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History of Wilmington
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Wilmington, North Carolina, was incorporated in 1739/40. It was originally situated on seven hills or bluffs located on the east side of the Cape Fear River about twenty-eight nautical miles from the Atlantic Ocean. It was known as New Liverpool, New Town and Newton before the permanent name of Wilmington was chosen to honor Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, an Englishman and patron of Gabriel Johnston, North Carolina's Governor at the time.
The town was founded by the English, many of whom were maritime businessmen looking for investments in a newly opened area of the Atlantic Coast. Other early inhabitants were the second and third sons of New Englanders who could not inherit family lands in their already settled area of the colonies. Virginians and South Carolinians, many of whom were Huguenots, were also attracted to the region. Other families, who had been living in northeastern North Carolina for a generation or two, removed to southeastern North Carolina and many Welsh families from Pennsylvania relocated to the area during Colonial times. Thousands of Highland Scots entered North Carolina through the port of Wilmington and settled in the counties upstream. In general, these founding families built their homes on land holdings situated along the Cape Fear River and frequented Wilmington to take care of commercial business at the little port and/or legal business at the courthouse.
In 1765, Wilmington was the scene of one of the American Colonies' first successful armed resistance to the Stamp Act. The stamp collector was forced to resign when 500 men gathered near the waterfront to burn Lord Bute in effigy. During the American Revolution, local patriots called Sons of Liberty, butted heads with local loyalists, many who were Highland Scots. In January 1781, Wilmington was occupied by British forces commanded by Major James Henry Craig, who used the city has his headquarters while orchestrating skirmishes in the region. In April 1781, Craig was joined by Lord Cornwallis, who later that month left Wilmington on his fateful march to Yorktown, Virginia where he surrendered. Following the war, Wilmington took pride in being the hometown of several Revolutionary statesmen, including Major General Robert Howe, the only officer south of Virginia to obtain a rank of major general in the Continental Army; Cornelius Harnett, member of the Continental Congress; and William Hooper, signer of the Declaration Independence.
From the Revolutionary War through the first few decades of the nineteenth century, Wilmington evolved into a backwater town. Antebellum growth was hampered by a paucity of good roads on which to bring produce to the little port. Bogs and swamps surrounded the town and local officials did a poor job of building and maintaining bridges and causeways. The port was nearly thirty miles from the mouth of the Cape Fear River, insuring all kinds of navigational problems. The crews of sailing vessels were reluctant to dock in Wilmington where disease was common and there were no medical facilities. Visitors complained about the lack of overnight accommodation and businessmen complained about the lack of banking houses. Fires were common and often devastating. By 1840, the town had less than 5,000 inhabitants, many having left the area for land and economic opportunities in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.
Due to a series of navigational improvements and the invention of steam powered vessels and rail services, Wilmington began to grow. In 1840, Wilmington obtained the status of North Carolina's largest town. In the following two decades it doubled in size, becoming a magnet for New England entrepreneurs and businessmen. Immigrants, especially Germans, found the port city a place of economic opportunity. The port enjoyed steady growth, exports far exceeding imports. Rice, peanuts, flax, cotton, and naval stores left the banks of the Cape Fear River for destinations all over the world. The naval stores industry which consisted of lumber, tar, pitch, rosin and turpentine was, by far, the leading export. An 1860 Wilmington city directory stated that, "Wilmington is the largest exporter of Naval Stores products in the world." During this time, Wilmington also became the terminus of several large railroads, including the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad and the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, the port suffered from losing its export trade, but within a short time it more than made up for it by becoming a home port to the lucrative profiteering business. Referred to as "the lifeline of the Confederacy," the blockade runners brought into Wilmington the necessary military armaments and supplies needed to fuel the Confederate army. Out-going ships carried cotton to foreign ports, especially Nassau and Bermuda. The port of Wilmington was ideally situated for this trade. There were two entrances to the Cape Fear River and in between was Fort Fisher, a formidable earthen-work bastion. Union ships had the impossible task of creating a blockade which stretched 50 miles to cover the two entrances and maintain their distance from the fort. By late 1864, Wilmington was the only Confederate port not captured by Union forces and they turned their full attention to taking it. Fort Fisher fell after two major battles, in December 1864 and January 1865, and within two weeks Wilmington was occupied. With no incoming supplies the Confederacy fell in a short time.
Occupation meant liberation to the area's large number of slaves who realized the benefits of the Emancipation Proclamation on the day that Union troops marched into the city. During Reconstruction, Wilmington became home to large numbers of former slaves and free persons of color seeking employment in lumber mills, cotton compresses, and the naval stores industry. A large black middle-class emerged fostering new community institutions and leaders. Wilmington was home to North Carolina's first black attorney, George Mabson, who was admitted to the bar in 1871; North Carolina's first black doctor, Dr. James Francis Shober, who opened his medical practice in 1878; and the nation's first black professionally trained architect, Robert R. Taylor, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1892.
The town's official status changed from town to city in 1866. The river and railroad related businesses continued to grow throughout the rest of the nineteenth century. Prosperity was apparent in street and wharf improvements and the construction of fine housing and public buildings.
A state-wide white supremacy campaign in 1898 fueled a tragic event in the city's history. On November 10, 1898, an armed conflict took place between the two races, leaving many dead and wounded. It was followed by a reorganization of local government and employment favoring the white man over the black man. Many African-Americans left the city in hopes for a better future elsewhere and Wilmington settled into the era of segregation.
About 1910, Wilmington's status as the state's largest city came to an end when the tobacco and textile towns of the Piedmont region began to grow. In 1909, Wilmington welcomed President William Howard Taft to the "Land of the Long Leaf Pine," with banquets and parades. Cotton exports reached their highest levels just before World War I. During the War, Wilmington had two shipyards that brought work and prosperity to the city. The Roaring Twenties were enjoyed in flamboyant and risqué roadhouses, speakeasies and celebrations, such as the festival called the Feast of Pirates, which disappeared with the crash of the stock market.
In the 1930s, federal relief work provided jobs for the unemployed populace, but by the end of the decade the Great Depression had left the city a shabby reminder of its former self. The 1940s and the Second World War brought an influx of newcomers and a renewed energy to the city. The North Carolina Shipbuilding Company employed thousands of workers, who delivered 243 new ships for the cause. Wilmington was an attractive place for the servicemen stationed at military installations in town and in the surrounding counties. After the war, many decided to relocate to the area. In 1945, the North Carolina Legislature approved the State Port Authority, which provided support for transforming the World War II shipyard into a first class port facility. In 1947, access to higher education became a reality when Wilmington College, now the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, opened its doors. In 1948, several community leaders organized the first North Carolina Azalea Festival, which continues to be a much heralded and well attended spring event.
From 1840 through 1960, Wilmington was a railroad town. Early railroad enterprises eventually merged into what became the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, a national company. The city went into shock in 1955, when the company announced that it was moving its headquarters to Jacksonville, Florida. As many as 300 families left town with the railroad during the 1960s. In response, a group of prominent businessmen formed the Committee of 100 to bring new and more diversified industry to the area. They succeeded during the next two decades and Wilmington began, once again, to grow and prosper. In 1966, Wilmington was named an "All American City."
In 1961, the U.S.S. North Carolina, the only American battleship to take part in all 12 major offensive naval campaigns in the Pacific during World War II, was berthed on the west side of the Cape Fear River across from the central city. A strong preservation movement, begun in the 1970s, brought the old town back to its former elegance and tourism began to flourish. In 1984, a major movie company constructed a thirty-two acre film studio within the city limits, which boosted the local economy. Since that time, hundreds of movies, television shows and commercials have been filmed in the port city. In 1990, Interstate Highway 40 was completed, linking Wilmington and the port to the rest of the state and nation. During the 1990s Wilmington became one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. It is also a haven for retirees, from all over the United States, who enjoy the warm weather, the nearby beaches and southern living in the old city.
Prepared by Beverly Tetterton, Special Collections Librarian, New Hanover county Public Library, Wilmington, NC
Sources: Chronicles of The Cape Fear River, 1660-1916, by James Sprunt. Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1916. Wilmington, Port of North Carolina, by Alan D. Watson. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1992. Cape Fear Adventure, An Illustrated History of Wilmington, by Diane Cobb Cashman. Woodland Hills, CA: Windsor Publications, 1982. Strength Through Struggle, The Chronological and Historical Record of the African-American Community in Wilmington, North Carolina, 1865-1950, by Bill Reaves. Wilmington: The New Hanover County Public Library, 1998. Five Years of North Carolina Shipbuilding, by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, 1946.
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