First Light of Freedom Memorial

Front of memorial

Quick Facts

Amenities

2 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Wheelchair Accessible

This memorial commemorates the freedom that formerly enslaved people found on Roanoke Island during the American Civil War, and the experimental freedmen's colony that existed on the island.

The memorial is also part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
 

The Freedmen's Colony Of Roanoke Island 1862-1867

A year after the Civil War began, Roanoke Island fell to Union forces. Word spread throughout North Carolina that slaves could find "safe haven" on the Island. By the end of 1862, over a thousand runaway slaves, freed men, women and children found sanctuary here.

This colony, precursor to the Freedmen's Bureau, was to serve as a model for other colonies throughout the South. Once again this small island, site of the first English attempt at permanent settlement in the New World, became a land of historic beginnings.

The Freedmen's Colony encompassed unoccupied, unimproved lands from Manteo to the north and west shores, including some of the land today known as Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. A sawmill, hospital, a school with black female teachers and homes were established.

Able-bodied men were offered rations and employment to build a new fort. They also enlisted to form the First and Second North Carolina Colored Regiments. The colony could not remain self-supporting without men and became a refuge for three thousand women, children, aged and infirmed.

Upon the war's end, the federal government discontinued rations and supplies to colonists and returned land to original owners. Reminiscent of early English efforts, the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony was abandoned by 1867. Many freed people remained, and their descendants would become respected local residents. Others settled in communities throughout the region and would become an integral part of eastern North Carolina culture.

Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony

The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony was created shortly after the Battle of Roanoke Island in February 1862, when Union forces seized control of the area from Confederate troops.

From 1862 to 1867, the colony, under the direction of US Army chaplain Horace James, operated on land in the northwest portion of Roanoke Island. Churches, schoolhouses, homes, storefronts, and a sawmill were all constructed and, at its peak, the colony had a population of over 3,000 freed and escaped slaves.

At war's end, politics played a major role in the dismantling of the colony, and by 1867 the colony was mostly abandoned. The exact location of the colony is still unknown.