Michael Moore, Exhibit panel in "North Carolina in Crisis," 2013

Michael Moore, Exhibit panel in "North Carolina in Crisis," 2013

This panel challenges the general assumption that all North Carolinians believed in and fought for the Confederacy. Here, the stories of North Carolinian Union supporters, black and white, are intertwined. The text effectively conveys the physical, political, and social risks these populations faced.

Moore, Michael

Michael Moore, Exhibit panel in "North Carolina in Crisis," personal photograph by author, Raleigh, NC.

2013-03-12

Moore, Michael

Still Image

Raleigh, North Carolina

Photograph

North Carolina's Federal Soldiers

Although North Carolina was a Confederate state, as many as 10,000 Tar Heels served in the state's four white Union regiments, and more than 5,000 blacks joined four African American Federal regiments.

White Unionists in the west fled across the mountains to enlist in Federal units from other states. Eastern whites, free blacks, and escaped slaves crossed Federal lines enlist. North Carolinians who fought for the Union did so at a great risk. If captured, they faced execution, prison, or a return to slavery.