Settling the Albemarle Sound As you read, look for: how North Carolina s geography affected settlement why Virginians moved south to North Carolina vocabulary terms neck, speculate, customs duty This section will help you meet the following objective: 8.1.01 Assess the impact of geography on the settlement and economy of the Carolina colony. One of the more unusual places to live in North Carolina is on a neck. Necks are peninsulas located only in the northeastern corner of the state. These peninsulas where the land is surrounded by water on three sides are found on the northern shore of the Albemarle Sound. There the colony of Carolina had its origins, on places like Durant s Neck. These neighborhoods were the first European-based communities in what became North Carolina. For a half century from the 1650s to the early 1700s the people of the Albemarle made homes for themselves and their families, fought over who would rule them, and developed some of the feisty attitudes about government and authority that later North Carolinians would imitate. During this time, the Carolina colony was owned by English aristocrats called the Lords Proprietors. The Proprietors and their colonists seldom got along. Settlers from the North The Durants were among the first whites to settle what would become North Carolina. Sometime in the 1650s, George Durant was a partner in exploring the land with two other Virginians, Richard and Nathaniel Batts. They had originally been partners in trading with the local Indians. A Batts House is on a map of the Albemarle Sound region drawn in 1657. Their trading and shipping might have induced them to buy land. While Richard stuck to the sea, Nathaniel Above: The Perquimans River bounds Durant s Neck on the west. In the distance is the Albemarle Sound. Section 1: Settling the Albemarle Sound 91
The name Carolina was a Latin reference to the name of the King, Charles I. and George took out some of the earliest deeds in the area. Batts bought land from the Yeopim Indians in 1660, and Durant bought land in 1661. Why were these people settling on the Albemarle? After the failure of the Roanoke colony, the English waited until 1607 to establish their first permanent base in the New World, at Jamestown. A prosperous, tobaccogrowing colony of Virginia grew up around the James River. In contrast, few settlers came south into Carolina (the name given the former Roanoke colony). The Chesapeake Bay was deeper and easier to navigate than the shallow Roanoke Sound. In addition, the overland way was hindered by the Great Dismal Swamp a stretch of cypress, cedar, and standing water that extended more than thirty miles along what would later be the border between the colonies of Virginia and Carolina. The profits to be made from tobacco eventually spurred interest in the lands beyond the Dismal. Tobacco leached (pulled the nutrients out of) the Virginia soil so badly that, after seven years, a field had to be abandoned. As a result, farmers were always on the lookout for more land. In 1622, a Virginia official, John Pory, waded through the swamp and went all the way to the South River Chawonock some sixtie miles where he found a Very fruitful and pleasant Countrie. In 1629, King Charles I gave a vast tract of land south of the Dismal to his attorney general, Sir Robert Heath. The Heath patent went unused, however, as Englishmen concentrated their efforts on the more accessible lands of the Chesapeake. By the 1650s, the best Virginia lands had been taken, and tobacco prices had fallen. This made it harder for newcomers to make a living there. 92 Chapter 3: The Proprietors and Their Problems
What brought George Durant and others to the Albemarle was the chance to grow more tobacco with less effort and expense. Durant and his neighbors were also speculating on land, buying the land in the hopes that prices would rise as other farmers needed new areas for their crops. Carolina Rogues There was another reason the Albemarle Sound beckoned the new settlers. Tobacco was a huge source of revenue for the king. Tobacco taxes, collected as customs duties (fees paid when a good was shipped out of a port) had become a way England could afford the expense of its colonies in the New World. Virginians were constantly watched to make sure that they paid their taxes. The first settlers to the remote necks of the Albemarle soon developed a reputation for being rogues, a term used back then for cheaters. That was because they often shipped their tobacco and other products through back channels without paying the tax collector. In this way, someone like George Durant could profit even though he did not live in the richer sections of Virginia. Durant could grow his own tobacco, buy up the leaf grown by his neighbors, then arrange to ship the tobacco on small boats that came down the coast from New England. Unlike the large English ships that sailed the Chesapeake, the two-masted Yankee sloops could go across the shallow sounds. They then returned north along the edge of the Gulf Stream with small cargoes of tobacco, corn, and wheat (which did not grow well in the colder northern colonies) and found ready markets there. A Boston merchant could buy up several boatloads of produce and combine them into a larger shipload that would bring a profit in England. For several years, the Durants and their neighbors did well, and others joined them. By 1665, for example, a government official noted that fortie miles square will not comprehend the Inhabitants already seated. Their ability to succeed was helped by the fact that the status of their property was uncertain. Were they part of Virginia, or did they belong to the new colony of Carolina? It would take years to decide the matter, and the contentious character of the colony would be established. Above: Sir Robert Heath was not able to plant a colony in Carolina. In 1638, Heath gave the patent to Henry, Lord Maltravers. He too could not settle a colony in Carolina. During the 1640s and 1650s, unrest in England put a stop to colonizing efforts. Opposite page, above: The navigable rivers flowing southward from Virginia brought perhaps five hundred settlers to the area above the Albemarle Sound by the 1660s. The settlers were looking for more lands on which to plant tobacco. It s Your Turn 1. Where were the first settlements in what is today North Carolina? 2. Why were North Carolinians considered to be rogues? Section 1: Settling the Albemarle Sound 93
CAROLINA PLACES The Great Dismal Swamp When the Albemarle area was being settled, about the only way to get to it by land was to go through or around the Great Dismal Swamp. In 1728, Virginian William Byrd said, This swamp is a mere quagmire, trembling under the feet of those who walk upon it. The place was so lush with vegetation that Byrd thought it makes each season look like spring, and every month like May. But many residents of the early Albemarle were afraid of going very far into the swamp. The Dismal Swamp is not like most other swamps. The typical swamp is a low-lying part of the earth where water stands much of the year. It stays swampy because the water creates muck in the earth, which in turn fosters more growth of plant and animal life. The Dismal, in contrast, is more like a big pocosin, one of those swamps on a hill. The Dismal is actually higher in elevation than the surrounding Tidewater area. The foundation of the swamp is peat, a spongy form of decayed plant life that is a forerunner to coal. What is really strange about the Dismal Swamp is that water flows out of it, but not into it. Thousands of springs of water come up through the peat, and seven short, but significant, rivers flow out of it and into either the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia or the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. No one is exactly sure where the water comes from. Near the middle of the swamp is Lake Drummond, full of fresh water. The Dismal s water itself is some of the most famous water in American history. Because the water percolates up through the peat, it is sterile and clean. Plus, the juniper and cypress trees give it a bit of tannic acid, which keeps it fresh. During the colonial period, Dismal Swamp water was barreled and taken on oceangoing ships. American sailors who took Admiral Matthew Perry to Japan in the 1850s drank fifty barrels of it. Coastal residents thought the brown Juniper water would keep a person from getting malaria. The Dismal also became famous because slaves escaping on the 94 Chapter 3: The Proprietors and Their Problems
Left: The Dismal Swamp was noted for its cypress trees and its water, which was barreled for use by sailors all over the world. Above: The Great Dismal Swamp Canal dates to the early 1800s. Today it is part of the Intracoastal Waterway. Underground Railroad could hide there as long as needed and not get sick from drinking the water. During the history of North Carolina, people of all types have tried to get a piece of the swamp. Most of all, it has been timbered. A company was formed during the colonial period to cut into the swamp, make money from its timber, and turn its peat into farmland. One of the chief investors was George Washington. Although Washington s company dug a lot of drainage ditches, it did not level the forest. In the later 1790s, Washington and others started to dig a canal through the swamp from the Chesapeake to the Albemarle. This was completed in the early 1800s, and North Carolinians in the northeastern section of the state were able to take advantage of an outlet to the sea. The canal was a major reason that the richest North Carolinians of that day lived on the nearby Roanoke River. It also spurred the growth of Elizabeth City. The canal is still in use today. In the early twenty-first century, the swamp is one-third the size it was when the first white settlers came to the Albemarle. It is preserved as either a state park or a wildlife refuge. About half of it is in Virginia, the other half in North Carolina. Section 1: Settling the Albemarle Sound 95