Browse Items (916 total)

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…

During the Civil War Wilmington, North Carolina was one of the only Confederate ports not blockaded by the U.S. Navy. Southern states were not equipped to produce supplies necessary to sustain the war effort or home front, and southerners relied on…

Many southerners called the Civil War "a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight." The Confederacy instituted a military draft in 1862, but included many exemptions that allowed the wealthy to avoid service. By 1864, however, the…

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…

The term "Tar Heel" originated in the Civil War-era. Sources indicate that members of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia teased soldiers from North Carolina with the nickname. Many North Carolinians worked in the naval stores industry…

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”)

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…

In the mid-19th Century, an elite southern white man’s reputation could make him or break him. He worked to demonstrate honor through honest dealings, activity in church and community life, respect for white women, generosity to lower classes, and…

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…

In antebellum North Carolina, there were six distinct social classes. The gentry, or planter class, were those few people who owned more than twenty slaves, or well-to-do professionals like high-level public officials or lawyers. The middle class…