Following emancipation, large numbers of people flocked to Wilmington, the largest city at that time in North Carolina.  Many were unskilled farm hands with no experience for the jobs in the city.

Large numbers began leaving in the first exodus movement to find better luck somewhere else.

Agents of many kinds operated in the area, some to hire large numbers of workers for farm work in other states, and agents from the American Colonization Society, who were attempting to create the Republic of Liberia.

The next big exodus event occurred after the 1898 conflict when thousands fled the city to escape the racial and political turmoil.

Shaw's Wilmington Directory in 1866-67 listed black entrepreneurs with established businesses as baggage man, barber, brick mason, carpenter, painter, well-digger, blacksmith, cooper and 'huckster.'

After the war, many blacks found work on the railroads, as brakemen, car-cleaners, drivers, porters, switchmen and as other laborers and workmen.

Freedman's Savings & Trust Company was established in 1866, and institutions for mutual assistance were started as early as 1870 and the company that was to be the biggest success, the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company was started in 1899.

Newspapers, undertaking establishments, and real estate development helped former agricultural workers adapt to the needs of the city, and lead to more successes, and the coming labor organizations gave power and representation in labor negotiations.

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