Thursday, April 24, 1980
Albemarle Colony Natives Believed Youthful, Haunted By Early Death
(Fifth of a Series)
By Dr. Tom Parramore
Early Albemarle, seedbed
of the Carolina colony-twhat
kind of a place was it? Three
hundred years ago it was
being ballyhooed in pam
phlet literature in England
as “one of the most beautiful
countries in the world.” It
was hailed in Paris and
London as superior even to
Virginia in “Health, Fer
tility, and Mildness of
Winters.”
In recent decades, early
Albemarle was dubbed by
noveliist Inglis Fletcher as
“Raleigh’s Eden”. A land,
sings novelist Don Tracy
still more recently, of
“game in abundance,
waters full of fish, skies
clouded with pigeons,
marshes teeming with
ducks.”
But the reality of
Historic Tour Os Halifax
CONTINUED FROM 6-B
Halifax State Historic Site
at Halifax. This was the
early river port town of
Roanoke Valley. Here on
April 12, 1776, North
Carolina’s Fourth
Provincial Congress
unanimously adopted a
document later called the
“Halifax Resolves”,
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“Raleigh’s Eden” seems far
different in researchers
presently being conducted
for the Alliance for
Progress. What the
“Heritage project” his
torians are finding is that
the Albemarle colony ap
pears to have been closer to
philosopher Thomas Hob
bes’s description of what life
would be like in a state of
nature. It would be, he
wrote, “solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish and short.”
If those words seem
harsh when applied to the
Albemarle colony of the
seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries,
consider the likelihood of a
long life in old Albemarle.
Mortality rates are difficult
to compile, but there is
evidence that most parents
died leaving small children.
Probably less than one
which was the first official
action by an entire colony
recommending in
dependence from England.
The gambrel roof Owens
House is the oldest building
in the complex, dating circa
1760. The Sally-Billy House
is an elegant example of a
Federal style plantation
constructed between the
1790’s and the 1820’s. There
are several other buildings
of historical interest, and a
visitor center. Hours are:
CARD OF THANKS
I would like to extend a
personal thank you to the
Sheriffs Dept., Edenton-
Chowan Rescue Squad,
Wildlife agents and all of the
people involved in the
search for my boat on
Monday morning of April
14th. Aleta and I greatly
appreciate you rescuing us
and ending a cold and
miserable experience.
Sincerely,
Douglas Smith
Pd.
native of the colony in four
lived to his or her twenty
sixth birthday. A typical
family included children
from several previous
marriages. The population
must therefore have been a
youthful one haunted by the
spectre of early death.
The existing early records
leave little doubt as to why
the life of the Albemarle
settler was likely to be brief
and insecure. It was
because of poor diet and
raging diseases. In the case
of women, hard labor and
the rigors of frequent
pregnancy and births were
added hazards. Few
families enjoyed the luxury
of a slave or indentured
servant and the shortage of
labor was chronically acute.
In the first half-century of
the Albemarle colony, say
1660 to 1710, disease and
Tuesday through Saturday,
9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.;
Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 P.M. No
admission charge.
Historic Murfreesboro is a
short distance from Halifax.
The William Rea Store, built
in 1790, is the oldest com
mercial brick structure in
North Carolina. The
building is restored and
houses a museum. Richard
Jordan Gatling, inventor of
the Gatling gun, was bom
nearby, and the museum
contains a Gatling gun and a
room with woodwork from
the Gatling plantation.
Special tours with informed
guides may be arranged for
groups by writing: Mur
freesboro Historical
Association, Post Office Box
3, Murfreesboro, North
Carolina 27855.
A visit to these reminders
of our past is a journey long
remembered. It stirs many
things in the mind. But
perhaps more than
anything, it allows the
visitor to learn about the
area, the history of the state
and country, and in many
cases, the visitor’s own
being.
* Approximate Mileages
$ North Carolina Welcome
Center on 1-85 at Norlina
(Virginia line):
Halifax 55 miles
Murfreesboro 80 miles
Bath 145 miles
Edenton 140 miles
North Carolina Welcome
Center on 1-95 at Roanoke
Rapids (Virginia line):
Halifax 18 miles
Murfreesboro 40 miles
Bath 110 miles
Edenton 80 miles
THE CHOWAN HERALD
inadequate diets carried off
infants and adult at
demoralizing rates.
Winter was a harsh time
in the Albemarle- whatever
might be side of the mild
ness of southern winters
because cattle and hogs had
to be allowed to forage for
themselves in woods and
swamps. This meant the
want of milk and fresh meat
for months at atime. The
cattle might do well enough
Poor Management Is Charged
CONTINUED FROM 3-B
said today.
Operation Overcharge is
an organization formed by
the Chambers of Commerce
of Northeastern North
Carolina to fight Vepco on
its exorbitant electric rates.
The study, paid for by
customers as part of Vep
co’s general operating
expense, was conducted by
Hill & Knowlton, a New
York public relations firm.
Among other things, it
found:
1. Because of its heavy
reliance on oil and nuclear
power, Vepco has attracted
a concentrated share of the
national debate on these
issues.
2. Members of the news
media complained of con
flicting information and
information slanted to suit
the company.
3. Vepco executives too
often blamed problems on
politicians or regulatory
bodies and never admitted
the company made a
mistake.
Attend The Church Os Your Choice This Sunday
fas, Motf :fj; f
... ' . DANIEL AND THE »POL BEL
' AS PROMISED, HERE IS THE OTHEC?
OLDEST "DETECTIVE" STORY FPOM THE
X APOCRYPHA. CYRUS, THE KING, EACH
64 JW® DAY PROVIDED THE IDOL BEL W/TH
p 0 fT ittijjj BUSHELS OF FINE F LOUR, MANY SHEEP,
AND FIFTy GALLONS OF WINE, BE -
. // CAUSE THIS WAS THE GOP CYRUS
\ i worshipped, when the king asked
W■- Will A PANIEL to WORSHIP THE I POL, DANIEL
A i i F't^ / //W fifiwKW* lie KNEW IT WAS HIGH TIME TO EXPOSE THE
J§ A M Twi fake gop and the seventy priests
i mm. JhL /r. '/^-rgDH^VWHO MADE A FINE LIVING AS THE
/$ it* rtf t Vs ' -vUS REPRESENTATIVES OF BEL. CyRUS
M -y •W/ '/l- 'imb believep that bel was really a
. JaOy/ :*mMR living god because all the food
k xXf,?Wm£mßoxt, . <i$WJ/yqfflk that was provipep was ALWAy s
'iooß ,C? fff j> "‘ijjj/Mm/:/ CONSDMEP OVERNIGHT, pan lel knew
aMIV.VJffi r JS^~ S^Jta 7 |II PARN well that it was the priests
!MkC''liWSay .1 .. AND THEIR FAMILIES WHO DID ALL
BUT HOW TO EXPOSE^
WAS^<LORP©ODIwHOM'QANU EL^
W| WORSHIPPEP/ eow HE ACCOMPLISHED
' ReK*RHT / c3 V "WIS FEAT IS DULY RECORDED IN
H well worth reading-itcertainly
■ l( Hi 11 fm&Jn vfl establishes daniel as a first
'v~ s, t ill H> :< MMZ 77 - , M a 111 grade detective along with
" I I - tRHI Hf V ' J ’: f I THE BEST OF THEM iSOGO TO IT-READ
""’jfw I ! JJ ANP SEB ,F PON,T AGREE /
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M6XT WgfK * BIBLE SMUGGLING—TODAY
SAVE THIS FOR YOUR YOUR SUNDAY SCHOOL SCRAPBOOK
Copyright, 1978. John A. lehti Distributed by Linage-Plus, P.O. Bo* 884 Middletown. N. Y. 10940
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iquipnent Nvwh
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by foraging on their own but
there was usually no, feed to
enable the farmer m
his herd close to hofne.'™*’ 1
If winter was a difficult
time, early Albemarle
summers were misery
compounded. Food might be
plenty but if spoiled quickly.
Practically every settler of
whatever race or age could
expect a seige of malaria
before summer’s end and
these repeated attacks kept
4. The utility has not
demonstrated enough
concern for the risks the
public perceives in con
nection with nuclear power.
5. Vepco’s public affairs
staff has been too crisis
oriented while devoting too
little time to a positive
communications program.
“That study cost a lot of
money and should not have
been paid for by customers,
but it hit the nail on the
head,” Little said.
“Vepco is in a lot of
trouble.” “Its poor
management and im
prudence has brought the
rate levels up to a point that
they are a disgrace,” he
said. “They can’t get them
back down, either.” “At
first they said rates would
moderate by early 1980,” he
said. “Then they said 1981.
Now they’re saying 1984.”
“They’re up there and they
don’t know how to get them
down and Northeastern
North Carolina is looking for
another power supplier,” he
constitutions perennially
weak. And weak bodies
l£ were all the more suscep
tible to other serious illness
such as smallpox, yellow
fever and pneumonia.
A striking due to the
primitive quality of life in
early Albemarle was the
prevalence there of the
malady known as yaws.
Where it still flourishes
today, yaws is known as a
disease “of the end of the
explained. “The sooner we
get it the better,” he ex
claimed.
Little said Vepco could
improve its image most by
deciding to sell its system in
Northeastern North
Carolina to another power
supplier and “to get back up
to Virginia and use the funds
to try to get things straight
up there.”
Cfnlbren gre
Our jftogt precious
James E. Taylor
the
Chowan County
Board of Education
May 6, 1980
road.” It is found in the most
inaccessible bush country of
Africa and the remote parts
of the Caribbean Island and
Far Eastern tribal
backlands. In other words,
the very existence of yaws
in a society is proof that
sanitation and hygiene are
virtually unknown. It
bespeaks wholesale ill
health and squalid living
conditions. So it is
significant that Albemarle
court records show yaws
infesting both white and
black, poor and well-to-do
among the early colonists.
The emerging picture of
early Albemarle is one of a
society all but arrested in its
development by physical
weakness and personal
insecurity. As a far-flung
frontier of the society
growing up around
Chesapeake Bay, it was
fated to flounder in con
fusion while its nearest
Page 7-B
neighbors- Virginia,
Maryland, and South
Carolina-forged ahead.
The question, then,
becomes that a deciding
how and why it was that
Albemarle survived at all.
Why did not the problems
mentioned above, together
with Indian attack,
hurricane, civil conflict and
other plaques break the
spirit of the Albemarle
remnant and send it fleeing
back to safer places. In the
case of the groups that
settled the lower Cape Fear
in the 1660’5, this is just what
happended. But somehow
the Albemarle group held
on in spite of everything and
become the foundation
stone of a thriving colony by
the mid-eighteenth. Just
how this happened will be
the focus of further in
vestigations sponsored by
Alliance for Progress in its
ongoing projects.