The Patriot Isaac Carter Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution was chartered on September 3, 2016. 

Isaac Carter was born c. 1760 and was a "Free Mulatto" from Craven County, North Carolina.  On September 1, 1777, he enlisted as a private in the 10th North Carolina Regiment under Capt. Silas Stephenson (Stevenson) and Col. Abraham Sheppard (Shepard), for three years or the duration of the war. In the winter of 1778, Isaac Carter served under Capt. John Tillman (or Tilghman) in the garrison of Fort Hancock at Cape Lookout North Carolina, along with Joshua Carter, William Dove and Isaac Perkins. Tillman's men were enlisted for a period of one year and remained on duty at the fort for a total of two years. 

In June 1783, Carter left his regiment. In 1785, he received comptroller's office certificate number 4409 for militia service in the Wilmington District during the Revolution.  He was listed as a free Negro in the North Carolina 1790 census of Craven County, with a family of five. Among his neighbors were William Dove and Isaac Perkins. 

Isaac Carter was one of fourteen Patriots from the Harlowe, NC communities that served the cause of independence during the American Revolution.  In an earlier step aimed at correcting history, the NC Society of the Sons of the American Revolution dedicated a memorial marker to those "Forgotten Patriots" on March 16, 2014 at the Havelock-Harlowe Senior Center.

The four small communities that make up what is known as the Harlowe area were settled by a group of FREE African-American families who came from Virginia and Maryland well before the American Revolution.  In the absence of documented historical research, we don't know exactly when those families reached the Harlowe area, but they were certainly here in the 1750's. This makes the settlements of the Harlowe area among the earliest free African-American settlements in North Carolina.  They may have arrived in the Harlowe area as many as thirty years prior to the 1750's. Whenever those families arrived in the Harlowe area, their story is part of the early settlement of North Carolina that is rarely told - but it is a story that needs to be told! 

Learn More About The Harlowe Patriot's History Here!

Suggested African-American History Book Reading and Video Viewing List

  • "African-American Patriots In The Southern Campaign of The American Revolution" by Bobby G. Moss & Michael Scoggins
  • "The Colored Patriots of The American Revolution" by William Cooper Nell
  • "Black Heroes of the American Revolution" by Burke Davis
  • "The Black Experience in Revolutionary North Carolina" by Jeffrey J. Crow
  • "Got Proof!" by Michael Nolden Henderson with Anita Rochelle
  • "Black Pioneers of Science and Invention" by Louis Haber
  • "Recollections of My Slavery Days" by Katherine Mellen Charron and David S. Cecelski
  • "Lynching In North Carolina: A History (1865-1941)" by Vann R. NewKirk
  • "The African Americans: Many Rivers To Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr" -  A Film by Kunhardt McGee Productions, LLC in association with Art Media (2 Disc Video)
  • "The Lessons of Hayti" By Terry A. Boyd, Bryon C. Hunter & Edward Harris II - A Film by Vella Group & Urban Aggregate Productions (1 Disc Video)
  • "Emancipation Road: A 7-Part Compelling Journey Through America's Greatest Saga" - A Film by Kevin Richard Hersberger  (2 Disc Video)
  • "Along Freedom Road: Hyde County North Carolina and The Fate of Black Schools In The South" by David S. Cecelski
  • "The Free Negro In North Carolina 1790 - 1860" by John Hope Franklin
  • "Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina From the Colonial Period to About 1820 - Volumes I and II, Fifth Edition" by Paul Heinegg
  • "Freedom For Themselves:  North Carolina's Black Soldiers In The Civil War Era (Civil War America)" By Richard M. Reid
  • "The Waterman's Song: Slavery and Freedom In Maritime North Carolina" by David S. Cecelski
  • "Black Patriots and Loyalists Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence" by Alan Gilbert
  • "NEGRO in the American Revolution" by Benjamin Quarles
  • "America's Black Founders: Revolutionary Heroes & Early Leaders" by Nancy I Sanders
  • "Setting The Record Straight: American History in Black & White" by David Barton 
  • "A History of African Americans In North Carolina" by Jeffrey J. Crow - Paul D. Escott and Flora J. Hatley
  • "James City: A Black Community in North Carolina (1863-1900)" by Joe A. Mobley
  • "For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots" - A Film by Frank Martin (2 Disc Video)
  • "Rescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Life Savers" - A Film by Allan R. Smith (1 Disc Video)
  • "Black History: From Civil War Through Today" - A Film by St. Clair Entertainment Group, Inc. (6 Disc Video) 
  • "Wilmington On Fire" - A Film by Christopher Everett (1 Disc Video)
  • "The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway & The Slaves' Civil War" by  David S. Cecelski
  • "Democracy Betrayed:  The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and Its Legacy" Edited by David S. Cecelski & Timothy B. Tyson With a Foreword by John Hope Franklin
  • "A Travel Guide To Black Historical Sites And Landmarks In North Carolina" by Lenwood G. Davis
  • "Standing In Their Own Light: African-American Patriots In The American Revolution" by Judith L. Van Buskirk
  • "From Slaves To Soldiers: The 1st Rhode Island Regiment In The American Revolution" by Robert A. Geake