Forgotten Patriots: Northern Theater
Winner of the 2025 Phillis Wheatley Book Award & the 2025 AAHGS International Book Award
Edited by Ric Murphy | Co-authored by Debra Newton-Carter, Connie Curts, Lisa Fox, Jacqueline Long, and Judith Sanford-Harris, PhD.
“Beyond the well-trodden battlefields lies a narrative often left in the margins.”
In this award-winning volume, we uncover the invisible threads of the American Revolution, documenting the service and sacrifice of patriots of color whose stories have waited centuries to be told. Through rigorous archival research and a commitment to narrative recovery, this work restores these forgotten figures to their rightful place in our national history.
Journal of the Society of the First African Families of English America
“Isaac Carter, Forgotten Patriot of Clubfoot and Cahooque Creeks, Craven County, North Carolina” (Special Edition: Volume III-IV)
Sixteen-year-old Isaac Carter, a free person of color, whose military service has been confirmed and accepted by the National Societies of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution (SAR P#332370, DAR A#202835), saw his first term of service when drafted into an emergency militia brigade defending the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, just one day after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. He later enlisted in the Continental Army alongside neighbors and future kin. From North Carolina they joined Washington’s Army at Valley Forge and participated in battles and skirmishes in three theaters of war. This article explores three identity challenges: patriots with the same name, father-son lineage, and interwoven family ties. Isaac Carter’s legacy endures in the community where he once lived, and the ties of that era continue to shape its identity today.
