sentences:  He also was ordered to create a self-sustaining colony at Roanoke Island and thought it had the potential to be a model for a new society in which African Americans would have freedom.In addition to serving the original residents and recent migrants, the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony was to be a refuge for the families of freedmen who enlisted in the Union Army as United States Colored Troops.By 1864, there were more than 2200 freedmen on the island.