Soldiers of Freedom
North Carolina’s Black troops claim their place in history.
Honoring courage that carried a people toward freedom’s promise.
The story of North Carolina’s Black Union soldiers is a story of people who refused to wait for freedom to find them. Many had been enslaved only months before they put on a uniform. Yet when the chance came to fight for their own liberation—and for the liberation of those still in chains—they stepped forward with a quiet, steady resolve that still moves us today.
Along the coast, in places like New Bern and Washington, families fled to Union lines seeking safety from the violence of slavery. Out of those same communities came the First North Carolina Colored Volunteers, later known as the 35th United States Colored Troops.
These men trained on the same ground where they had once been denied the right to read, gather, or speak freely. Now they drilled with purpose, knowing their service would help shape the future of their families and their state.
Their courage was tested in battles far from home, including the brutal fighting at Olustee in Florida. Witnesses spoke of their bravery under fire, but the deeper truth is that these men were fighting for more than military victory. They were fighting to prove their own humanity in a nation that had tried to deny it. Every step they took in uniform pushed back against the lie that Black people were unfit for citizenship or service.
Even before official enlistment began, Black North Carolinians were already risking their lives for the Union cause. They ferried soldiers across dangerous waters, carried messages through enemy territory, and stood guard at night when others slept. Some, like the man known as Big Bob, died performing acts of courage that rarely made it into the history books but helped turn the tide of the war.
Their service brought freedom closer to home. As Union troops advanced, enslaved people across eastern North Carolina learned that liberation was no longer a distant hope. These soldiers helped open the door to the first Emancipation Day gatherings in the state—celebrations that would eventually grow into the Juneteenth traditions we honor today.
The triumph of North Carolina’s Black Union soldiers lives on not only in military records but in the families, churches, and communities that survived because of their sacrifice. Their story reminds us that freedom is not a gift handed down from above. It is something people claim for themselves, often at great cost, and pass forward with love and determination.
North Carolina’s “Juneteenth” Story
What is Juneteenth? Why do we recognize it? What does it have to do with the history of North Carolina and the United States Colored Troops?
In 2021, the NC African American Heritage Commission produced North Carolina’s Juneteenth Story, a film that tells the history of Juneteenth and the story of the United States Colored Troops.
A conversation at Historic Stagville with United States Colored Troops reenactor Bernard George.
This video was filmed in partnership between the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, Historic Stagville, and Tryon Place.
