Bertie County: An Eastern Carolina History (NC) (Making of America) [Paperback]

Arwin D. Smallwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2002

The lives of the Native American, African, and European inhabitants of Bertie County over its 400 years of recorded history have not only shaped, but been shaped by its landscape. One of the oldest counties in North Carolina, Bertie County lies in the western coastal plains of northeastern North Carolina, bordered to the east by Albemarle Sound and the tidewater region and to the west by the Roanoke River in the piedmont. The countyís waterways and forests sustained the old Native American villages that were replaced in the eighteenth century by English plantations, cleared for the whites by African slaves. Bertie Countyís inhabitants successfully developed and sustained a wide variety of crops including the ìthree sistersîócorn, beans, and squashóas well as the giants: tobacco, cotton, and peanuts. The county was a leading exporter of naval stores and mineral wealth and later, a breadbasket of the Confederacy. Bertie County: An Eastern Carolina History documents the long history of the region and tells how its people, at first limited by the landscape, radically altered it to support their needs. This is the story of the Native Americans, gone from the county for 200 years but for arrowheads and other artifacts. It is the story of the African slaves and their descendants and the chronicle of their struggles through slavery, the Jim Crow era, and the Civil Rights Movement. It is also the story of the Europeans and their rush to tame the wilderness in a new land. Their entwined history is clarified in dozens of new maps created especially for this book, along with vivid illustrations of forgotten faces and moments from the past.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bertie County native Arwin D. Smallwood is an associate professor of history at Bradley University. With a scholarís skill and a nativeís insight, Dr. Smallwood, whose previous works were well received in the academic community, establishes with this new volume his merit as a popular historian.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (October 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073852395X
• ISBN-13: 978-0738523958
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,656,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)