Black History on the Outer Banks- The Legacy of Captain Richard Etheridge

Black History on the Outer Banks- The Legacy of Captain Richard Etheridge

To honor Black History Month, we bring you the story of Outer Banks native, Captain Richard Etheridge. His incredible life and achievements contribute to the Outer Banks’ notoriety as a land of historic firsts. Yet unlike Sir Walter’s first English colony, or the Wright brothers’ first flight, his story is not as well known. 

Richard Etheridge, born into slavery on Roanoke Island in 1842, became the first African American Keeper of a United States Lifesaving Station. In doing so, he led the first–and only–all Black in the US Lifesaving Service (USLSS), which eventually became the United States Coast Guard. 

Richard Etheridge, far left, with the crew of the Pea Island Life Saving Station circa 1890.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office.

Because he was taught how to read and write while growing up, it is believed that Richard Etheridge was the son of slave owner John B Etheridge, on whose property he lived. Despite the family ties, he was not granted his freedom until 1862 when Union forces took Roanoke Roanoke Island.

He then fought for the Union in the Civil War, serving in the 36th U.S. Colored Infantry until 1866. But during this time, his heart was still back home on Roanoke Island. In another historic–yet little known–first, Roanoke Island became the site of the first attempt at a permanent colony for those who had escaped slavery, known as the Freedmens Colony. Any enslaved person able to make it across the sound would find freedom upon reaching the Union-occupied island. Though there were other Freedmens colonies set up along the east coast, the Roanoke Island colony was the only one ever intended to be permanent. 

Thousands of people fleeing plantations across eastern North Carolina and surrounding areas made it to Roanoke, ready to start a new life. They built churches, set up schools, and began working to support the growing community. The island’s population jumped from a few hundred to over three thousand people in a short period of time.

The First Light of Freedom marker, located at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island. Photo: Lauren Cowart.

But as promises went unkept and conditions worsened in the colony, Richard Etheridge penned a letter to government officials while away fighting in the war effort on behalf of his family and community back home in the colony, writing:

“We the soldiers of the 36th U.S. Colored Regt Humbly petition to you to alter the affairs at Roanoke Island. We have served in the US Army faithfully and don our duty to our Country, for which we thank God that we had the opportunity but at the same time our families are suffering at Roanoke Island, N.C. When we were enlisted in the service we were promised that our wives and families should receive rations from government. The rations for our wives and families have been (and are now cut down) to one half the regular ration. Consequently three or fours days out of every ten days, thee have nothing to eat.” 

The colony never became the permanent community that was originally envisioned and was decommissioned in 1867. This same year, Richard Etheridge returned home to Roanoke Island and worked as a farmer, fisherman, and inlet pilot until 1875 when he joined the United States Lifesaving Service. He started out as the lowest ranking surfman on the crew at the Bodie Island station, which had an integrated crew–known as a “checkerboard crew”–of White and Black surfmen. 

In 1879, the Keeper of the nearby Pea Island station was let go after an investigation into a series of failed rescue attempts and Richard Etheridge was appointed as the station’s new Keeper, making him the first African American to ever serve in the position. His reputation as a skilled waterman and dedicated and disciplined crew member earned him the historic title and he was poised to lead his own checkerboard crew. But the station’s White crew members refused to serve underneath him and chose instead to resign. Black surfmen from nearby units were transferred to the Pea Island station and theirs became the first and only all Black crew in the USLSS. 

Their most famous rescue came in 1896, when the schooner E.S. Newman was grounded off the coast during a fierce hurricane. Unable to launch lifeboats or make use of other lifesaving apparatus, the determined Pea Island crew tied ropes around their waists and swam out to the wreck in hurricane surf, rescuing all nine souls aboard. They were posthumously awarded the U.S. Coast Guard’s Gold Life-Saving Medal for the daring rescue–one hundred years later, in 1996. 

Though he didn’t receive the recognition he deserved during his lifetime (Captain Etheridge passed away in 1900), Richard Etheridge left a lasting and historically significant legacy that continues to this day. The Pea Island Lifesaving Station was manned by an all-Black crew from 1880, when Etheridge began his role as Keeper, all the way up until 1947, when the last Keeper, Herbert Collins, closed the doors of the station after it was decommissioned. That’s over six decades of service by brave men, many of whom could trace their roots back to the antebellum period on the Outer Banks. Men whose ancestors were born into a life of slavery transformed their families’ story into one of service.

Lt. Herbert Collins, the last Keeper of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station, which had an all-Black crew from 1880 until 1947. Photo courtesy of the Pea Island Preservation Society Inc.

Generations of the crew’s descendants have continued the legacy by serving in the U.S. Coast Guard, and many still call the Outer Banks home today. Joan Collins, daughter of Keeper Herbert Collins, is a member of a Roanoke Island family with one of the longest records in Coast Guard history, with over 400 years of continuous service. She serves as the Director of the Pea Island Preservation Society Inc. (PIPSI) whose goal is to “preserve and interpret the history of the Pea Island Life Saving Station and the only African American Keeper in the USLSS, Richard Etheridge, and African Americans of Roanoke Island.”

PIPSI maintains the Pea Island Cookhouse, the only remaining structure from the station, which was moved to Collins Park in Manteo and is now a museum dedicated to Richard Etheridge and his crew. If you’d like to learn more about this amazing Outer Banks history, you can visit their website or arrange a trip to the cookhouse museum, currently by appointment only. 

Joan Collins speaks at an event held by the Pea Island Preservation Society Inc. at the COA Dare County campus on February 22, 2025. Photo: Hannah West.

Ready to start planning your trip to the historic Outer Banks? Reach out to us Contact Us for cabana service, umbrella service, or just trusted local advice—your perfect week at the beach awaits!