In the years after the Civil War, men and women freed from nearby plantations formed 13 freedman's villages around Raleigh. The city was flooded with over 4,000 'freedmen,' who were starting out life in freedom with no jobs, no homes and no money.
These citizens made up around half of the city's entire population, pulling together to build homes, churches, schools and businesses.
However, of the 13 villages formed during this time, only Oberlin Village and Method remain today.
What happened to the 11 other Freedman's Villages? How were their names forgotten?
Many of those answers rest in South Raleigh.
The remaining two villages: Method and Oberlin Village
Oberlin and Masonville, which later became Method, were two of the earliest freedman's villages in Raleigh.
The Method community still stands in southwest Raleigh. Established in the 1870s by half-brothers Jesse Mason and Isaac O'Kelly, it consisted of nearly 70 acres of land bought from a Confederate General named William Ruffin Cox.
The brothers sold parcels to other men and women who had been freed from nearby plantations.
The area was sometimes called Planktown, Slab Town, and Save-Rent -- a reference to the simple log homes built with 'planks' or 'slabs,' according to the Raleigh Historic website. Hand-built by the citizens themselves, none of these original homes survived.
Method was eventually annexed by Raleigh.
Oberlin Village was the largest of the freedman's villages. Originally called 'Peck's Place,' it began when a man named Lewis Peck began selling plots of land to people freed from nearby plantations.
With several large and beautiful homes, historic churches and its own university, Oberlin Village was the home for prominent Black citizens in Raleigh. Among them were:
Oberlin was also annexed by Raleigh and allowed to maintain its cultural history and historic buildings. However, until the past few years, the origins of Oberlin Village had also slipped from the public consciousness – until the work of Friends of Oberlin Village helped preserve historic structures and brought the community's history back to the forefront.
Freedman villages that faded from history
Sadly, history has all-but-forgotten the other 11 freedman's villages. Many historians don't even know the villages' names, let alone where they were located or what happened to them.