African American Experience Under Occupation

African Americans may have been the group who experienced the largest transition within occupied eastern North Carolina. At the onset of the occupation, blacks took advantage of the Union military presence and acquiesced under their protection. “When Union soldiers landed south of New Bern on March 13, 1862, they immediately encountered welcoming slaves, most of whom, one officer remarked, were, ‘laughing and so glad to see us’”[1] Federal armies offered de facto freedom upon their arrival and James Rumley would jot that, “ runaway Negroes are allowed to pass the sentinels at any time, even in the night,” while whites were required to, “retire to their homes.” [2]

It can be argued that the Federal troops in the region helped secure the four “pillars” of success on which African American advancement rested on. These four pillars included, escape, freedom, independence, and employment were paths secured under the occupying force. Escape came in many forms, from passive to violent, but the protection ensured by the occupying force ensured high levels of success. A Union soldier would state, “Stealing in from every direction by land and sea- in squads from 6 to 30 each, they come and dump themselves by the side of the fence and ‘wait orders from Mr. Burnside.”[3]The federal policies that the military then in turn enforced in the region helped to ensure the former slaves to secure their freedoms. Independence and employment opportunities we also secured under occupation by the imposition of federal policies, which were enforced by the intimidating occupying Union army. After the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks in the region would leverage their rights to gain extensive civil and political gains. Furthermore, after the Emancipation Proclamation, the arena for Northern benevolent societies was wide open. “ When northerners arrived in coastal North Carolina during the Civil War, they discovered that the African Americans there, as elsewhere in the South, shared an overwhelming desire to acquire literacy.”[4] The thirst for knowledge shown by the recently freed people of the south gave ample opportunities for benevolent societies to come in an establish schools and employment opportunities for the African American population of the region. “Union agents professed an earnest desire to educate the slaves of coastal North Carolina,”[5] and the army ensured the protection to do so. James Rumley, assumingly like many other Confederate sympathizers and racist, took a staunch approach to the matters of educating blacks, “Two abolitionist from the north said to be brothers, of the name ‘Means,” lately came to North Carolina to teach the negroes; in violation of the laws of the state. One of them died about a fortnight ago at New Bern, and was boxed up and sent back to ‘niggerdom.’”[6]

Although many southern loyalists were discontent with the movement, African Americans were gaining enfranchisement in the educational realm as well as the political and civil realm. Union authorities granted many freed-people court appointed reparations; many times from their former owners. Black enlistment within the ranks of the Union army granted a very special opportunity for recently freed blacks. Also, the occupational force ensured a moderate stability in the region when faced with this drastic change.  Sometimes, even Union soldiers set up impromptu schools and would take liberty to teach African Americans. Northern accounts of this period suggest that the black population was overwhelmingly wiling to learn and, “used every spare minute to study.”[7]