I found the letters in an old book called Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars. Published in Boston in 1902, the book chronicles the life of a Civil War nurse named Mary Phinney von Olnhausen and it caught my attention because she spent two years at Union army hospitals here on the North Carolina coast.
Love in the Archives
A Forgotten People: Bohemian Oyster Shuckers on the North Carolina Coast, 1890-1914
From 1890 to at least 1914, thousands of Central and Eastern European immigrants worked in oyster canneries on the North Carolina coast. Typically recruited in Baltimore, they all came to be known as “Bohemians,” though they had actually immigrated to the United States from many different parts of Europe.
A Shoebox Full of Chicken and Biscuits
At the Othmer Library in Brooklyn, N.Y., I found a story that I thought spoke in a moving way to the history of Eastern North Carolina and the Great Migration-- and especially to the historic ties between the region's African American communities and New York City.
A Moment for Noam Chomsky
A couple weeks ago, a British newspaper broke the story that the acclaimed MIT professor emeritus Noam Chomsky had suffered a serious stroke late in 2023. Even though I knew that Professor Chomsky was 95 years old, the news stunned me. None of my teachers meant more to me.
“A Collection of Log Huts, Inhabited by Fishermen”: Stumpy Point, 1888
Traveling down Pamlico Sound in 1888, a New York Times correspondent found "a collection of log huts, inhabited by fishermen" at Stumpy Point, N.C. He wrote, "The ground on which these huts are built is so boggy that the lowest tier of bunks . . . is generally half full of water."
The Road to Mashoes
Today I am focusing on the history of Mashoes, a fishing village, now almost gone, that sits on a remote and solitary hammock on the mainland of Dare County, North Carolina, in a place of breathtaking beauty.
A Research Note: Keeper Henry Berry and the Cape Fear River Lights (by Debbie Mollycheck)
Today I want to share a research memo on Henry Berry, an African American waterman who was a keeper of the Lower Cape Fear River Lights from 1885 to 1920. The memo's author is Debbie Mollycheck, an attorney with an expertise in-- and a family connection to-- the history of the U.S. Lighthouse Service’s Sixth District.
Range Lights, Buoy Depots, and Gas Works: Photographs from the National Archives at College Park
Today I would like to share a collection of historical photographs from the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. They were taken by inspectors and other personnel of the United States Lighthouse Board (1852-1910) and its successor agency, the United States Lighthouse Service (1910-1939), in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“As Long as a Star Can Be Seen”: Remembering the Plymouth Massacre
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.
David Cecelski 