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The Freedmen's Village on Roanoke Island

Although Roanoke Island may be best-remembered as the site of one of the first English settlements in North America, in 1860, the island was a key Confederate position in the defense of coastal North Carolina. The Albemarle and Currituck sounds, as well as eight rivers, four canals, and two railroads, were sheltered west of the island. Strapped for manpower, the Confederates could not deploy more than a token force to defend Roanoke, and these troops were easily overwhelmed by General Benjamin Butler's invasion force of 10,000 on February 8, 1862. Formerly enslaved Africans who had been attached to Confederate units as body servants and laborers constituted the first trickle of "Freedmen" to congregate on the island.

General Butler had formally initiated the Union policy of harboring fugitive slaves within federal lines in the summer of 1861, while campaigning on the York/James Peninsula. By arguing that blacks were the "property" of their southern owners, Butler reasoned they could be held as "contraband of war" (along the same lines as cotton, animals, foodstuffs, or tools), thus depriving the south of a vital wartime resource. Whether this strategy sprang from Butler's belief in the inferiority of African people, or from his desire to end run the law of the land (prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, federal law required that any enslaved Africans known to have escaped the service of their masters be returned to their owners), remains a subject of debate. What is known, however, is that word soon spread throughout North Carolina and southern Virginia that a refuge for contrabands could be found on Roanoke.

A steady influx of Freedmen and women made their way to Roanoke Island throughout the remainder of 1862. After President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863, a flood of refugees descended upon the island. The Roanoke Freedman's Village was established on the northern end of the island, between Pork Point and Weir Point, with the layout for the site designed by Brigadier General Edward A. Wild. Wild was an ardent Abolitionist from Brookline, Massachusetts, who had been sent to North Carolina to recruit black troops for the Union cause.

With support from northern missionaries and relief societies, the Freedmen created a "colony" of hope at Camp Foster. Homes, schools, and places of worship were constructed in quick order. Able-bodied black men were employed by the government as laborers or joined the military as scouts, guides, or soldiers. General Wild eventually raised and trained three regiments black troops, the First, Second, and Third North Carolina Colored Volunteers. Black women found work as seamstresses and laundresses and also performed manual labor..

The significance of Freedman's camps cannot be overestimated. They provided the first opportunity for most formerly enslaved Africans to begin their new lives as free men and women. Freedman's camps offered education and employment opportunities (of various levels of quality and fairness) and were often the first step in the foundation of stable and self-sustaining black communities.

After the Civil War the federal government returned the confiscated property on Roanoke Island to the original owners. Roanoke's black residents protested their displacement, and many were allowed to retain their land. Others left Roanoke to settle in nearby towns. By 1870, little remained of Camp Foster or the African Village that occupied the northern end of the island. Thus, Roanoke produced a second "lost colony." On September 14, 2001, the National Park Service and the Freedman's Colony Celebration Committee dedicated a marker to the Freedmen and women who emerged from bondage to create a new breath of freedom for themselves --temporary in existence, but enduring in legacy and significance.