Hillsborough Recorder (NC)
May 1, 1861
Page 3
TENDERS
OF SERVICE—The Baltimore American says: “Yesterday morning between two and
three hundred of our most respectable colored residents made a tender of their
services to the city authorities. The
Mayor thanked them for their offer, and informed them that their service will
be called for if they can be made in any way available.”
A
letter in the Petersburg
(Va.)
Express, dated at Norfolk
on the 23rd instant, says: “The negroes in all this section of the country,
slave and free, are as loyal as could be desired. They freely proffer their services to the
State, and zealously contend for the privilege of being allowed to work on the
batteries. Yesterday Gen. Gwyn declined the services of three hundred from Hampton
who solicited employment on the batteries, and twice and thrice the number
could be obtained in this city and vicinity in a single day, if it was thought
advisable to accept them. Indeed, the
entire fortifications of this harbor might be constructed by the voluntary
labors of negroes, who would claim no higher reward that the privilege of being
allowed to contribute their share toward the defence
[sic] of the State, and the protection of their masters and mistresses, who had
always extended a sheltering hand over them.”