First in Freedom: Diversity and Black Heritage on the Outer Banks

By Aaron Tuell on Jan. 12, 2025

Outer Banks history holds many layers, and the self-guided journey through the area’s many firsts can begin before you ever arrive.

The African American Experience of Northeast North Carolina (AAENENC) invites visitors to gain broader knowledge and appreciation of Black community contributions throughout one of America’s most history-rich corridors. This new self-directed experience begins at NCBlackHeritageTour.com and brings together dozens of visitable sites and stories of African American influence across a six-county area, including The Outer Banks, the storied Dismal Swamp, and early riverfront communities such as Elizabeth City, Hertford and Edenton. It is a way to explore the African American landmarks and legacies connected to the OBX.

The Outer Banks is known by many travelers today as America’s best family beach vacation, but its past offers a powerful story ready to be explored. Between the better-known accounts of the first English colony in America at Roanoke Island and the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk is another heroic history: courageous men and women who helped shape some of the country’s earliest experiences of freedom and equality for African Americans, both before and after the nation’s deepest division.

For context, the Outer Banks was once a mostly sandy, sparsely wooded island chain where only a few thousand people lived a frontier-style existence far from urban centers. Its history runs from the first English European arrival in America with the Lost Colony of Roanoke circa 1587, through piracy in the early 1700’s and Blackbeard’s haunts of the coast, and into small family-based communities that began as fishing villages and maritime ports serving sea trade before the Civil War in 1861.

Around Manteo, there was somewhat more farming, but neither that area nor the beach towns of Kitty Hawk, Nags Head or Hatteras had the large plantations many people associate with the South of that era. As a result, there was not the same economic demand for a large enslaved population. Many local political sympathies leaned toward the North, yet the South needed to control the North Carolina barrier islands to protect sea-based supply routes supporting the war. That is where this route begins.

Roanoke Island

Etheridge Homestead | Island Farm

Island Farm presents living history and interprets everyday life on Roanoke Island during the mid-1800s. Residents relied on the surrounding waters while working the soil to support their families, creating an independent and enterprising island culture. The Etheridge family connected to today’s Island Farm traces its presence back to 1757, when the family worked both land and water, producing crops and fish to trade with communities farther north.

The Etheridge family enslaved people, and one person once connected to the household would later become historically significant: Richard Etheridge. Born into slavery, he was the illegitimate son of John B. Etheridge, a white man of standing and the father of Adam Dough Etheridge, who constructed the mansion house at Island Farm. Richard was given favored treatment by his father and owner. At a time when many white residents could not read or write, and most African-Americans in the 1850s were denied literacy, Richard was literate as a young man. He also developed deep skill as a waterman and knew the shoal waters surrounding Roanoke Island, abilities that later helped him become America’s first Captain of an all-African American US Lifesaving Station at Pea Island, an institution that preceded today’s US Coast Guard.

Island Farm also shares the moving story of Crissy Bowser, known as Aunt Crissy. Census records do not make clear whether she was born enslaved or free in 1820, but she spent much of her life serving the Etheridge family. She later built her own house beneath a 200-year-old oak near Island Farm, living independently, keeping animals and cooking for the family into the 20th century until she died in the cabin she had built herself.

The Freedman’s Colony 1862-1867 | Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

After the Union’s first military victory of the Civil War at Fort Hatteras in August 1861, Northern troops captured Roanoke Island in 1862, another early Union success against Confederate forces. Enslaved people escaping bondage began arriving on the island in search of military protection. The army responded by taking control of local land for a Freedmen’s Colony at the island’s north end, across from the present-day NC Aquarium.

Some formerly enslaved people helped rebuild the forts on Roanoke and Hatteras islands. Others worked as cooks, woodworkers and blacksmiths, while additional residents served as army scouts and spies or joined the Union Army. At its peak population, nearly 4,000 formerly enslaved people from across the east had reached Freedman’s Colony. Once the war ended, the property was returned to its original owners. Without land of their own, many formerly enslaved residents departed. Among the families who stayed, many were able to remain because Richard Etheridge, known for his later lifesaving legacy, sold them parcels from land he had acquired. Many Freedmen’s Colony descendants still live on the Outer Banks.

The Freedman’s Colony itself is gone, but Fort Raleigh National Historic Site offers a place to connect with its history and spirit. A memorial identifies the site as part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, and the Lindsay Warren Visitor Center at Fort Raleigh includes an area devoted to the Freedman’s Colony. Park rangers interpret the Civil War battle of Roanoke Island and the creation of the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony. The park expected to offer this program regularly during the summer at the First Light of Freedom Monument, with details available through the park calendar.

The Freedman’s Colony 1862-1867 | NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island

Richard Etheridge (1842-1900) and his family were laid to rest on land he bought near the former Freedman’s Colony. Today, his gravesite and public memorial can be visited beside the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island. Within the Aquarium, visitors can also see a gallery of original portraits by local artist James Melvin honoring the legacy as part of the experience.

The Pea Island Lifesaving Station crew is credited with 609 documented rescues at sea between its operational beginning in 1880 and decommissioning in 1947. The best-known rescue was the saving of the E.S. Newman crew during an October 1896 hurricane. Richard Etheridge was the first African American to hold the rank of Keeper of a life-saving station. Under the racial rules of that period, a Black keeper meant the full crew under his command also had to be Black. Although Black surfmen had served at Pea Island and other stations before, Pea Island Station ultimately became staffed entirely by a Black keeper and crew.

Haven Creek Baptist Church | Manteo

Formerly enslaved people carried their faith and devotion to worship into the Freedmen’s Colony. Haven Creek Church in Manteo traces its beginnings to the Civil War, when Freedman’s Colonists met beneath a tree for worship. During the war, word was sent to enslaved friends that crossing the creek meant finding a safe haven. Many had fled places where churches used locked slave galleries to prevent enslaved worshippers from escaping during services. After the war, a formal church was constructed on land deeded to Richard Etheridge by local white farmer John B. Etheridge, and the congregation selected a name that would remember those difficult years.

The Pea Island Cookhouse Museum | Manteo

The Outer Banks has the distinction of being home to one of the most highly-awarded rescue crews in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard: the all-Black surfmen of Pea Island Life-Saving Station. They received Gold Lifesaving Medals posthumously for their courage in protecting mariners in danger along this coast, especially for rescuing every person aboard the doomed three-masted schooner E.S. Newman.

From 1880 until his death in 1900, Richard Etheridge, a formerly enslaved Roanoke Island man and Civil War veteran, commanded a segregated crew responsible for guarding several miles of shoreline near the current Captain Richard Etheridge Memorial Bridge at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. The original main station has disappeared over time, but its separate cookhouse was saved and restored as a museum in the center of Manteo on Roanoke Island, the home community of most of the Pea Island lifesavers.

Having served as a Sergeant in the Colored Troops of the Union Army during the Civil War, Keeper Etheridge managed the station with military discipline, making his career one of distinction. Among the crew’s most successful and harrowing operations was the October 1896 rescue of the E.S. Newman, when two crew members fought through hurricane-force seas to save lives. The cookhouse was where the men ate, gathered and shared the events of the day. In that era, travel and trade often meant moving by ship, frequently offshore of the Outer Banks. Shipwrecks occurred much as accidents happen on interstates today, usually during severe weather and with high risk of drowning or worse. Before 1915, the U.S. Coast Guard was known as the U.S. Lifesaving Service, and its members were among the era’s most heroic first responders.

The museum grounds are framed by the Dellerva Collins Memorial Gardens. Mrs. Collins served on the Town of Manteo Board of Commissioners for more than 26 years, including several years as Mayor Pro-Tem, and helped found the Freedman’s Colony Coalition. She was married to Frank Collins, who served in the US Coast Guard until he died while on active duty. Her ancestors were part of the Pea Island story. The Pea Island Cookhouse Museum stands at 622 Sir Walter Raleigh Street, next to Collins Park and Collis’ Playground, a few blocks across from downtown Manteo.

Herbert Collins Boathouse | Downtown Manteo

Created to honor former Lieutenant Herbert Collins, the boathouse opened and was dedicated in his name in October 2010. Born in 1921 on Roanoke Island, Lieutenant Collins is often remembered as the final Keeper of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station. His service at the station lasted from 1940 - 1947, and he went on to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard for 34 years in multiple sea and shore assignments after departing Pea Island.

Inside the boathouse is a Monomoy type Surfboat loaned to the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum by the National Park Service. It represents the same type of Surfboat used by Lieutenant Collins and the many African American men who served with bravery and honor at the Pea Island Lifesaving Station for over sixty years.

Lieutenant Collins belonged to a local Roanoke Island African American family with over 400 years of continuous service in the U.S. Life-Saving Service /U.S. Coast Guard, among the longest family records in Coast Guard history. That tradition has created an enduring contribution to both local history and the history of the United States. The Herbert M. Collins Boathouse is part of the Collins Park project, together with the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum and the Richard Etheridge statue. Visitors can encounter this history in person at the Herbert M. Collins Boathouse, beside the Pea Island Cookhouse at 622 Sir Walter Raleigh Street, a few blocks across from downtown Manteo.

Hatteras Island

Hotel De Afrique | Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum

National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

The first Union military victory of the Civil War ended on August 29, 1861, following a naval bombardment and amphibious assault against Confederate forces at Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark. Fort Hatteras stood near the present location of the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. Because these forts overlooked Hatteras Inlet, they held major strategic military importance, and their capture had immediate consequences. Freedom seekers began arriving every day at the new Union stronghold, hoping to find a measure of liberty. Union soldiers quickly had to create shelter for the growing number of refugees, a place the public came to know as Hotel De Afrique after a New York Times article on January 29, 1862.

The settlement started as a basic shanty and expanded quickly to roughly a dozen barracks. African Americans there traded skills as watermen, horsemen and laborers for food and shelter. It was the first such haven for fugitive slaves in North Carolina. At the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, visitors can see a large black memorial near the main parking area that explains the Civil War battle and the freedom camp that followed. The Hotel d’ Afrique operated from 1861-1865 and is part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

People in Spotlight

Remembering Mrs. Virginia Tillett | Manteo

Many descendants of people who escaped slavery through the Freedmen’s Colony have made lasting contributions to the modern Outer Banks community. The late Virginia Tillett, a Manteo native and descendant of the colony, was the first African-American elected to the Dare County School Board and to the Dare County Board of Commissioners. She received the Citizen of the Year Award from the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce and was also honored with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest honor.