By Ms Jheri Worldwide
Staff Writer
On a July day in 1865, a hero returned to Raleigh. Lunsford Lane, a man who had purchased his own freedom and fled the state decades earlier, was greeted by jubilant crowds. For the hundreds of newly freed people who came to see him, Lane was more than a man; he was a legend, a symbol of Black resilience and the power of self-determination. Among the onlookers were children who would become giants in their own right—figures like the future intellectual and activist Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and the educator Charles N. Hunter. They were too young to have known Lane before he left, but they knew his story, a tale that had become a cornerstone of local folklore.
Lane’s journey began in bondage, but through relentless effort. Selling tobacco and pipes he prepared at night, he purchased his freedom. The core of his legend, however, was forged in his daring return to the South in 1842. Having raised money on the abolitionist circuit in New England, he came back to Raleigh to purchase his wife and children. Though he held the funds legally, a suspicious mob, accusing him of being an abolitionist agent, dragged him from the train station, tarred and feathered him, and brought him before the city commissioners. In a packed room, Lane, a master storyteller, recounted his quest, ultimately winning over the hostile crowd and securing his family’s freedom. This dramatic escape and rescue became his signature narrative, a story he would tell countless times, captivating Northern audiences and inspiring generations of Black Carolinians.
This heroic tale, however, is more complex than the legend suggests. While Lane projected an image of himself as a savvy entrepreneur, historical records reveal a man who struggled financially, defaulting on nearly every loan he took. His famous autobiography, The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, was dictated to a white abolitionist, meaning the story was filtered through a lens designed to appeal to Northern sensibilities and promote the abolitionist cause. The man was a hustler, like many others, black and white, doing what was necessary to survive and free his family. The myth of Lunsford Lane, the self-made hero, was a powerful and necessary creation, but the reality was one of constant struggle.
Following the Civil War, Lane returned to North Carolina not as a conqueror, but with a different mission. Guided by a philosophy of “rational liberty” and “practical abolitionism,” he believed freedom must be tempered by wisdom, judiciousness, and moral obligation. He sought to do something tangible to aid the newly freed population. In Craven County, he established a freedmen’s school on a former plantation, envisioning a community where families could work the land, educate their children, and build prosperous lives. He believed Black Americans could become fully part of the nation through industry and self-improvement, declaring, “The South is our home, and we feel that we can be happy.”
Yet, his efforts were fraught with difficulty. Lane was an outsider, a “carpetbagger” in the eyes of many. He lacked federal connections, relying on inconsistent donations from Northern aid societies. He was forced to lease land he couldn’t afford to buy, and the school came under suspicion. Within a few months, facing waning support and the immense challenges of Reconstruction, Lane’s dream dissipated. He left North Carolina in the late summer of 1865, never to return.
Though his final effort in the South was short-lived, Lane’s influence endured, particularly through the young people who witnessed his triumphant return. Anna Julia Haywood Cooper, who later earned a doctorate, became a leading voice for the education and social uplift of Black women. She never explicitly credited Lane, but her life’s work collecting and preserving Black history echoes the importance of the stories she heard as a child.
Charles N. Hunter also dedicated his life to education and the preservation of Black history. He organized the state’s first Emancipation Day celebration and traveled extensively, collecting documents and stories. Most tellingly, he determined to write a biography of Lunsford Lane.
Lunsford Lane’s life reveals the vast gulf between myth and reality. He was a man of contradictions: a celebrated hero who faced financial failure, a symbol of Black autonomy who relied on the abolitionist circuit, and a visionary whose final project ended quietly. Yet, the story of Lunsford Lane, the powerful, polished legend of the man who bought his family’s freedom and faced down a mob, proved to be his most lasting legacy, inspiring a generation to fight for their own place in the American story.
Much of this insight came from Craig Thompson Friend, a professor of history at North Carolina State University and author of “Becoming Lunsford Lane: The Lives of an American Aeneas” during a talk he gave at The City of Raleigh Museum, Sunday, June 8th. For more talks and programs please check out CityofRaleighMuseum.org.
