William Henry Singleton

Who was William Henry Singleton?

William Henry Singleton was an American slave from North Carolina who became a Union soldier during the American Civil War. As a freedman, he moved to New England, where he became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Portland, Maine. He wrote and published his autobiography in 1922, an account of his rise from slavery of the genre known as slave narratives.

During the American Civil War, Singleton escaped to Union forces and gained his freedom. In the summer of 1863, he recruited and helped lead the First North Carolina Colored Volunteers, which became part of the 35th United States Colored Troops. After being wounded in the Battle of Olustee, Florida in February 1864, he was assigned to garrison duty.

Following the war and his honorable discharge, in 1866 Singleton moved to Connecticut, where he worked and taught himself to read and write. He joined the AME Zion Church, and became a missionary and minister, serving in Portland, Maine. Later he lived and worked in Peekskill, New York. At the age of 95, Singleton marched in a parade of Civil War veterans in Des Moines, Iowa, shortly before his death.