Roanoke Island

• • Roanoke Island • Special Resource Study • • • • • • I• •- •- • • • • • Cultural Resources • Southeast Region • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • --~- -- • • • Roanoke Island, 186sto 1940 • • Special History Study • • • • • le• : . • • • ·- • ;.• !.'·· 2005 • Written by BrianT. Crumley, Ph.D . • Edited by Frank J. J. Miele • • ,.••• • • • • • • This special history study exists in two formats. A printed • version is available for study at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, the Southeast Regional Office of the National • Park Service, and at a variety of other repositories. For more • widespread access, this special history study also exists in a • web- based format through the web site of the National Park Service. Please visit www.nps.gov for more • information. • • Cultural Resources Division • Southeast Regional Office National Park Service • 100 Alabama Street, SW • Atlanta, GA 30303 • 404-562-3117 • • Fort Raleigh National Historic Site • http://www.nps.gov/fora • • • About the cover: A collection of images includes black and white photographs from the Fort Raleigh National • Historic Site collection and postal material from the collection of Robert Blythe. • • • • • :.;.••• ~· • ••• ~· Signature Page I. Special History Study, Roanoke Island, 1865 to 1940 • 2004 • • • Approved by: • Superintendent, Ca • •~ /-J0-07- Chief, Cultural Resource Division Date· • Southeast Region • • --- .(---- /!1:- /'' r • . l./ .) • Associate Regional Dir. tOr, Cultural Resource' Date • Stewardship and Partnership, Southeast Region : .• • • I • Regional Director, Southeast R~gion Date • ;.I • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • iv Special History Study Roanoke Island, 186S to 1940 • • • • • • Contents ••• • Foreword ......... .. ... .. ............................ .. .. ... ... .. .. .......vii • Chapter One: Introduction ............................... ...... .... .. .. ... 1 • • Chapter Two: The Nineteenth Century, Antebellum Outer Banks, • the Civil War, and Reconstruction ........ , ...................... 11 • Chapter Three: Post-Reconstruction and the U.S. Lifesaving Service .... ......... 25 • Chapter Four: The Dawn of the Twentieth Century and a Changing • Roanoke Island Prior to the Great Depression . ..... ... ...... 41 • Chapter Five: The Modern Era-Expansion, the Great Depression, · • and The Lost Colony ........................ ...... .. .. .... .. 57 •• Bibliography ..... .................. ·.................. ............. ·. 75 ;:! .• . l~ e· • • • • • National Park Service v • • • • • ••• • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • vi Special History Study Roanoke Island, 1865 to 1940 • • • • • Foreword • • We are pleased to make available this special history study of Roanoke Island in the period following the Civil War. This study was undertaken to help Fort Raleigh National Historic Site interpret the histories of all • the people of Roanoke Island through more than 400 years. We wish to extend thanks to Cape Hatteras • Group Superintendent Larry Belli and his staff, particularly Doug Stover and Steve Harrison, who were of • great assistance to the author and editor of this study. James Womack III prepared the map and designed the · cover for the study. We hope it will prove useful to managers and interpreters at Fort Raleigh National • Historic Site . • • Dan Scheidt Chief, Cultural Resources Division • ·Southeast Regional Office • January 2005 • • • • • • • • • • • • National Park Service vii • • •• • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • viii Special History Study Roanoke Island, 1865 to 1940 • • • • • • Chapter One: Introduction • • This study will focus on the history of Roanoke the "Graveyard of the Atlantic;' in tribute to the • Island from the period of the Civil War until the many ships that have gone down there . Second World War. During this time frame, there • were significant changes to the island's life. Roanoke Island lies west of Bodie Island, between • However, an understanding of the physical setting of Roanoke Island itself combined with some the Outer Banks and the mainland. Albemarle • aspects of its social, political, and economic Sound is north of Roanoke Island, with Pamlico • development prior to the 186os is an essential Sound to the south. The waters between Roanoke • prerequisite to understanding the island's later Island and the Outer Banks are known as Roanoke history. The first two chapters will lay the necessary Sound; Croatan Sound separates the island from the • foundation, making it easier for readers to mainland. Roanoke Island is 12 miles long and 3 understand the primary thrust of this report. • miles wide at its widest point The unique physical setting of Roanoke Island, • Its soil is sandy and is generally only one or two feet sheltered by the barrier islands of North Carolina, • has had a profound influence on its history and above sea level. Numerous parts of Roanoke Island • development. A series of barrier islands run in an are swampy. Temperatures average around 6oY2- • arc from the Virginia/North Carolina border south 6}Y2 Farenheit and an average growing season is in ·some 250 miles to Cape Lookout. Iri back of the the range of 220 days} These physical attributes, • barrier islands are large shallow sounds, fed by the combined with the fact that over the years, fishing • Chowan, Pamlico, and Neuse Rivers. South of Cape has been a major part of the lives of the island's Lookout, the barrier islands are much closer to the inhabitants, are, in a large measure, the raison d'etre • shore, forming much narrower sounds. Just south of for the insular qualities of the islanders. For years • Wilmington, the coastline alters from a north/south they did not partake in mainstream America and to an east/west orientation at Cape Fear. This • neither did they have a meaningful position in foreboding name was given by early explorers in • tribute to the fierce storms, treacherous currents, contemporary North Carolina society. There is, • and dangerous shoals of this region. remarkably, very little written concerning the Outer • Banks until the Civil War. Although the infamous The barrier islands along the northern part of the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" was well- known, early • coast are known as the Outer Banks. They include, histories of North Carolina virtuaJly exclude any ,.• from north to south, Bodie Island, Pea Island, mention of the region. The isolation and limited Hatteras Island, and Ocracoke Island. These Outer population were certainly factors in this omission. Bank islands are separated by narrow, .shallow These geographical features also prevented the • inlets. The locations of the inlets do not stay fixed; development of a major port city, such as • hurricanes and severe storms move the sand . Charleston, that thrived on trade. The topography around, obliterating inlets and creating new ones . • of North Carolina provides one of America's best Because of the constant action of wind and water, • the configuration of the islands and sounds are examples of how geography plays a role in econom •• different than they were in the colonial period. The ic development.2 Living on an island not only • waters off the Outer Banks have. long been known as separates one physically but also psychologically. National Park Service 1 • / • • • • • ~-- • • • • - ,,.. • .~ .. ... • .: -~:~ ~ . ·· -· .. ...· • ~~i~- - • 1.kil) 5km • _ ) . mile 5 miles • FIGURE 1. Roanoke Island, NC, and vicinity. • Roanoke Island derives its name from the shell during the sixteenth century. The Portuguese, • beads the Indians called roanoke, also known by under the direction of Prince Henry the Navigator, • many as wampum) This name also describes the led the way in both exploration and improved Native American inhabitants known as the Roanoke • technology in areas, such as cartography, that Indians. Early settlers described the soil on greatly facilitated what now is known as the "Age of • Roanoke Island as fertile but, over the years, its Exploration:' Portuguese efforts in West Africa quality declined markedly.4 The Roanoke Indians, • 6 who initially inhabited the island, were able to eventually led to the colonization of Brazil. King • fertilize the soil by burying alewives in it.S By the Ferdinand of Spain and his queen, Isabella, were the patrons of Christopher Columbus, who attempted • time of the Civil War, the soil quality became so depleted that it was able to provide only subsistence to discover a new route to the Indies and wound up • level farming for the island's inhabitants. "discovering" what became known as the "New • World" in 1492. Although the English, along with • The English were late entrants into the scramble to the Spanish, French, and Portuguese, were sending explore and obtain colonies throughout the world numerous vessels to fish off the Grand Banks by • 1. Alton Emmett Baum, Dare County: Economic and Social, Unpublished college paper 1939, 5-6 located in the Outer Banks History Center, Manteo, North Carolina OBHC 33 MSS-0-44. _ • 2. John Hope Franklin, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1943), 5. 3. April lee Hatfield, "Spanish Colonization Literature, Powhattan Geographies, and English Perceptions of • Tsenacommacah," The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 69, No. 2 (May 2003): 252. 4. David Beers Quinn, Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, • 1985). 216. 5.. Alewives are a fish from the herring family that American Indians all along the East Coast

Load more