I was recently asked to give the keynote address at an extraordinary event held in Plymouth, N.C., to commemorate the Plymouth Massacre of April 1864. I found the event deeply moving, and I was honored to be there. This is a copy of my remarks and photographs of the day's events.
In Remembrance: Robert Hinton (1941-2023)
I just learned that my old friend Robert Hinton passed away late last year. He was an inspiring historian, and a good man, and he forever changed the way that I and many others think about the history of Eastern North Carolina. To honor Robert, I am sharing a special lecture that he gave in Tarboro, N.C., in 2001.
Learning Instructions for Everyone … in prison and out (by Phillip Vance Smith II)
Phillip Vance Smith II, an inmate at the Nash Correctional Institution, has just published a remarkable book of poetry called "Life: Learning Instructions for Everyone … in prison and out." His poems are a primer in survival without hope, or perhaps in how to find hope, and how to make a life with meaning, in a hopeless world.
The Land of the Longleaf Pine
My friend Tom Earnhardt recently sent me an extraordinary array of photographs from The Nature Conservancy's Green Swamp Preserve, a magical place famous for its longleaf pine savannas, its wild orchids and its carnivorous plants.
A Beautiful Day in Piney Grove
At first light we gathered at the Friendship Holiness Church in Piney Grove, a community in the far southeastern part of the North Carolina coast. The descendants of Caesar Evans were going searching for the community's past in the local woods and swamps, and they had invited me to go with them.
Remembering Cedar Hill
I will never forget the day I spent with George Beatty, Jr. exploring the Gullah Geechee heritage of Cedar Hill, a community founded by the survivors of a rice plantation on the banks of the Cape Fear River.
The CCC Workers of Bell Island
These photographs were taken at a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp on Bell Island, in Hyde County, N.C., circa 1935. Taken by a young man named Troy Elliott and now preserved at the State Archives, they give us a rare glimpse at a little-known part of the Great Depression on the North Carolina coast.
Making a Way: Photographs of the Army Corps of Engineers on the North Carolina Coast, 1930-1932
Dating from 1930 to 1932, an extraordinary photograph album gives us a rare, up-close portrait of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dredge boats and their crews on the rivers, canals and sounds of the North Carolina coast.
The Other Coup D’Etat: Remembering New Bern in 1898 (New Version)
This is an updated version of a short essay that I first published two years ago. To write this version, I drew on additional research that I did in preparation for giving a special lecture last week to mark the New Bern Historical Society’s 100th anniversary.
On a Beautiful Autumn Day in Red Hill
A few days ago, a large crowd gathered in Red Hill, North Carolina, for the unveiling of a state historical marker commemorating the establishment of an Equal Rights League there in 1866. Sponsored by the Phoenix Historical Society, the ceremony was hosted by the Red Hill Missionary Baptist Church, the heart of that rural community 18 miles northeast of Rocky Mount.
The Last Days of the East Dismal Swamp
I have written this as kind of an on-line history exhibit. The story starts with a short introduction, then features more than 40 annotated photographs and other images illustrating the last decades of an ancient swamp forest that was once located on the North Carolina coast.
Wharf Pilings and Sawdust: Visiting the Lost Villages of Hyde County, N.C.
More than 50 years ago, a high school history teacher named Morgan Harris and his students at Mattamuskeet High School created what I believe are the only surviving maps of four lumber mill villages in Hyde County, N.C.
The Road to Makatoka: Logging the Green Swamp, 1910-1930
This is a selection of historical photographs depicting the Waccamaw Lumber Company's logging and lumber operations in Columbus and Brunswick counties, N.C. They date to the early 20th century, sometime, I would estimate, between 1910 and 1930. They are now preserved, and available for the general public to see, at Duke's David M. Rubinstein Rare Book … Continue reading The Road to Makatoka: Logging the Green Swamp, 1910-1930
The Italian Workers: The Life and Times of the Immigrants who Built North Carolina’s Railroads
In 1920 an Italian immigrant named James Torsigno-- a railroad construction worker-- was unjustly accused of murder in Belhaven, N.C.. His case opened a rare window into the world of the thousands of Italian immigrant laborers that were building railroads in North Carolina in the early 20th century.
The Trouble at the Woodville Convict Labor Camp
Today I am excerpting a passage from a Ph.D. dissertation by Dr. Susan Thomas at UNC-Greensboro. The excerpt focuses on a convict labor strike in Perquimans County, N.C., in 1935 that played a key role in ending the practice of flogging prisoners on chain gangs and in the state's prisons.
The Migrants in the Potato Fields (New Version)
I discovered another forgotten chapter in eastern North Carolina's history while I was exploring the Farm Security Administration (FSA)'s photographs at the Library of Congress-- it is a story about the migrant farm laborers that worked in Camden, Currituck and Pasquotank counties in the last years of the Great Depression.
Minnie Bruce Pratt in Fayetteville, 1975
The celebrated poet, feminist and LGBTQ+ activist Minnie Bruce Pratt passed away earlier this week at the age of 76. To honor her legacy, I’d like to share an excerpt from an oral history interview about her years in Fayetteville, N.C., in 1970s.
At the Boundary between Land and Sea
This is an absolutely iconic photograph of life on the North Carolina coast at the turn of the 20th century. Taken in July 1909, the photograph shows a man standing in a horse-cart on Bogue Sound, east of Swansboro. He is tossing a watermelon to another man who is standing on a scow-built freight boat called the Little Jim.
“For all the Poor People”: Notes on Sarah E. Small & Her Run for the U.S. Congress in 1965
Sarah E. Small of Williamston, N.C. was the first African American woman in North Carolina history to run for the U.S. Congress. When she ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1965, she may even have been the first black woman to do so in American history.
The Magic Lantern Man
In 1893 and 1894, a young African American showman named I. P. Hatch criss-crossed the North Carolina coast and beyond. Using a device called a stereopticon, he shared images of the world's wonders with overflowing crowds from New England to Florida.
The Wreck of the Edward Luckenbach
The ocean-going tug Edward Luckenbach wrecked just north of the North Carolina-Virginia Line on Good Friday 1915. Fifteen men drowned that day. One of the two survivors was the second mate, Cicero Goodwin, of Cedar Island, N.C.
The Griot of Topsail Sound
Curtis Hardison’s new book Griot: The Evolution of Edgecombe tells the story of a little African American community near Topsail Island called Edgecombe. Hardison grew up there, and his book chronicles his extraordinary journey in search of the community’s roots.
Memories of Plymouth: A Justice Crusader Goes Home
Civil rights attorney and activist James Williams began our tour of Plymouth, N.C., on the banks of the Roanoke River. He had come home, and he had invited me to accompany him on a tour of the small town in Eastern North Carolina where he was born and raised.
Minnie Evans: A Journey from Trinidad
I recently found a transcript of a 1971 interview with Minnie Evans, the African American visionary artist from Wilmington, in which she described her ancestors' journey from slavery in the British colony of Trinidad.
“All this Land is Called Pantego and Neus”
A 1730 map of the NC coast that I found in London reminded me that we can learn a lot from what is on maps but sometimes even more from what is not on them.
David Cecelski 