James City, Marker C-64
Posted by: 
showbizkid
N 35° 05.105 W 077° 01.958
18S E 314697 N 3884368
Established in 1863 as a camp for destitute former slaves, James City persisted as a stronghold of black self-determination throughout the nineteenth century.
Waymark Code: WMGC3
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 07/04/2006
Views: 19
When Union troops captured and occupied New Bern
in March 1862, slaves from surroundings areas made their
way to New Bern and freedom. Within months, hundreds
of freedmen sought security in New Bern. The
Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham
Lincoln, caused New Bern to become a place of solace for
African Americans in that part of eastern North Carolina.
Accommodations had to be made for the freedmen, so Army Chaplain Horace James set up a camp across the Trent River. The 30 acres, which had belonged to former North Carolina Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight, gave rise to an exclusive African America community. Here, the freedmen began new lives. James, who later became superintendent of Negro affairs in federally occupied North Carolina, laid out the camp in 50-by-60 foot lots. Some 800 cabins initially housed the freedmen.
When the war ended in April 1865, the Trent River camp had been renamed James City in honor of Horace James, who worked tirelessly to help the freedmen make a new start. The camp had taken on the appearance of a town. Many of the residents were no longer dependent upon government assistance, for they were gainfully employed by the government or in occupations of their own. The community had grown to include a number of buildings such as a school, blacksmith shop, hospital and churches.
James City began to fall on hard times as land ownership came into question and as African Americans made their way to the Midwest and North as part of the Great Migration. James City still exists as an unincorporated community. Today the town is about 78% white and only 18% African American.
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