USA > North Carolina > New Hanover County > New Hanover County : a brief history > Part 3
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Newspapers, another intellectual outlet for the people, were scarce, but periodicals such as the South Carolina Gazette and
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the Virginia Gazette did find their way into the county. The earliest local newspaper was the North Carolina Gazette and Weekly Post Boy, which Andrew Steuart published in Wilming- ton from 1764 to 1767. It was succeeded by the Cape Fear Mercury, also published in Wilmington, from 1769 to 1775.
The drama of early America was mostly performed by com- panies of players who traveled about to wherever reasonable profit might be expected from their performance. Because of its remoteness and its small population, it is unlikely that Wilming- ton attracted many of these groups. The town, however, did have one particularly distinctive association with the contemporary
NEAR THIS SPOT LIES
THOMAS GODFREY
BONN IN PHILADELPHIA PA VOR DIED IN WILMINGTON NC.1763
AUTHOR OF
THE PRINCE OF PARTHIA
THE FIRST ORAMA WRITTEN
BY AN AMERICAN AND PRODUCED OPON THE
PROFESSKWAL STAGE IN
THE COLONIES
ERECTED BY
. SOCIETY COLONIAL
In the Saint James church- yard is a memorial to Thomas Godfrey, whose death at the age of twenty-seven cut short a promising literary career. Photograph from files of the Wilmington Morning Star appears in Richard Walser's Literary North Carolina (Ra- leigh, 1970), p.8.
theater. In 1759 a young man by the name of Thomas Godfrey came from Philadelphia to make his home in Wilmington. Only twenty-two years old at the time, he had already shown evidence of considerable talent as a poet. In the same year of his arrival in Wilmington, Godfrey completed a dramatic poem, The Prince of Parthia, which has been called the first attempt in America at dramatic composition. It was performed in 1767, but the young man never knew the satisfaction of seeing his work in print since on August 1, 1763, he had died in Wilmington. His remains rest in the churchyard of St. James Church.
Times of Violence
Life in colonial days was generally peaceful but there were times of conflict. Since the local Indians were already gone when the permanent settlers arrived, they were no threat. The danger that existed came from rival Europeans, the French and the Spaniards, with whom England was involved in intermittent wars throughout the eighteenth century. Usually these wars
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were remote from the Cape Fear area, but occasionally violence did come.
The massive fort which the Spaniards had built at St. Augus- tine in Florida was a constant reminder of danger to the Eng- lish colonies, especially those in the South. For the Cape Fear people this danger became a reality in September, 1748, during King George's War. Two Spanish privateers invaded the river and did great damage to Brunswick Town. Wilmington was spared the same ordeal only because of its protected location. The Spaniards finally fled from the river but not before they had paid for their boldness. One of their vessels at Brunswick was wracked by an explosion and settled to the river bottom. It was from this wreck that St. James Church derived funds for its construction as well as its art treasure, Ecce Homo.
Between 1754 and 1763 England was locked in mortal combat with France, and later Spain, for control of North America. England was victorious in the conflict known as the French and Indian War; her reward, in addition to New France (Canada), was undisputed possession of all the land between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, with several minor exceptions. She also acquired Spanish Florida. The war did not come near New Hanover, but the county, like all of English America, was to feel the effects of the victory.
The enlarged American possessions required more and better defense; therefore, the English Parliament decided to station 10,000 regular British troops in the colonies with the colonists sharing the cost of maintaining these troops, called "Redcoats" because of their red uniform. To raise the required money, Parliament in 1765 passed the Stamp Act which required the colonists to buy stamps to affix on such items as legal documents, ships' papers, and newspapers, as visible evidence of the tax paid. This was the first time Parliament had ever imposed a direct tax on the colonists, who struck back in anger at what they called "taxation without representation." Their feeling was reflected in widespread protests and, in some cases, violence.
New Hanover County citizens showed their anger in several ways. On October 31, 1765, the night before the Stamp Act was to be effected, they staged a boisterous demonstration in Wil- mington, during which they burned an effigy of "Liberty" to sym- bolize the abuse of colonial rights by Parliament. Two weeks later on November 16 Dr. William Houston, the appointed stamp agent, was seized in Wilmington and forced to resign his
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To express their disapproval of the Stamp Act, Wilmington citizens on October 19, 1765, hanged-and later burned-in effigy a proponent of the stamp tax, an event here depicted. On October 31, "Liberty" in effigy was given a solemn funeral procession and then burned. Copy of an illustration in Jule B. Warren's North Carolina: Yesterday and Today (Raleigh, 1941).
office. The following February the people of New Hanover joined other Cape Fear men and marched to Brunswick Town to pro- test the seizure of several ships for violations of the hated Stamp Act. These men, 1,000 strong and armed, forced the customs officials there to take an oath not to enforce the act. While at Brunswick, the demonstrators surrounded the home of Governor William Tryon, which adjoined the town, and placed him under virtual house arrest. No harm was done the royal governor, but this was open and armed defiance of British authority almost eight years before the more celebrated Boston Tea Party-and the men of the Cape Fear did not hide their identity behind dis- guise.
Several weeks later, the Stamp Act was repealed because it was hurting business in England. While this action brought temporary calm to the colonies, it did not remove the need of money for defense. Parliament persisted in imposing taxes on the colonists, and the colonists persisted in opposing the taxes. The growing tension was worsened by other issues that entered the controversy, so that the colonies and the mother country
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drifted further and further apart. In December, 1773, the people of Boston destroyed tea from England in defiance of Parliament's Tea Act. Parliament struck back with several retaliatory actions, including the closing of the port of Boston. Boston thereby be- came a symbol of oppression and of unity among the colonies, and the people of the Cape Fear joined others in sending relief supplies there. Conditions became increasingly tense until in September, 1774, representatives of the various colonies met in Philadelphia in a gathering known as the First Continental Con- gress. Their purpose was to determine the course the colonists should follow. An expression of grievances was made, and bills restricting trade were adopted. The meeting closed with a call for a second gathering the following May unless the troubles had passed by that time. The troubles did not pass. In the after- noon of May 8, 1775, a lone horseman raced into Wilmington with electrifying news. On April 19 in the far away Massachusetts villages of Lexington and Concord there had been a confrontation between colonial militiamen and British Redcoats. Guns had been fired, and American blood had been spilled on American soil.
Shortly afterward the members of the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to act in behalf of the colonists. Some of these colonists favored freedom from England and were known as Patriots, or Whigs. Others opposed separation and were known as Loyalists, or Tories. The dissension reached its climax on July 4, 1776, when the Continental Congress ap- proved the Declaration of Independence, which cut the tie with England. There was no turning back. The American Revolution had begun. England would have to accept the declaration or deny it by force of arms. It chose the latter course and failed.
The people of New Hanover County contributed to the success of the American Revolution in various ways. The county was also the scene of one of the most important engagements in the conflict. As early as the spring of 1775, Josiah Martin, the royal governor of North Carolina, had devised a plan to crush the revolutionary forces in the colony. According to this plan British troops were to be brought in to join a large body of Tories to be drawn from among the numerous Scotch Highlanders located in the upper Cape Fear country. They would also be supported by local Negro slaves who would be persuaded to rise against their masters and who would be armed by the British. The com- bined force of troops, Tories, and slaves would restore loyal government in North Carolina. The British troops would then
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be moved on to serve the same purpose in other colonies so that all the southern colonies would be restored to their former loyalty by this plan, or so Martin believed.
Revolutionary leaders learned of Martin's plan and hurried to frustrate it. Two regiments of troops were already being organized for the service of the Continental Congress. One was under the command of Col. Robert Howe, of Brunswick County, who later became a major general and occupied positions of great responsibility. The other was under Col. James Moore who, except for an early and unexpected death in 1777, might have gone on to far greater achievements. It was he who directed prep- arations for the coming danger. In addition to the Continental troops, local military units were hurriedly formed. Wilmington was in a state of frenzied excitement. Women and children were evacuated, defense works hastily prepared, martial law declared, and known Tories arrested. About the middle of February, 1776, some 1,600 Tories met at Cross Creek and began the march toward the mouth of the Cape Fear for a rendezvous with the British troops which Moore was determined to prevent. In the early morning of February 27, a Patriot force of about 1,000 men met the Tories at Moores Creek Bridge, about 25 miles above Wilmington. The battle that followed lasted only three minutes, but when it was over the back of the Tory movement in North Carolina had been broken. In early May, the British forces under under two generals, Sir Henry Clinton and Charles, Lord Corn- wallis, arrived at the mouth of the river only to learn of the futility of their effort. They lingered for several weeks and sent raiding parties ashore from time to time, the most de- structive one being directed against Brunswick Town and nearby Kendall Plantation. Brunswick was deserted by its inhabitants at this time and never again was occupied by more than a few persons. At the end of May the British finally left, sailing south- ward to launch an unsuccessful attack on Charlestown.
After the British left the Cape Fear, almost five years passed before they returned. When they did, the same General Corn- wallis was at their head. In May, 1780, the British once more appeared at Charlestown and this time succeeded in taking it. From Charlestown, General Cornwallis led a large force to seek out and defeat the main body of Patriots in the South. On March 15, 1781, he met the Americans led by Gen. Nathanael Greene at Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina. In the battle that followed, both sides suffered heavy losses, and Cornwallis
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pulled back to Wilmington to obtain supplies and to heal the wounds of his battered forces.
The previous January, Maj. James Craig, in command of a British detachment, had been sent up by sea from Charleston to secure Wilmington as a base for Cornwallis. On January 9 Craig landed several miles below Wilmington, marched in, and seized the town. The inhabitants, after being disarmed and placed on parole, were allowed to go about their usual affairs. The British set about to improve the defenses of the town and otherwise secure it against recapture. On April 12 Cornwallis arrived from Guilford Courthouse and established his head- quarters in the house that is still standing on the southwest corner of Third and Market streets. In Wilmington the British commander had to decide his next step. He thought of returning to Charlestown to resume his efforts to conquer the Carolinas. Instead, he decided to go north and conquer Virginia, which had been supplying the Carolinas with men and supplies. With Vir- ginia's fall, he believed, the Carolinas would collapse. Since Georgia had already been overrun, the conquest of most of the South would then be completed. With this plan in mind, Corn- wallis and his men marched out of Wilmington on April 25. Less than two weeks had passed since his arrival.
While Cornwallis was in Wilmington, a human tragedy was playing out its melancholy course. After his arrival, Craig had been active in enlisting the support of local Tories. He was also zealous in running down revolutionary leaders. Among the local patriots, none was more distinguished than the Wilmingtonians William Hooper and Cornelius Harnett. Hooper had played an active part in the revolutionary movement; he had represented North Carolina in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777 and in this capacity had signed the Declaration of Independence. Harnett had long been active in local politics and was held in high esteem by his fellow citizens. An early and zealous revo- lutionary leader, Harnett was called "the Samuel Adams of North Carolina." He succeeded Hooper as a member of the Con- tinental Congress and served in that post until 1780. When Major Craig and his troops arrived in Wilmington, Harnett was there and fled. An ill man, the patriot sought safety in the home of a friend in Onslow County, but he was discovered and captured. Bound hand and foot, Harnett was thrown across the back of a horse "like a sack of meal" and taken back to Wilmington where he was imprisoned in a roofless blockhouse. Unable to stand the
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At left is the Cornelius Harnett House, home of the daring Wil- mington patriot.
On April 12, 1781, Charles, Earl Cornwallis, established his Wil- mington headquarters in this house on the southeast corner of Third and Market streets shown here in a copy of a pencil sketch which ap- pears in Benson J. Lossing's The Pictorial Field Book of the Revo- lution (New York, [1860]), II, 575.
rigors of exposure, he died on April 28, 1781, three days after Cornwallis had left Wilmington. His remains were buried in the churchyard of St. James.
On November 17, 1781, Col. Richard Henry Lee, better known as "Lighthorse Harry," rode into the outskirts of Wilmington, which was still occupied by Craig and his British troops. Lee was passing through on his way to General Greene with a message telling of the surrender of General Cornwallis to Gen. George Washington, the commander of the Continental Army. The momentous event had taken place on October 19 at Yorktown, Virginia. The day following Lee's appearance, Craig and his men boarded transports and sailed out of the Cape Fear. Before their ships were out of sight, Wilmington had been occupied by American troops. For New Hanover County and North Caro- lina the war was over. In fact, except for scattered skirmishes, the American Revolution had come to an end with the surrender of Cornwallis, although the formal treaty of peace was not signed until 1783.
An interesting aside to the British occupation of Wilmington is the story of the later careers of the two commanders involved, Cornwallis and Craig. Both later held high military commands
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in various parts of the world and achieved distinction. Craig, as Sir James, became governor-general of Canada and also held the military rank of general. Cornwallis, already an earl while in Wilmington, later became a marquis also. On two occasions he served as governor-general of India and at one time was viceroy of Ireland.
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III. The Antebellum Period
The Beginning of a New Nation
The American Revolution brought to an end one phase of history, the colonial period. At the same time, it marked the beginning of another phase that also ended in violence within a century. Known as the antebellum period, the years between the Revolution and the Civil War were the formative period of the country. Having severed the tie with England, the American people faced the necessity of establishing a new government. Early in the conflict, the thirteen colonies were transformed into separate and sovereign states, but survival depended on the strength that could come only with unity. For this reason, the Second Continental Congress was accepted as a central govern- ing body and served in that capacity until 1781, when it was replaced by a formal union under the Articles of Confederation. In 1789 the confederation gave way to government under the present Constitution. This new central government was stronger than the old, but there were differences over its nature that led ultimately to civil strife. Nevertheless, the antebellum period was one in which the American people joined to lay the foun- dation of the great nation the United States has become. In the important and sometimes exciting developments, New Hanover County played a vital role.
In terms of political theory the United States as a republic differed radically from the monarchy which it replaced. The basic framework of government, however, remained essentially un- changed. Both the old and the new were divided into the traditional three branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. Moreover, the changes made in the central government had little effect on the day-to-day activities of the American people. Their contact with government was confined almost altogether to local levels.
North Carolina became a state in 1776 with the adoption of a constitution which provided for the same general type of govern- ment that had existed in the colony. There was even less change in local government. On January 2, 1776, the last New Hanover
County Court in the name of the king was held. The next court met on January 7, 1777, and was held in the name of the state. The shift from a monarchy to a republic resulted in little or no change in the function of the court. Since the state constitution did not provide for a particular form for county government the existing form was continued. The justices, appointed for life by the governor on the recommendation of the county's representa- tives in the General Assembly, continued to exercise the same judicial and administrative functions as in the past. In some cases the justices received a small allowance for their services; but because the real compensation was honor and prestige, many of the most influential citizens were attracted to the office. Maintenance of law and order continued to rest with the sheriff and the constables. The office of sheriff remained appointive un- til 1829, when it became elective.
The town government of Wilmington also remained essentially the same. The state legislature in 1777 continued in effect the colonial law which provided that Wilmington be governed by five commissioners who were elected biennially. In 1842 the number was increased to seven who were elected annually.
Wilmington was also the location of various functions of the federal government. For example, customs officials were stationed there after Brunswick Town had been partially destroyed and almost totally abandoned during the Revolution. Wilmington was also a mail center. The postal service, one of the early casualties of the war, had by 1789 been reestablished when the United States Postal Service was created. Post offices were opened in four North Carolina towns-Wilmington, Edenton, Washington, and New Bern-all towns on the main post road connecting the northern and southern United States. In 1792 this route was shifted inland and passed from Virginia through Fayetteville into South Carolina. The Wilmington post office continued in operation, however, and in 1795 was one of fifty-two located in the state.
For some years, mail was generally transported from place to place by post riders, but soon after the beginning of the nine- teenth century, stagecoaches were used increasingly as road conditions improved. By about 1840 stagecoaches were being superceded wherever possible by the faster and cheaper trains. There were many places, however, that railroads did not reach ; and so as late as 1860 stagecoaches, post riders, and special
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couriers were still used to transport mail in certain parts of North Carolina.
Economic Activities of the Cape Fear People
According to the first federal census of 1790, New Hanover County had a population of 7,000 persons, including approxi- mately 1,000 who resided in Wilmington. Of the 6,000 who lived outside, it is estimated that 2,000 were within the present bounds of New Hanover and 4,000 in what is now Pender County. Many of the townspeople were occupied as merchants, sea captains, seamen, or in some other phase of trade and shipping, so im- portant to Wilmington economy. Others were lawyers, doctors, civil officials, shopkeepers, craftsmen, laborers, and such. A few of the rural people lived on large plantations, but most were to be found on more modest landholdings. Whatever their circum- stances, however, they all continued to depend on the land and the forest for a livelihood. Various agricultural products were cultivated but mostly for home consumption and, perhaps, for the local market. Only rice was an important commercial crop. Cattle and swine still were allowed to roam through the wood- lands to produce beef and pork. Naval stores, lumber, and other timber derivatives continued to be the most important products of the forest.
As in the past, economic prosperity depended on trade with the outside world. Before the Revolution, there had been an active and profitable trade; ships leaving the Cape Fear River for England were second in number only to those bound for the West Indies. A lesser number carried cargo to coastal ports, mostly in the northern colonies but occasionally down the coast to Charlestown. War, however, brought an immediate and pre- cipitous drop in shipping. The effect of hostilities is shown by the fact that at the end of the war, in 1783, almost all ships leaving the Cape Fear went to Charlestown where few had gone before.
Peace brought recovery, but the pattern of trade had changed to some extent. North Carolina had the same five ports of colonial days, and the Port of Brunswick held its place as the most im- portant. However, it was no longer in the British Empire, and imperial trading privileges were no longer given to its people. Nevertheless, trade with England was resumed. This trade con- tributed to economic recovery but did not reach prewar levels. In
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part, this decline was due to restrictions England placed on trade with her former colonies. In part, it was because the Cape Fear people chose to seek new channels of trade. The decrease in business with England was more than offset by an increase with northern United States ports, with Charleston, and with the West Indies. Exports to the British West Indies increased in spite of British restrictions, but they did not keep pace with the growing trade with the French, Dutch, and Danish West Indies. The large volume of trade with these islands reflected the eco- nomic freedom the American people had won along with political freedom. Ports that had been forbidden to them as colonists were now open. The extent of economic recovery in the immediate postwar years is shown by the fact that in the fall and winter of 1788-1789, more ships came into the Cape Fear River than ever before. Almost all this shipping proceeded upstream to Wilmington. The decline of the town of Brunswick was indicated by the change in name of the "Port of Brunswick" to the "Port of Wilmington."
The passing years brought changes in economic activities. By 1860, the end of the antebellum period, the official population of New Hanover County was 22,000, of which some 9,500 lived in Wilmington. Probably the same number, 9,500, were in what is now Pender County, leaving a balance of about 3,000 who were rural residents within the present bounds of New Hanover. These country people still farmed and by then were growing some cotton and peanuts. Agriculture as a commercial pursuit, however, remained less important than the manufacture of forest products. Even rice had ceased to be a crop of consequence. Lumber continued to be a lucrative source of income, but tar and pitch production had declined to relative unimportance. Turpen- tine, on the other hand, had become the leading product of the Cape Fear area. Turpentine production, in fact, was the leading industry of North Carolina, concentrated in the Cape Fear coun- ties with New Hanover second only to Bladen in the number of distilleries. About two thirds of the entire national production was exported through the port of Wilmington. Some was shipped out in the raw state, but most of it was reduced by distillation to spirits of turpentine. The residue of this process was rosin; its value as an export was second only to turpentine.
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