delayed by warfare, when he returned three years later, he found the island utterly abandoned. A popular regional myth tells that the colonists were absorbed by an Algonquian-speaking tribe, but historians say there is no evidence for it. They believe the colonists died by starvation and Powhatan Indian attack.Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony, New York: Arcade Pub., 2001
By the mid-1600s, English settlers colonized the island and established a permanent settlement. They gradually tried to develop plantations, using imported African slaves as labor, but the soil was rather poor. The island produced some commodity crops.
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 Ambrose E. Burnside easily captured Roanoke Island from Confederate general Henry A. Wise (former governor of the state of Virginia (1856–1860)). The Union maintained control of the island through the end of the war.
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 Benjamin Butler at Fort Monroe in 1861, and granted the slaves freedom. The number of freedmen living on the island increased from 250 in the first few months, to more than 1,000 by the end of 1862. They formed a community, organizing the first free school for black children in North Carolina, and churches. The majority converted old Confederate barracks into their new homes, which became known as "Camp Foster" after one of the generals who had defeated the Confederates. Able-bodied freedmen worked for the Union, especially in construction, such as rebuilding the forts and adding to docks. The Army paid them for their work.
In 1862 General John G. Foster became commander of the Department of North Carolina. After the Emancipation Proclamation, he appointed Horace James, a Congregational chaplain, as "Superintendent of Negro Affairs for the North Carolina District." James was to develop a self-sustaining colony on the island and manage other contraband camps in the state, such as one earlier established at his base of New Bern, called the Trent River contraband camp. James was to settle the people, give them farming tools, and teach them to prepare for a free community.
Based at New Bern, James took a special interest in the Roanoke Freedmen's Colony. 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."The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony" , provided by National Park Service, at North Carolina Digital History: LEARN NC, accessed 11 November 2010 Freedmen recruited from Roanoke Island formed the "first company of the North Carolina Colored Volunteers"."The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony" Carolina Country Magazine, date?, accessed 10 November 2010
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."Click, Patricia C. Time Full of Trial: The Roanoke Island Freedman's Colony, 1862–1867, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 2001 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." 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.
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.
The Army allocated small plots of land to the households of the colony, and encouraged the freedmen to produce crops for food supplements. Under James' direction, they created fisheries as well, to make the island more self-sufficient. The creation of a sawmill and marketing of artisan goods helped the economy of the island. Many adults worked for the Union Army and were given wages and rations as payment for their services. The Commander on the island, Col. Rush Hawkins, also helped preserve the slave families who came to the island for refuge. Ownership of land, practice of a trade, and the ability to live with their families gave the freedmen a "taste of citizenship, family life, and hope".
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.Blake, Mortimer. A Centurial History of the Mendon Association of Congregational Ministers, Boston: Sewall Harding, 1853, p. 197 He married Helen Leavitt of Walpole, New Hampshire.
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." 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." 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 inches in thickness, the grain being perfectly straight, but makes a very uneven surface. The wind blows through the crevices.
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. 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.
Missionary aid