North Carolina greatly depended on waterways for travel and transportation of products during the colonial period and the majority of the antebellum period. 

Throughout the period, there was an increased desire to improve and increase modes of transportation, which would increase the economic opportunities as well as connect the different regions of the state.

To accomplish these goals, state officials and private companies thought canal building was the best way forward. A canal is a manmade or artificial water channel used to make travel more predictable, friendly, and accessible. In addition, rivers had many obstructions and obstacles, such as debris, strong rapids, or fall lines that existed were conducive to water transport. 

Canal building was a very expensive endeavor and required a significant amount of labor. Most if not all of the major canals completed or attempted in North Carolina relied on the labor of enslaved persons. The canal work done by enslaved people directly impacted the growth and stability of trade (in West Indies, Charleston and Georgetown, South Carolina, Suffolk and Norfolk, Virginia, and local markets), internal growth, and increased slave population. 

Better navigable rivers meant a better and more reliable exchange of goods. Most large and small farmers, slaveholders and non-slaveholders, those on the rivers and streams and those away from the river and streams, depended on river transportation. Small towns located on or near rivers, sometimes called “river towns,” would serve as inland hubs to have products shipped from and brought in by waterways.

For instance, Lumberton in Robeson County, located on the lumber river, became a shipping point for sending goods, mainly naval stores, from Lumberton to Georgetown and Charleston, South Carolina. Other river towns would include Elizabeth town and Weldon, North Carolina.

To improve waterways, several companies were formed all over the state to build canals, drain swamps, and clear rivers, such as the Roanoke Navigation Company, Yadkin Navigation river Company, North Carolina Catawba Company, and Neuse River Company. These companies were formed to maintain rivers [keeping the rivers clear of debris], build and maintain canals, and profit from the various public and private uses of canals by way of tolls. 

Although several companies were chartered [started] to build and maintain major canal projects, only a few companies successfully completed the work. Canals such as Clubfoot and Harlow’s Creek Canal were completed, which began construction in the 1790s with enslaved persons “digging a large ditch with shovels, axes, and mattocks.” However, construction ceased until a new engineer named Hamiton Fuller took on the project, and after that, construction continued in 1821. Rain delays and worker shortages were experienced, as many enslaved workers were hired out from slaveholders during non-agricultural seasons. Clubfoot canal was completed in 1827, which joined the Neuse River to the TopSail inlet near the Bogue Sound. Oddly, the canal did not solve much of North Carolina’s trading problems. The canal still exists and is mainly used for recreational purposes.

There were several canals built within the areas called the Great Dismal Swamp. The Great Dismal Swamp is located in the Northeast corner of North Carolina and the Southeast Corner of Virginia. The Great Dismal Swamp offered several materials desired by colonial and antebellum businesspeople. The problem that many of them had was transporting those materials to nearby rivers or ports for export.

Canals were the answer. Many business owners, including the first president George Washington, who built the first canal in the Great Dismal Swamp, extracted some of its resources for profit. 

The Great Dismal Swamp was home to much commercial activity, and much of it was dedicated to timber products from logging, such as lumber, shingles, turpentine, and staves. However, risking life for timber was not enough, and it had to be a special type of timber, such as juniper, cypress, and white pine, which the Dismal Swamp had in abundance. These types of timber were very profitable items for any merchant to possess. 

In addition, the dismal swampland between the regions of both states that had a lot of trading ties must be highlighted. North Carolina’s troubling coast caused many North Carolinians to transport much of their goods to Suffolk or Norfolk to have them shipped. 

Work on the Great Dismal Swamp Canal began in 1793 and was completed in 1805. The canal was constantly improved upon, and after all, improvements were made, it was completed in 1828. 

The work done on the dismal swamp, including the improvements, which consisted of building minor canals and ditches, required finding ways around difficult terrain, including building dams and locks and constructing smaller canals. All of this was primarily done by enslaved labor, most contracted out by other slaveholders. This canal connected the Albermarle sound region to the Chesapeake Bay, which principally connected the Pasquotank River of North Carolina to the Deep Creek-Elizabeth river in Virginia.

Working in the swamp, including canal construction, became a staple occupation for enslaved people in northeast North Carolina counties, such as Gates, Camden, Pasquotank, Bertie, Chowan, Currituck, and Perquimans. 
There were great dangers in canal construction. Canal work was the worst of the worst. Enslaved people who worked on the canal generally had their life expectancy cut short by a considerable amount. This was simply due to the harshness and environment of the labor. Enslaved persons cut canals in water that was waist-deep or even deeper. They had to frequently duck underwater to cut cypress roots and move mud when they could not keep their heads above water. Not only did this take considerable knowledge and skill, but it was also dangerous. There were also dangers in getting snagged and drowning, and contracting malaria or cholera.

Work was so dangerous that “by 1853, work in the swamp was so dangerous or unhealthy that the Dismal Swamp Land Company was one of the few companies in the nation to regularly secure life insurance policies on its hired slaves.” [Between Slavery and Freedom: African Americans in the Great Dismal Swamp 1763, Edward Downing Maris-Wolf]

For a hired slave, working at the swamps meant the possibility of not returning home. However, like other enslaved people, these laborers were more than likely to be owned by the Dismal Swamp Land Company, and maroons made the swamp their home, albeit it was temporary for hired slaves.

According to Moses Grandy, enslaved people in the swamps “lodged in huts, or as they are called camps, made of shingles or boards. They lie down in the mud which adhered to them, making a great fire to dry themselves and keep off the cold. No bedding is allowed to them; it is only by work done over his task that any of them can get a blanket. They are paid nothing except for this overwork. Their masters come once a month to receive the money for their labor: then perhaps some few very good masters will give them two dollars each, some others one dollar, some a pound of tobacco, and some nothing at all.”

One can imagine the camaraderie created among these men, as men did the majority of the work. As a result, bonds and networks were established between them. These types of situations helped to glue enslaved people together, as they were forced to look out for another, in very close ways, by their circumstances. 

Enslaved persons working in the swamp, particularly on canals, were better fed by general standards. They were allocated (corn) meal, “six pounds of pork per week; the pork is commonly not good, it is damaged, and is brought as cheap as possible at auctions.”

Like other plantation operations, when an enslaved person failed to complete a job, as per the owners’ or overseers’ liking if they knew how to judge the job, a slave or slaves were punished. However, discipline was more severe at canal camps than on the average plantations. Typical punishments were flogging (usually with a whip), and afterward, the slaves were tied up for the rest of the day with a bleeding back. Open wounds attracted yellow blowflies and mosquitoes. 

Mosquitoes carrying malaria offered one fate, whereas the other fate was that of yellow flies who bred near woods, waterways, and swamps. Yellow “bow” flies and are attracted to blood and decaying matter. They are also carriers of bacteria, which can cause serious illness. 

To combat this, enslaved people would boil the Oak of Jerusalem with alcohol. This would help to prevent infection and other dangers passed along with the blowfly. However, the bitter sensation of the application of this remedy was unpleasant.

To help with the healing and pain of the flogging, enslaved persons would rub fat meat from their own food rations on the back of their fellow slaves.

Canal workers, though present in the pits of muddy waters, were never alone. Moses Grandy noted that some 500 to 700 men, even though this number did not include all slaves, was the majority, worked on different sections of the canal. 

Swamp work at times helped freedom seekers. This was because work in the swamp could always use more laborers; therefore, companies sometimes hired freedom seekers. Company work provided freedom seekers with the opportunity to earn money for a potential passage on a vessel or served as a temporary home or refuge before continuing on the journey—more than likely up the canal toward Norfolk. Alternately, some used the swamp as a hidden place from bounty hunters or patrols. In either case, the swamp played an essential role for freedom seekers fleeing coastal North Carolina. For more on canals, see HERE