09/17/2026
Ever wonder where James city in New Bern got its name? The more you know!
When Union troops occupied New Bern in 1862, thousands of formerly enslaved men and women had nowhere else to go, so Army chaplain Reverend Horace James helped establish a settlement for them just across the Trent River. 🏘️ The community took his name, and by 1865 James City had grown to nearly 3,000 residents, the largest refuge for Black North Carolinians anywhere in the state.
For a few years, James City thrived on its own terms, with homes, farms, churches, businesses, and a local government all built by the people who lived there. But the support that had made it possible didn't last. Poor harvests in the late 1860s, a shrinking Freedmen's Bureau budget, and the federal government's 1867 decision to return the underlying land to its prior owner's family all chipped away at the settlement, and its population fell to roughly 1,100 by the 1880s.
A town of thousands, built entirely by people who had just walked out of slavery, and most of it is gone from the map today. 🕯️
Had you ever heard of James City before, or is this the first time this settlement has crossed your path?
