contracts. Even those who had constructed the Bellamy Mansion would join in the war effort on both sides of the Mason–Dixon line. The architect, James F. Post had joined the Confederate artillery, and even helped to build various structures at Fort Fisher and Fort Anderson. As he had since returned to the north after his duties were completed, draftsman Rufus W. Bunnell had joined the Connecticut regiment of the Union Army. William B. Gould, a mulatto, was owned by the Nixon family and was a plasterer who was hired out by Dr. Bellamy. The enslaved plasterer managed to escape from Wilmington with several other enslaved workers on the night of September 21, 1862. Eight enslaved workers rowed a small boat down the Cape Fear River to a Union blockade ship, where Gould and some of the others joined the Union navy. Despite it being illegal to teach slaves to read and/or write in North Carolina by 1830, Gould had kept an extensive diary during the war, which is thought to be one of only a few diaries written by a former slave serving in the Civil War in existence today. Gould later continued plastering in Massachusetts, where he married and had eight children. In the 1990s his great-grandson, William B. Gould IV, edited Gould’s diary into a book titled, Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor. After the family settled back into their home and Dr. Bellamy restarted production at Grovely, he was, of course, using paid labor. Of the enslaved workers who had resided here before the Civil War only one remained as a paid servant. Mary Ann Nixon was still working for the Bellamys in 1870 and still living in the slave quarters with one other "domestic servant." Sarah seemingly retired and by 1866 was living on Red Cross St. with her husband, Aaron Sampson. Sarah and Aaron were married when Sarah was just 15 years old, but they did not live together until she was about 50 years old. She was listed on the 1870 census as "keeping house." Aaron was an enslaved carpenter who continued as a carpenter in Wilmington after emancipation. History As the war continued, the Bellamys remained in residence at their new Market Street home. However, the deadly outbreak of a yellow fever epidemic had begun to spread throughout Wilmington and the family was forced to take refuge