Abraham Galloway, a former slave who became one of North Carolina’s first black senators, is being honored with a highway historical marker in Wilmington.
The marker will be placed at Third and Bladen streets in Wilmington, where a dedication ceremony will be held this Friday at 11 a.m., according to a release from the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.
Born in Smithville, now Southport, in 1837—the son of an enslaved woman and a free white man—Galloway moved to Wilmington to join his owner as an apprenticed brick mason, eventually escaping slavery by stowing away on a turpentine ship.
He joined the abolitionist movement in Philadelphia and served as an agent in the Underground Railroad before returning to the South as a Union spy. “In federally occupied northeastern North Carolina,” the release states, “he led recruitment of black men into the Union Army and into what became Gen. Edward Wild’s African Brigade. For the recruits, Galloway secured pay equal to that of the white Massachusetts regiments, education for their children and support for their families.”
In 1864, Galloway led a delegation of southern black representatives to meet with President Abraham Lincoln. “At the White House meeting,” the department says in the release, “they lobbied for many rights, particularly the right to vote, arguing on behalf of the black men who risked their lives serving as spies, scouts, soldiers and sailors.
“Although Lincoln made no promises regarding political equality,” the release adds, “the delegation regarded the meeting as a success.”
Galloway later established the Equal Rights League, which lobbied for education, improvement and suffrage, and in 1868, he was elected as the first black senator in the state, serving until his death in 1870.
The marker honoring Galloway will be the 70th placed in New Hanover County, according to a listing on the department’s website. The text of the marker will read as follows: “Abraham Galloway, 1837-1870—Former slave. Freedom fighter; Union recruiter and spy; legislator. Led a delegation that met President Lincoln, 1864. Lived one block east.”
More on the Highway Historical Marker Program can be found on its website, ncmarkers.com.
