A Decorated Union Veteran Heads South to Help Create the First Black Town in the U.S.A.

HENRY HARRISON SHAW WAS THE SON OF A WEALTHY FARMER WHO WAS SHOT FOUR TIMES DURING THE WAR

Henry Harrison Shaw should have died on the battlefield—he was shot four times by Confederate fire. Instead, he lived to cross enemy lines again, this time not as a soldier, but as a man seeking renewal.

In the ashes of war, Shaw settled in Tarboro, North Carolina, and built a new life. By selling his land to newly freed men and women, he helped them claim something no battle had ever granted—sovereignty. That land became Princeville, the first incorporated Black town in the United States.

As a young soldier, Henry was ambitious and aggressive, but as he transformed into a Southern Gentleman, a postmaster and a renowned butcher, he was often described as one of the most cheerful and friendly men in town. The Tarboro newspaper called him a “carpetbagger,” but quickly added that he wasn’t like the others.

The full episode of this forgotten history of a Yankee soldier altering the course of history drops on November 12. But you can hear the trailer today.

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