Norfleet Keen was born around 1842 in North Carolina to Pervela Keen. It is unclear whether his family was free or enslaved. By 1850, the family was living in Ripley, Indiana, and Keen was attending school there. A decade later, they were living in Smith, Indiana. Census records listed the entire family as “mulatto.”
Keen enlisted in the Union army on September 28, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in the 5th Indiana Light Artillery on November 22, 1861. The regiment was stationed in Tennessee and Kentucky, and it took part in the Battle of Perryville and the Battle of Stones River. He opposed slavery, and in January 1862, he told his brother that he was “glad I am engaged with all my heart in the service of our country in the behalf of guarding against the wickedness of this ungodly and sinfull servitude.” Two months later, he reiterated that he was engaged “in a good cause.”
He was discharged for disability on January 16, 1863. Army officials apparently listed him as a deserter, but the War Department removed the charges in January 1886. Keen returned to Smith after leaving the army. He applied for a pension in October 1863, but he never received one, possibly due to the desertion charges.
In April 1865, he reported that “Indianapolis was wild yesterday with enthusiasm over the news of the fall of Richmond & Petersburg.” He expressed pride in the Union’s USCT soldiers, writing that “Old Abe was the first man in Richmond backed up by a Brigade of the sable sons of Africa. Hurrah for Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, & Thomas. Cheers for Abe.” Keen died sometime after 1865.