Albemarle Region (N.C.) -- History; North Carolina -- History
The first encounter between our sturdy Anglo-Saxon forefathers and the
red man of the forest occurred in 1666, two years after William
Drummond took up the reins of government in Albemarle. After this
trouble little is recorded, nor is Pasquotank nor any of her precincts
mentioned in reference to the Indian War. But as the majority of the
settlers in North Carolina then lived along the shores of Little River
and the Pasquotank, we may feel sure that the men of this county were
prominent in subduing their savage foes, who, as Captain Ashe records,
"were so speedily conquered that the war left no mark upon the infant
settlement."
From then until the terrible days of the Tuscarora Massacre of 1711, the
county, and Albemarle as a whole, rested from serious warfare; but these
years can hardly be termed peaceful ones for the settlers in this
region. The Culpeper Rebellion, the dissatisfaction caused by the
tyrannical and illicit deeds of Seth Sothel, the disturbance caused by
Captain Bibbs, who claimed the office of governor in defiance of
Ludwell, whom the Lords had appointed to rule over Carolina, and the
Cary troubles, all combined to keep the whole Albemarle district in a
state of confusion and disorder for many years.
But all of these quarrelings and brawlings were hushed and forgotten
when in September, 1711, the awful tragedy of the Tuscarora Massacre
occurred. Though the settlers south of Albemarle Sound, in the vicinity
of Bath and New Bern, and on Roanoke Island, suffered most during those
days of horror, yet from the letters of the Rev. Rainsford and of
Colonel Pollock, written during these anxious days, we learn that the
planters north of the sound came in for their share of the horrors of an
Indian uprising that swept away a large proportion of the inhabitants of
the colony, and left the southern counties almost depopulated.
Though nearly paralyzed by the blow that had fallen upon the colony,
which, in spite of difficulties, had been steadily growing and
prospering, the officers of the government as soon as possible began to
take steps to punish the Tuscaroras and their allies for the unspeakable
atrocities committed by them during the awful days of the massacre, and
also to devise means for conquering the savage foes who were still
pursuing their bloody work. All the able-bodied men in the State were
called upon to take part in the warfare against the Indians. But so few
were left alive to carry on the struggle, that Governor Hyde was
compelled to call upon the Governor of South Carolina and of Virginia to
come to his aid in saving the colony from utter extinction. South
Carolina responded nobly and generously. Virginia, for various reasons,
sent but little aid to her afflicted sister colony. For two long years
the war continued, until at last the Indians were conquered, the
surviving hostile Tuscaroras left the State, and peace was restored to
the impoverished and sorely tried colony.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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