On March 5, 1770, British troops fired into a crowd of American colonists in Boston, Massachusetts. Five men were killed, including Crispus Attacks, a Black man. This event, forever known as the Boston Massacre, helped to spark the beginning of the American Revolution.

While Crispus Attucks is probably the most well-known Black name associated with that war, thousands of Black men contributed to the Revolutionary War on both sides. It is believed that 5,000 to 8,000 African Americans took part in the Revolution as Patriots, and as many as 20,000 fought for the Crown. Most of the names of these men remain unknown, but fourteen men from nearby Harlowe are known to have served.
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In the early 1700s, free Black families from Virginia and Maryland established communities near present-day Harlowe and Craven County.

Free Black families in Craven County, North Carolina particularly in the Harlowe community, were early, active participants in the American Revolution, with at least 14 men serving in the 10th NC Regiment. These "Forgotten Patriots," including Isaac Carter, fought for American independence in battles like White Plains and Charleston, challenging the narrative that Black people only served the British. ​

When the North Carolina Assembly initiated a draft in 1777, these free men of color responded, with 14 known individuals enlisting between 1777-1782. Isaac Carter, a private in the 10th NC Regiment, served at Fort Hancock (Cape Lookout) with others, including Joshua Carter, William Dove, and Isaac Perkins.

Both free and enslaved Black people in North Carolina often supported the Patriots to secure their own freedom and legal standing, notes research from UNC Greensboro.
Despite the risks of slavery, local courts in Craven County, such as in 1745 and 1749, sometimes protected free Black families from being illegally enslaved.

While many fought for the Patriots, others supported the British, who promised freedom to slaves, notes PBS.
Certificates of Freedom were presented to the soldiers in the Black Pioneers Loyalist Company. They were issued by Samuel Birch who was the author of the Book Of Negros.
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Supporting the cause of freedom: The Black experience in Revolutionary Craven County
By Bernard George Special to the New Bern Sun Journal - Feb. 6, 2024 Updated Mar 14, 2024

Martin Black (1751- 1821), Isaac Perkins (1756-1830), William Dove (born c.1748), and Isaac Carter (born c.1760), each enlisted for three years in Captain Silas Stevenson’s Company of the 10th North Carolina Regiment, then under the command of Colonel Abraham Sheppard. Black & Perkins enlisted in New Bern on May 16, 1777; followed by Dove on June 14; and Carter on September 1.

When North Carolina troops encamped at Valley Forge in the summer of 1778, four of the state’s regiments were reduced to cadre status and three regiments were disbanded, leaving only the 1st and 2nd Regiments in full strength. The four men were then assigned to the 2nd North Carolina Regiment under the command of Colonel John Patten. Perkins and Carter were assigned to Captain Clement Hall’s company: Dove to Captain John Craddock’s company; and Black to Captain Benjamin Coleman’s company.

On May 16, 1779, Black fought in a skirmish against British troops near West Point, New York and on June 20, 1779, he was part of a highly trained and hand-picked group of Continental soldiers that successfully assaulted and captured a British outpost at Stony Point, New York. Dove fought in the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778, and then the Battle of Stony Point on July 15, 1778.

In November 1779, the 2nd NC Regiment was transferred to the Southern Department and marched south to Charleston, South Carolina, to help defend that city. On May 12, 1780, the 2nd NC Regiment surrendered 301 men to the British Army at the Fall of Charleston, including Black, Perkins and Dove. Black and Perkins managed to escape, but Black was soon recaptured. He remained in Charleston in Captain Benjamin Coleman’s company of the 2nd NC Regiment until a prisoner exchange and release in December 1782 in Charleston.
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Post-war Prosperity
According to the 1790 census, the following households grew and prospered in Harlowe. Black returned to North Carolina where he married Ann Moore on April 12, 1784. He is recorded as the head of a Carteret County household of two “other free.”

Isaac Carter married Sarah Perkins, the sister of Isaac Perkins, on February 3, 1786. Carter was head of a Craven County household of five other free. His brother-in-law Isaac Perkins married Deborah Godett (born c. 1763) on March 24, 1784. Perkins was head of a Craven County household of two other free. He acquired land on the south side of the Neuse River and west side of Macock’s Branch on December 9, 1813, and was taxed on 250 acres in Craven County in 1815. Perkins sold 150 acres of the land to Isaac Carter in 1827, along with 40 acres on the south side of Bay River and west side of Trent Creek.

After the war, Dove assigned his rights to military land for 264 acres to John Craddock under Warrant No. 3202, issued on November 26, 1789. Dove had purchased 90 acres on the east side of Hancock’s Creek on Cahoque Creek in Craven County from Martin Black on February 6, 1775. He purchased 8 acres in Craven County on June 13, 1790, and was head of a Craven County household of nine other free.

John Carter (1754-1821) and Asa Spelman/Spelmore (born c. 1751) each enlisted in July 1778, apparently as ‘New Levies’ authorized by the NC General Assembly and required to enlist for only nine months. Carter and Spelman served under Captain Michael Quinn of the 3rd NC Regiment, and both were discharged in the spring of 1779.

Spelman purchased land in Craven County in 1781 and was head of a Craven County household of five other free. On January 1, 1796, Spelman sold 65 acres in Craven County on the north side of the Neuse River between Trent and Smiths Creek. He married Esther Sampson on June 6, 1819, and was counted in a household of four “free colored” in 1820. Spelman and Carter each appeared in Craven County court on September 13, 1820, to apply for Revolutionary War pensions and Spelman testified on Carter’s behalf. At the time, Carter was a cooper living with his sister Margaret Fenner.

Absalom Martin (1745-1828) enlisted on April 25, 1781, for twelve months. He served in Captain Griffin John McRee’s Company of the 1st NC Regiment and fought in the Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina. He initially appeared before a Carteret County court in September 1818 to request a pension, saying that he volunteered as “the fourteenth man which was to be furnished in each county in the state…in order to make up a requisition by the United States to furnish troops for the same…” Martin’s August 22, 1820, pension application (S41800 NC) included certification of his service by then NC Secretary of State William Hill, dated July 8, 1819. Martin was head of a Carteret County household of nine other free.

Simeon Moore aka Simon (born c. 1740) lived in Beaufort County when he and his brother Abram, called “free Negroes,” purchased 300 acres on the south side of Terts Swamp and Durham’s Creek in March 1758. In 1782, Simeon enlisted for eighteen months in Captain Thomas Evans’ Company of the 4th North Carolina Regiment. After the war, he married Mary Davis widow on January 27, 1790, and the census of that year shows him as head of a Craven County household of eleven other free. He owned 450 acres of taxable land in Craven County in 1815, and applied for a Revolutionary War pension in June 1818.

Aaron Spelman/Spelmore (born c. 1753), Hezekiah “Kiah” Stringer (born c.1757), and Mingo Stringer (born c. 1761) served in Captain Anthony Sharpe’s Company of the 1st North Carolina Regiment from May 5, 1781 — April/May 1782. They would have fought in the Battle of Eutaw Springs on September 8, 1781. Hezekiah enlisted again in Captain Benjamin Andrew Coleman’s Company in the 2nd NC Regiment for 18 months. His furlough papers, dated May 26, 1783, granted him a leave of absence from the 1st North Carolina Regiment until his final discharge. He was called Kiah Stringer in 1800, head of a New Hanover County household of five other free.

Spelman was head of a Craven County household of three other free in 1790. On September 12, 1820, he appeared in Craven County court to seek a pension for Revolutionary War service. Mingo purchased 100 acres on the south side of the Neuse River near Long Creek in Craven County from William George and made a quit claim deed to return the property to him on October 2, 1784, because he had not served in the Revolution for him as promised. Mingo was head of a Craven County household of two other free. He purchased the northern half of lot 458 on Norwood Street in the town of New Bern for $75 on May 2, 1826.

Little is known, at this time, about the service of John Gregory (born c.1758), or George Perkins (born c. 1734). Gregory was head of a Craven County household of two other free in the 1790 census and two “free colored” in the 1820 census. He appeared in Craven County court On August 15, 1832, to apply for a pension for Revolutionary War service.

Perkins was a taxable head of his own “Black” Craven County household in 1769 and was called a husbandman (farmer) on February 27, 1771, when he purchased 200 acres in Craven County on the west side of Cahoogue Creek for 60 barrels of tar. The father of Isaac Perkins, and the father-in-law of Isaac Carter, he was head of a Craven County household of four other free in 1790.

These fourteen men and their experiences remained alive for generations in family stories and local folklore but became faded or lost with the passage of time. However, as more research continues the contributions of these and other forgotten patriots of the American Revolution are finally receiving the long-overdue recognition they deserve.

Patriot Isaac Carter Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution: A First
On March 16, 2014, the NC Society of Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) dedicated a memorial marker commemorating the Revolutionary War service of 14 free men of color from the Harlowe area of Craven and Carteret counties.
The historic ceremony was held at the Godette School in Harlowe and attended by more than two hundred people. National SAR President General Joe Dooley praised the Harlowe community for earning the distinction of contributing the greatest number of soldiers per capita in support of the American patriot cause. Following the marker dedication, serious research efforts were made to identify and recruit eligible descendants and organize a Harlowe SAR chapter.
When chartered on September 3, 2016, the Patriot Isaac Carter Chapter became the first (and only) chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution comprised primarily of African American men.


More Historical points about the Revolutionary War and Enslaved and Free Black People

“For more than two hundred years, African Americans have participated in every conflict in United States history. They have not only fought bravely the common enemies of the United States but have also had to confront the individual and institutional racism of their countrymen.”
— Retired Lt. Col. Michael Lee Lanning, author, The African American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell

Forgotten Patriots: An Overview
African Americans played a significant, although often unrecognized, role in the early years of the American military. During the colonial period, African Americans fought either out of a sense of duty to help defend their community or a desire to gain their freedom. With the advent of the American Revolution, however, African Americans also began fighting with an eye toward emancipation for all enslaved people.

Studying their service during this formative period reveals the establishment of a pattern of participation by Blacks in the military that includes exclusion during peacetime, initial exclusion during wartime, and eventual acceptance in the face of critical manpower shortages. This pattern would be repeated throughout U.S. history until World War II.

When General George Washington took command of the Continental Army in July 1775, one of his first acts was to ban the enlistment of all Blacks, both free and slave. Although he had commanded African Americans during the French and Indian War, Washington reportedly viewed them as unnecessary to the patriots’ cause. However, Washington began to see things differently after Virginia’s British Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, issued the first of a series of proclamations promising liberty to slaves held by rebelling colonists.

At General Washington’s urging, Congress authorized the enlistment of free Blacks in the Continental Army in February 1776. As the American cause grew increasingly desperate, the army finally began actively seeking the enlistment of slaves.

African Americans qualified to serve in the Continental Army and the state militias under four different conditions: (1) as free Blacks; (2) as fugitives posing as freemen; (3) as slaves enlisting under the promise of freedom; and (4) as slaves serving as substitutes for their master or his sons. No matter how they entered the army, they were generally relegated to the military’s lowest echelons.

Most Black soldiers served as privates; only a few were able to rise to the rank of staff sergeant. No African American received an officer’s commission in either the state militias or the Continental Army. Their history and their contributions to this country were significant and influential. Yet until recently, they were also largely unacknowledged.

New Bern and Craven County African Americans played a major role in the development of New Bern. For most of the town’s early history, the majority of its population was black.

The labor of slaves provided the engine of the economy during the hundred years before the Civil War. Also, New Bern had the state’s largest concentration of free blacks. Skilled African American artisans crafted the community’s buildings, wharves and ships.

On his first trip along North Carolina’s coast in the 1760s, Governor Tryon commented on the numbers and activities of the many African Americans he saw at work. “The Negroes are very numerous I suppose five to one White Person in the Maritime Counties, but as you penetrate into the country few Blacks are employed,” Tryon wrote.

In addition to farm labor, coastal slaves were engaged in the “Making of Barrels, Hoops, Staves, Shingles, Rails Post and Pails, all of which they do to admiration.” Black people also played a leading part in the important naval stores industry, handling the “Boxing of Pine Trees to draw off the Turpentine, [and the] Making of Tarr kills [kilns].”

African Americans worked as boatmen, both along the coast and up the rivers where Tryon reported “Rocky Stones so as to stop the navigation of anything but Canoes, and those are not safe unless under the conduct of a dexterous Negroe.” Royal Governor William Tryon recognized New Bern’s growing importance when he made it colonial North Carolina’s first permanent capital in 1766.

Construction of Tryon Palace began on a site just west of town overlooking the Trent River. By the eve of the American Revolution (April 19,1775), New Bern’s population was approximately 1,000 people. When North Carolina citizens joined other American colonists in the effort to throw off British rule during the Revolution, African Americans added their efforts to the struggle.

The Harlowe Patriots
As the American Revolution began taking shape, many settlers in the Harlowe community of Craven County were free men of color who farmed their own land or were engaged in skilled labor or other private enterprises. They owned property and paid taxes, leaving a paper trail that was rare for the time. Typical of other free Black families who migrated to Craven and Carteret Counties from Tidewater Virginia in the early eighteenth century, my ancestor Peter George (born c. 1720) purchased 100 acres of land in Craven County on the south side of Neuse River and on the East side of Long Creek on September 7, 1751.

Soon afterwards Peter George and his Harlowe neighbors — John Carter, Abel Carter, James Black, and Jacob Copes — began a strong tradition of military service by African American residents of their small community. They are listed as “free Negroes” in the April 11, 1753, muster of Abner Neale’s Craven County Foot Company.

Tradition of Service Continues
Isaac Carter, Joshua Carter, William Dove, and Isaac Perkins of Harlowe appear to have started their Revolutionary War service in one of two special regiments of militia created in early May 1776 in anticipation of a rumored British invasion along the Cape Fear River. Though some accounts claim the men served under Major John Tillman at Fort Hancock during the winter of 1778, due to the timing involved, it is more likely they served in the 1st Battalion of Militia under Tillman in an expedition to Wilmington that lasted June — August 1776. After building a large barracks complex in Wilmington, these militia units were disbanded on August 13, 1776.

War and the Draft
When the NC General Assembly initiated a draft in 1777, all men ages sixteen — fifty were required to serve or find an able-bodied man to serve as a substitute — no color qualifications were noted. Eligible men from Harlowe quickly responded. The following glimpses into their lives are based on accounts provided by award-winning genealogist Paul Heinegg in his work, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to About 1820.

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Other narrative sources: Black Soldiers in the Cause of Freedom- by Claudia Houston, Historian, New Bern Historical Society

Top image: Sourced from The New Bern Historical Society

Bottom image: Base map courtesy David Cecelski "The Quaker Map: From Harlowe to Mill Creek" at coastalreview.org