Northern White Opinions Regarding the Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony

In the midst of the Civil War, thousands of enslaved African American people, given the

opportunity, sought refuge within the Union lines under the jurisdiction of the army. At first, the

legality of the military taking in these individuals was unclear, but with the passage of the

Confiscation Act of 1861, these individuals became known as military “contraband” due to their

forced enslaved efforts aiding the Confederacy militarily. This, in essence, legalized the ability

of the military to maintain individuals who have escaped their Confederate masters, but it did not

allow the forced liberation of these enslaved individuals by the Union. Regardless, Union forces

began to garner substantial populations of “Contraband” individuals, with one such camp being

located along the coast of North Carolina on Roanoke Island. 1 This camp began to form after the

liberation of the island, amassing some 1,000 formerly enslave African Americans by the

beginning of 1863. It was around this time that the camp morphed into a prospering community,

which included both educational and religious institutions built and run by the formerly enslaved

population.1 Eventually, this camp was established as full-fledged colony by the United States

with the intention of maintain the families of African American soldiers, becoming the Roanoke

Island Freedmen’s Colony.1 However, this camp was in dire needs of material support, as

conditions in the camp were becoming untenable, which led to the recruitment of Evangelist

volunteers under the command of Reverend Horace James, the Superintendent of Freed Blacks

of North Carolina, who sought to educate and provide material assistance to the members of this

colony.1 These individuals all came to the camp with their own goals and opinions, which in

some semblance reflected the general opinions of Northerners in general. 1 As such, by utilizing

the missives of

1. Click, Patricia, “History,” The Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony, UNC Press, 2001.
https://www.roanokefreedmenscolony.com/history.html
Horace James, as well as the Evangelical teachers under his command, it can be possible to

ascertain the thoughts and opinions of White Northerners on the newly freed peoples at Roanoke

Island.

On June 27th, 1863, Reverend Horace James published a public call to arms which

requested both material and physical aid in the support of the fledgling Roanoke Island colony. 2

This document described the purpose of the colony, as well as the required materials for the

colony, such as clothing, shoes, lumber, and metals, emphasizing the necessity of quick action. 2

Although largely a manifest, the document does contain some interesting rhetoric which can give
2
some illustration of Northern opinion on the newly freed individuals. For example, the

document describes the purpose of the colony, which is “…to colonize these freed people, not by

deportation out of the country, but by giving them facilities for living in it; not by removing them

north, were they are not wanted, and could not be happy…” 2 With the purpose of the document

to be to call Northerners to arms in order to support this colony, it will clearly attempt to reflect

the popular opinion of the region, which can be ascertained as keeping these newly freed peoples

out of the North and forcing them to stay in the South. The White North, in other words, has no

want for these individuals. With this in mind, it becomes clear that the donations of materials to

the colony would largely be of “selfish sympathy”, as those who donate may be sympathetic to

the cause, but only out of the sheer desire to keep the newly freed African Americans in the

South. This desire, as the document mentions, equally extends to the want of the end the war as

quickly as possible, with it being sure to point out the project may be the beginnings of new

Southern social order. 2 Therefore, the vast majority of Northern sympathy simply extends from

their desire of personal gain and exclusion.

A similar trend can be observed in the references made in the various letters written by

2. Horace James to the Public, June 23, 1863 in “The Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony,” ed.
Patricia Click, https://www.roanokefreedmenscolony.com/james27.pdf.
both Reverend James and the Evangelical teachers volunteering in the camp. In a letter penned

by Sarah P. Freeman on November 7th, 1864 to a Mr. Leigh, Freeman mentions that, “…we may

have earnest Christian men engaged in this work, when they can be found equal in other respects

to men of an opposite character who care nothing for the welfare of the colony, but seek only to

promote their own interests in business.”3 From this, it can be understood that although there a

great many individuals dedicating themselves to the freed African Americans, there are almost

an equal number of individuals who are simply acting in their own interests. Although never

explicitly stated in any of the letters penned from Roanoke Island, these volunteer male

individuals are likely attempting to profit from the agricultural goods obtained from what was

considered to be an experiment in African American free labor, which is similar to what was

occurring along the South Carolina Sea Islands at the same time of Roanoke Island’s operation,

with one individual amassing some $20,000 worth of profit from freedmen production. 4 Apart

from the White Northern profiteers, it appears that many Northern supporters of the colony were

also disappointed in the progression and status of the African Americans, as well as the colony

itself, as mentioned in a letter written by Elizabeth James on April 7 th, 1864 to an unknown

individual, which stated, “Surprise has been expressed by some at the North that so little has

been done here.”5 This sentiment is also identical to the South Carolina Sea Islands, which was

deemed a failure, even by those who profited from it.4

The opinions of Reverend James and the evangelical teachers themselves, however, are

quite different than the sentiment of the majority of White Northerners. Reverend James, for

example, in his September 5th, 1863 published letter to the Newspaper The Congressionalist,

3. Sarah P. Freeman to Mr. Leigh, November 7, 1964 in “The Roanoke Island Freedmen’s
Colony,” ed. Patricia Click, https://www.roanokefreedmenscolony.com/let6.pdf.
4. Foner, Eric, A Short History of Reconstruction, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1990,
25.
5. Elizabeth James, April 7th, 1864 in “The Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony,” ed. Patricia
Click, https://www.roanokefreedmenscolony.com/let2.pdf
states, “They are contented, and more than this, and are developing an energy and vitality which

is highly encouraging.”6 This letter, which dates around seven months into the official start date

of the colony, is clearly one that is hopeful and joyous in its observation of the progression of the

colony and the African Americans who reside there. The letters of the Evangelical teachers are

even more revealing and personal, with Sarah Freeman lamenting in a letter to Mr. Leigh on

September 29th, 1864, “I know not what is being done or what is the wants of other fields, as I

see no papers, therefore I can only plead our own wants--the wants of three thousand suffering,

and doomed to suffer still more deeply, unless speedily relieved.” 7 Although the condition of the

colony are clearly horrendous around this time, Freeman seems to express a deep despair at the

plight of the residents, with her personally inquiring about supplies to Reverend Horace in order

to alleviate these difficult times, even going so far as to desire to house them all herself. The

contents of many of the letters seem to also express this same unselfish, sympathetic attitude

towards the colony’s residents, starkly contrasting the typical White Northern view, such as in

Ella Roper’s February 12th, 1865 letter, which states, “The needy ones are the families of those

who are absent in the army, and I do feel a double pleasure in giving to and in working for one

who is both a freedman and a soldier.” 8 However, the teachers themselves occasionally seem to

disassociate themselves from or look down upon the residents of the colony, with one letter from

Susan Odell, penned on May 29th, 1865, to a Mr. Hawkins, mentioning that the African

American children were not as intelligent as those in the North.

6. Horace James to The Congressionalist, September 5th, 1863 in “The Roanoke Island
Freedmen’s Colony,” ed. Patricia Click, https://www.roanokefreedmenscolony.com/
james5.pdf
7. Sarah P. Freeman to Mr. C. C. Leigh, September 29, 1864 in “The Roanoke Island
Freedmen’s Colony,” ed. Patricia Click, https://www.roanokefreedmenscolony.com/let5.pdf
8. Ella Roper, February 12, 1865 in in “The Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony,” ed. Patricia
Click, https://www.roanokefreedmenscolony.com/let10.pdf
9. Susan Odell to Mr. Hawkins, May 29, 1865 in in “The Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony,”
ed. Patricia Click, https://www.roanokefreedmenscolony.com/let14.pdf
 Based on the correspondences of Reverend Horace James and the Evangelist teachers on

the Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony, the White Northern opinion of the newly freed African

American residents roughly varied depending on their exact relationship to the colony. Those

closest to the colony were quite sympathetic to their plight, with both the Evangelist teachers and

Reverend James expressing great joy at the progression of the colony and in the assistance of the

individuals, with some teachers even go so far as to become quite distraught over failing

conditions. Volunteer male Northerners, as suggested by Sarah Freeman, were more of a mixed

bag, with some being quite devout to the assistance and aide of the colonists, but with the rest

solely seeking to profit off of the success of the colony, as in the case of the South Carolina Sea

Colonies. As for the furthest extant from the colony, the general population of White

Northerners, their sympathy seems to largely stem from similar desires as the volunteer males,

with their assistance being mostly in the name of keeping the African American colonists out of

the North, for a quick end to the Civil War, and for a total restructuring of the Southern social

order. Thus, the majority opinion of White Northerners, and some directly involved with the

colony, were sympathetic in the name of personal gain and separation.