Singleton, William Henry

Source:

 African American National Biography

Singleton, William Henry

(c. 1843–7 Sept. 1938),

slave, Civil War veteran, author, and itinerant minister, was born in New Bern, North Carolina. His mother was Lettice Nelson, a slave on John Nelson's plantation at Garbacon Creek in eastern North Carolina; his father was a white man believed to be William Singleton. As a young child of four, William was sold by his owner and thus separated from his mother and two brothers for the first time.

Singleton was purchased by a Georgia widow who speculated in slaves, buying people cheaply when they were young and selling them at a premium when they had reached adulthood. He was given the common tasks of a slave child: running errands and carrying goods. Around the age of six, Singleton decided to escape the constant whippings and his bondage in Georgia and return to New Bern. He was able to ride a stagecoach from Atlanta to Wilmington, North Carolina, by pretending to be the slave of a white woman riding the stage. Why she agreed to participate in this ruse is unclear. From Wilmington he made his way by foot and horse and eventually arrived at his mother's house on the Nelson plantation. For several years William hid in his mother's house, sometimes in a root cellar beneath the floorboards. When he was finally discovered, William was sold again, and again he ran away, this time hiding in the woods. After several other sales and escapes, Singleton was finally allowed to remain on the same plantation with his mother. In his autobiography, Recollections of My Slavery Days (1922), Singleton described his life as a plantation slave, the Methodism learned on the plantation that he would embrace the rest of his life, the restrictions on his education, and the cruel knowledge of the relationship between white planters and their enslaved women (in particular his speculations about his own white father).

In 1858 Singleton began to hear rumors of war and abolition. In 1859 he became the manservant of Samuel Hyman, a young military cadet. He was rented to Hyman due to disruptions on the plantation and, perhaps, because of his own interest in learning the basics of military practice and theory. After North Carolina seceded from the Union on 20 May 1861, Singleton accompanied his young master in battle in New Bern and then Kinston, North Carolina. Hyman was a member of the First North Carolina Cavalry. In 1862 Singleton made his escape from Hyman and the Confederate army and returned to New Bern (now under Union control) and the headquarters of Major General Ambrose Burnside. Singleton became the personal servant of Colonel Leggett of the Tenth Connecticut Regiment, not as a slave but not yet as a freeman. Under federal law Singleton remained contraband property. While in service to Leggett, Singleton saw a number of battles and chafed at his inability to defend himself as a soldier.

Singleton left Leggett's employ to form his own all-black regiment and also spent some time as Burnside's servant. While working for Burnside, Singleton met Abraham Lincoln and discussed his dissatisfaction with the exclusion of black men from the Union forces. He conducted exercises and drilled his recruits using cornstalks for rifles, much to the consternation of Union forces in New Bern. After the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on 1 January 1863, Singleton knew his black regiment would soon be allowed to fight. Finally on 28 May 1863 his troops were accepted into the U.S. Army. Singleton became a sergeant in the First North Carolina Colored Regiment, later called the Thirty-fifth Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops. The commander of this unit was James C. Beecher, brother of the abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher. The cornstalks were replaced with actual firearms; Singleton and the rest of his men were mustered to Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Singleton fought in battles in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. On 30 November 1864 he was injured in the battle of Honey Hill in Florida. He received an honorable discharge from the army on 1 June 1866.

After his military service Singleton left New Bern for the final time. He chose to move to New Haven, Connecticut, where he began a long career of thirty-one years as a coachman for various members of the Trowbridge family. Singleton became an active member in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion church in Connecticut and for the first time learned to read and write. In 1868 he married Maria Winston. They had one daughter. During his time in New Haven Singleton became a deacon and an elder in the church.

After Maria's death in 1898 Singleton became an itinerant Methodist minister and moved to Portland, Maine, to preach. In Portland he met and married Charlotte Hinnan in 1899, and he moved with her to New York City in 1903, then to Peekskill, New York, in 1906. The couple had no children. Singleton held a variety of jobs during his time in New York and was a well-known citizen of Peekskill. After Charlotte's death in 1926, Singleton moved back to New Haven. He married Mary Powell in 1929. Singleton died at age ninety-five while attending a Grand Army of the Republic reunion in Des Moines, Iowa. He marched in the parade and died of a heart attack an hour later.

Singleton lived many lives as an enslaved man and as a freeman. He wrote his autobiography to explain his struggles as an American icon. The overall themes of his life were resistance and perpetual motion and an absolute refusal to be denied his place in American society. At the conclusion of his autobiography, Singleton wrote:

"I am a citizen of this great country and have a part in directing its affairs. When Election Day comes I go to the polls and vote, and my vote counts as much as the vote of the richest and best educated man in the land. Think of it! I who was once bought and sold and whipped simply because it was thought I had opened a book. (52)"

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