America's Wetland: An Environmental and Cultural History of Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina

4. Period of European Colonization

56 4 Period of European Colonization Hunter-gatherers roamed the Albemarle-Pamlico region thousands of years before agriculture eventually supported semipermanent settlements there, from about 1000 bc. The moist, rich soil was especially conducive to the growing of corn (maize). These more sedentary, ‘‘modern ’’ Indians cleared land for planting corn and other crops, utilized a surprising amount of underbrush to fuel cooking, intentionally (and also, no doubt, accidentally) set local forest fires, and organized group hunting and fishing expeditions using traps and nets. Finally, the most recent Indians to live in the Albemarle wetland, the Carolina Algonquins, were the first Native Americans to come in intimate contact with the English, with the arrival of the colony at Roanoke Island in the 1580s. The first Europeans to reach the vicinity of this region were probably Spanish. The Waldseemuller map of 1507 indicates that ships had passed offshore by this date. However, the Gulf Stream initially limited the extent of exploration. Although vessels could easily negotiate the Gulf Stream northward, there was an initial reluctance to do so because it was virtually impossible to return against these strong currents. However, by 1519 the Gulf Stream was well known, and ships regularly returned to Europe via this route, departing the mainland at Cape Hatteras.∞ Thereafter, explorers periodically ventured along the North Carolina and Virginia coasts, including Verrazano (1524, Pamlico Sound), Ayllon (1526, Bald Head Island), and de Segura (Mission at Ajacan, Chesapeake Bay, 1560, 1566, 1570). In other words, for two or three generations Period of European Colonization W 57 before the English colony at Roanoke Island a number of Spanish and French explorers had visited this area and interacted with local Indians. England’s first, but unsuccessful, colony in the New World was established on Roanoke Island in 1585. Using the island as a base, these colonists thoroughly explored the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds and adjacent rivers. John White and Thomas Hariot described the natural history of this area firsthand, accompanied by contemporary drawings, maps, and narratives. As a result, a remarkable number of new animals and plants were described for the first time. Indeed, the now extinct Carolina parakeet , and even the turkey, were first recorded from these swamps. In addition, White and Hariot described in great detail the nature and habits of the Carolina Algonquin Indians, who dominated this area. This was the first real account of any Native Americans to reach England.≤ In 1607 the first permanent English colony was established at Jamestown on the James River in the Virginia tidewater. This land was home to the Virginia Algonquins (Powhatans), who were closely allied to Indians previously encountered in the Albemarle tidewater. A major transportation link existed between the two regions: the Chowan-Blackwater River comes within five miles of the James River itself. Almost right away colonists resumed exploration of the Albemarle-Pamlico region, this time from the base at Jamestown. Around 1650, planters started coming to this area, at first to settle along the north shore of the Albemarle Sound. Taking the long view, the early history of the Albemarle and Virginia colonies constitutes one continuing story of English settlement. The settlers who returned to the Albemarle frontier in the 1650s began a new chapter of environmental change, already begun by the Indians who had lived here for countless generations. Using slave labor, then steam power, these irrepressible immigrants changed the entire ecosystem. They drained most of the swampland by digging countless miles of ditches and canals, cut thousands of acres of virgin forests, dammed rivers, and tried to drain entire lakes. Settlement from Virginia Settlement of the Albemarle region dates from about 1653, when English settlers started emigrating overland from Virginia. Many of these emigrants were Quakers and other dissenters seeking religious freedom of- 58 W America’s Wetland fered by the Lords Proprietors to entice people to ‘‘Carolina.’’ Remarkably, the founder of the Quakers, the Englishman George Fox, made a personal journey to the Albemarle region in 1672. He and his designates described in detail what was probably an ancient Indian route from tidewater Virginia to the Albemarle. This particular route was from the Nansemond River via land (Somerton) to the Chowan River, and as one account noted: ‘‘Our way to Carolina grew worse, being much of it plashy, and pretty full of great bogs and swamps, so we were commonly wet to the knees. . . . And it was perilous traveling, for the Indians...