Freedom

There is no concept more central to the examination of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras than that of Freedom. In 1860, one-third of North Carolina’s population …

… was enslaved. The Emancipation Proclamation officially freed these North Carolinians and another 3.5 million Americans across the South, arguably the largest single act of liberation of an enslaved people in world history. The end of the War ostensibly cemented that freedom. The Reconstruction era tested it and, sadly, revealed its fragility.

Slavery destroyed or damaged the freedom of almost all North Carolinians. It imprisoned Blacks in obvious ways: it robbed their labor, split their families, sanctioned brutality, and encouraged sexual violence. It enriched some Whites, but deprived the poor of opportunity, mobility, and economic development. Slaveholders claimed to glorify White women but confined them to their homes and families. As people of color, Native Americans suffered with Blacks from the racism that slavery fostered. White Unionists were silenced or driven into hiding. Though with painful flaws and limits, the end of slavery brought more freedom to all of North Carolina.

Freedom has many faces. The creation of the North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center — the first institution of its kind in the United States to tackle these two formative periods as one — provides a unique opportunity to explore the presence and absence of freedom across this crucial period of our state’s history. We welcome this extraordinary opportunity to provide an honest, fact-based examination.

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