Browse Items (26 total)

Thousands of African Americans wanted to fight against the institution of slavery by joining the U.S. military, but were prohibited from doing so by federal law passed in 1792. Only after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on…

In 1860, North Carolina only had two towns with populations over 5,000 people – Wilmington and New Bern. Raleigh and Fayetteville were the next largest towns with over 2,500 people. (UNC School of Education, “Towns and Villages”)

North Carolina enlisted approximately one-sixth of the men serving in the Confederate military. Nearly every adult white man served in some capacity. Nearly 110,000 volunteers and conscripts joined the military. (Only 115,000 white men were eligible…

Over 10,000 enslaved persons seeking freedom fled to eastern North Carolina, primarily to New Bern and Roanoke Island,after the region was captured by Union troops in 1862. Once behind Union lines these African Americans supported the U.S. war…

Historian David Williams relays that “roughly 200,000 blacks, most of them refugees from slavery, served in the Union armed forces." (Williams 2014, 5) Though many people may not know this fact, runaway slaves' participation in the Union army…

At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, both the North and South relied on volunteer soldiers. These volunteers first signed on for fixed terms (ninety days in the North, six months in the South) because they anticipated a short war. Many signed on…

“By the Constitution of this State I was empowered to be commander-in-chief to call out the militia, to execute the law, suppress riots and insurrections, and to repel invasion.” (Holden 1911, 120) This was Holden’s statement in…

Many of North Carolina’s enslaved communities participated in a Christmas season celebration called Jonkonnu (Johnkannaus, John Coonah, John Canoe). Outside of North Carolina, Jonkonnu was primarily seen in the Caribbean. Though Jonkonnu…

The story of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction is well known. Most southern states felt repercussions from Klan influence and violence. Lisa Cardyn explores Klan violence on a level that is often overlooked: the sexual nature of Klan violence.…

Levi Coffin, self-proclaimed “President of the Underground Railroad,” was born in Guilford County, North Carolina (near Greensboro). Coffin, a Quaker and abolitionist, grew weary of living in a slave state surrounded by the brutality of…