“A Spelling Book in One Hand, a Musket in the Other: African Americans in Civil War North Carolina”

Join us at the NC Maritime Museum in Beaufort on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 3:00 PM, when Dr. Jeffrey Crow, Deputy Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, will offer a presentation on African Americans in North Carolina during the Civil War. More than 300,000 African Americans were in the state by 1860. Existing laws precluded slaves from learning to read, and more stringent restrictions were put in place during the Antebellum period. The Civil War and Union occupation were the avenue for freedom. Enslaved people escaped to Union forces and picked up arms for their rights and liberty. As an award-winning author, Crow has published “The Black Experience in Revolutionary North Carolina” and “A History of African Americans in North Carolina.” Join the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort for its Civil War Lecture Series the second Saturday of each month at 3 p.m. Discover a variety of topics by gifted authors and historians from around the state as they commemorate the Civil War. All lectures are FREE.