A First Hand Account from Freedom Hill - 1865, Supplement to May, 2010 Lead Story

Princeville North Carolina is the oldest town in the United States of America founded by blacks in 1885. But it was a community going as far back as 1865 when it was known as Freedom Hill.
After the Civil War a large occupying force of Union soldiers were stationed outside of Tarboro the seat of Edgecombe County. They were actually encamped across the Tar River on a flood plain that formed Tarboro's southern boundary. It was here that Freedom Hill was founded. Why was it called Freedom Hill?
The following was a firsthand account by a certain Dr. J.M. Baker who was a young man of eight years old at the time:
"... The first greenbacks I ever saw were paid me for vegetables and milk by some of these soldiers. Every morning my mother's cook, Old Auntie Eliza would take me with her to the camp and sell our surplus milk and vegetables. It was a source of considerable revenue and came in very handy to my mother at those times.
"On July 4, 1865, with martial law still prevailing, on my daily visit with Aunt Eliza, a number of speakers were holding forth at various points in the camp. Around each speaker was grouped a crowd of Negroes who had been ordered to be present for the purpose of notification of their freedom.
"The speakers whom I heard were giving the good council to the Negroes, telling them they were advised to remain with their former masters, that they would prove to be their best friends. One speaker in particular I recall was on a goodsbox, just at the top of the hill across the road in the direction of the railroad opposite where Orren James' store now stands, who was quite an orator, although he had on a private's uniform. He was advising the Negroes to take the name of their former masters and to continue to live and work for them, but as individuals for wages and not as slaves, for slavery no longer existed.
"This locality has been and is now known as Freedom Hill, its name originating from the facts mentioned ...."