In antebellum New Bern, many artisans in the building trades were men of color, some enslaved and some free. They worked as bricklayers, plasterers, carpenters, and joiners. Typically these men learned their skills through apprenticeships to black or white master artisans.

New Bern's justly famed Federal period architecture was accomplished by teams of black and white artisans working in established craft traditions—essential to an architecture whose quality depended on handcrafted work in every detail.