No Longer Yours:
Aspects of Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North Carolina

Wood-Understanding North Carolina History through the Element of Wood

The history of North Carolina is the story of Anglican arrival, the enforced taming of the indigenous populations that previously inhabited the land and the institution of enslavement, which built the foundation of the state both agriculturally and economically. Yet this brief synopsis of the states’ undertaking is what unearths the story of how African Americans, in general, and their ingenuity and command over many of the natural resources in the state of North Carolina, in particular, afforded the ability to produce craft, build economic infrastructure, and ultimately ensure stability in the state. This chapter will highlight a few implications and importance of the natural element WOOD. This chapter also serves the greater purpose of enlightening students on the amalgamation of craftsmanship, natural resources, and African American spirit, which fueled the state. While this chapter maneuvers swiftly through a perhaps deeper examination into the fundamentals of the African American odyssey in North Carolina, there is a detailed secondary scholarship section designed to foster enriched knowledge on African American history in North Carolina. 

The People in Numbers
To first understand the impact of enslaved African Americans in North Carolina, one must first have a proper understanding of the breakdown of sheer numbers and how the population in North Carolina fluctuated over time. This chart highlights the population statistics of North Carolina, and it is noticeable that the population in the state consistently increases from 1790 to 1860—the year before the American Civil War in terms of both total population and enslaved population.




To see a breakdown of enslaved population by percent per county in North Carolina in 1860, CLICK HERE.

From the image of the map, it is clear that a number of counties across the state retained high numbers of enslaved persons. In counties such as Lincoln, iron plantations were riddled across the landscape. This process required thousands of acres of forested landscape, as hardwood was a necessary mixing agent to produce iron. 

Since the 1720s and 1730s, the coastal region of North Carolina, in general, and the northeast Cape Fear region, in particular, which included present day Duplin County, were perhaps the epicenter of lumber production due largely to close proximity to the waterways and ocean.

Slave Life at Whitney Plantation 

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