Record #:

14385

Author(s):

Lanier, Michelle

Abstract:

In 1862, Union troops under General Ambrose Burnside occupied New Bern and a large portion of Eastern North Carolina. Escaping slaves found a safe haven behind their lines and soon became a source of wartime labor and even military service for the Union. A number formed a community of churches, schools, and homes on Roanoke Island which soon grew to 3,500 men, women, and children by 1864. Lanier interviewed Virginia Simmons Tillet, one of the colony's descendants, about this little-known Civil War story.

Source:

Tar Heel Junior Historian (NoCar F 251 T3x), Vol. 50 Issue 2, Spring 2011, p37-39, il, por

Subject(s):

North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--African Americans