Complex networks in colonial northeastern North Carolina
Date
1999
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This paper discusses the relationships between rural northeastern North Carolina with New England and the resultant influence upon the culture, particularly in the Albemarle Region's cabinetmaking trade. New England dominance of the North Carolina coastal trade continued from the seventeenth century through the American Revolution. Traders and local merchants developed relationships that expedited the exchange of goods. Further, many New Englanders settled in northeastern Carolina and their descendants maintained ties with the northern colonies. Importantly, the bonds between the Quaker communities in Perquimans County, North Carolina, in southside Virginia, in Rhode Island, and elsewhere in the colonies provided a conduit for trade and cultural exchange, involving correspondence, intervisitation, and even intermarriage. The religious, familial, and mercantile connections of the North Carolina Albemarle with New England, Virginia, and other regions contributed to a complex society and economy that permitted and encouraged sophistication in furniture.