Is preserving and protecting Princeville an unending project?

Princeville is important to all of North Carolina. The little town in Edgecombe County claims to be the “oldest municipality chartered by former slaves in America.”

 

The community of Princeville, located on the low-lying southern side of the Tar River just below Tarboro, was formed by black people who were seeking freedom as the Civil War was winding down in 1865. 

As local families fled from enslavement on Southern plantations, they chose to nestle together to realize their emancipation near Union troop encampments. 

The Union soldiers who occupied the Tarboro territory offered protection to several hundred African-American people who had begun to congregate at a site they named “Freedom Hill.”

One day in 1865, Union military leaders stood on Freedom Hill (more of a knoll) to announce that the war had ended. They told the black families that they were now free, and they could return to their plantation homes, if they’d like. The fighting had ceased, so “everything would be different.” 

The folks who had come to Freedom Hill were highly skeptical. Here at Freedom Hill, they saw an opportunity to define their own independent future. They decided to put down roots and build their own community and be self-governed. 

One of the determined Freedom Hill freedmen community leaders was a skilled carpenter and homebuilder named Turner Prince. When Freedom Hill was officially incorporated in 1885, residents chose to name the new town Princeville in his honor. 

Throughout the decades, Princeville persevered, but when the Tar River flooded, Princeville would always take on water. 

To remedy the situation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to build a 3-mile dike or earthen levee. The dike was completed in 1967 and could contain a flood water rise of 37 feet. 

Since flood waters had never exceeded 33 feet, people felt “safe at last” from the Tar.

 

By the 1990s, Princeville had about 2,100 residents and appeared stable. Until 1999. 

Torrential rains associated with Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd pounded the region in 1999. The dike held, but the Tar River crested at 42 feet. Water ran over the top; Princeville just about drowned.

 

Most townfolk chose to rebuild, although others said they had “had enough” misery and moved away. 

Immediately after the double-wallop from Dennis and Floyd, the Army Corps of Engineers began noodling and doodling about how to improve the dike protecting Princeville. 

Before there was a plan, along came Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The surging Tar River overwhelmed the Princeville dike once again. 

“With two biblical floods in two decades, fewer people returned to rebuild,” wrote Latrina Graham for Our State magazine. 

Only about 1,088 people now live in Princeville. The population is declining by about 7% a year. 

The question of the day is: “Do we stay or do we go?” 

“These are sacred African-American grounds,” said Bobbie Jones, Princeville’s mayor. “Our forefathers came across that Tar River Bridge in 1865 with absolutely nothing but their God-given gifts and talents, and they took swampland that nobody wanted and built that into Freedom Hill.”

 

“They used their blood, sweat and tears just to have something that they could call their own,” Mayor Jones said. “For us to turn our backs would be a slap in the face to our ancestors, and I’m not willing to do that.” 

Earl Ijames, historian and curator at the North Carolina Museum of History, said: “Freedom Hill is Princeville’s version of ‘Juneteenth.’”

 

Clearly, Princeville stands as a symbol of African-American determination and endurance. And it’s worth saving. A national treasure.