Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Hertford County had one of the largest populations of free people of color in North Carolina. Although they lived in a rural community, Hertford County's free people of color and their descendants found success in business, education, community development, religious life, and politics. Warren Eugene Milteer, Jr.'s tireless efforts in numerous archives have produced the first full-length study of their lives and contributions from the colonial period into the twentieth century.