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William Tryon, "A Land of Opportunity"
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(Fruit Trees, A Description of North Carolina, East and West)
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North Carolina
Brunswick on Cape Fear River
July ye 26th, 1765
My Dear Sir:
I most gratefully received the happiness you conferred on me the 5th Ins: by your letter bearing date the 12th Feby last, accompanied with a most acceptable present, a Gold Box with the Picture of an invariable friend, as well to my family, as myself. You could not have sent me a more acceptable present; and for which you have my most sincere acknowledgements.
Your particular detail of your affectionate and steady conduct in adjusting the intricate state of the affairs of my Mother, and the agreement she has entered into with my Brother for the sale of my Hobby Horse Norbury, gives me great satisfaction from the evident necessity of such a proceeding. Your good offices on this, and every other occasion claim as they merit, more than I am able to repay you . . .
The garden has nothing to Boast except Fruit Trees. Peaches, Nectr Figgs and Plumbs are in perfection and of good Sorts. I cut a Musk Melon this week which weighed 17 1/2 Pounds. Apples grow extremely well here I have tasted excellent Cyder the Produce of this Province. Most if not all kinds of garden greens and Pot herbs grow luxuriant with us. We are in want of nothing but Industry & skill, to bring every Vegetable to a greater perfection in this Province. Indian Corn, Rice, and American Beans (Species of the Kidney Bean) are the grain that is Cultivated within a hundred and fifty Miles of the Sea Board at which distance to the Westward you begin to perceive you are approaching high ground, and fifty Miles farther you may get on tolerable high Hills. The Blue Mountains that Cross our Province I imagine lay three Hundred Miles from the Sea. Our Settlements are carried within one Hundred Miles of them. In less than twenty years or perhaps in half the time inhabitants may Settle at the foot of these Mountains. In the Back or Western Counties, more industry is observed than to the Eastward, the White People there to, are more numerous than the Negroes. The Calculation of the Inhabitants in this Province is one hundred and twenty Thousand White & Black, of which there is a great Majority of White People. The negroes are very numerous I suppose five to one White Person in the Maritime Counties, but as you penetrate into the County few Blacks are employed, merely for this Simple reason, that the poorer Settlers coming from the Northward Colonies sat themselves down in the back Counties where the land is the best but who have not more than a sufficiency to erect a Log House for their families and procure a few Tools to geta little Corn into the ground. This Povery prevents their purchasing of Slaves, and before they can get into Sufficient affluence to buy Negroes, their own Children are often grown to an age to work in the Field. not but numbers of families in the back Counties have Slaves from three to ten, Whereas in the Counties on the Sea Coast Planters have from fifty to 250 Slaves. A Plantation with Seventy Slaves on it, is esteemed good property. When a man marries his Daughters he never talks of the fortune in Money but 20 30 or 40 Slaves is her Portion and possibly an agreement to deliver at stated Periods, a Certain number of Tarr or Turpentine Barrels, which serves towards exonerating the charges of the Wedding which are not grievous here.
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(North Carolina's Forest Products)
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I suppose you will expect to be informed what return is Made for the expence of Supporting such a Number of Slaves in the Province. Their chief employ is inthe Woods & Fields, Sowing and attending and gathering in the Corn. Making of Barrels, Hoops, Staves, Shingles, Rails, Posts and Pails, all which they do to admiration, Boxing of Pine Trees to draw off the Turpentine, Making of Tarr kills [kilns] which is a good deal after our manner of making a Charcoal Pitt, excepting they have a Subterraneous passage to draw off the Tarr as the fire forces it from the Lightwood in the Kiln. Lightwood I understand it to be as follows. When a Tree has been blown down or Cut. The Turpentine that is in the tree, in a few years retires to all the knotty parts of the said Tree. These they Cut up in small strips and will form a Tarkiln so large that when set on Fire, will run from 6, 7, 8, or 1000 Barrels of Tar. These splinters are so loaded with Bitumen that they will burn like a Candle; it is a usual thing to carry a Torch of Light Wood at night as you Europeans do flam beaus. The above are the articles we export Beside Deer Skins, Barrels of Port, Beef, Bees Wax, Tallow &tc. Great Quantity of Lumber is Shipped to the West Indies. We have in the Creeks and Branches of this River of Cape Fear from 36 to 40 Saw mills, each with two Saws, and upon an honest Medium, each Mill saws two hundred Thousand feet of Timber. They could do a thousand more but most of them in the Summer Months are obliged to lay Still for want of Water. This Article would make a fine remittance to Great Britain if a Bounty was allowed on the importation. The Pine (as Mr. Hawks the Master Builder I took over with me from England, and who is a very able Worthy man) says is Vastly Superior to the Norway Pine, for the Decking of Ships, as it is more Solid and filled with Turpentine which makes it very durable. He is Positive that a Ship's Deck laid of the yellow Pine of this Province will last at least as long as two decks of the Norway Pine. The Shingles made for Exportation are made of Cypress, and are Sold tthe best at 9s Sterling per Thousand.
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--William Tryon, Governor of North Carolina in 1766, letter to a relative;
from William S. Powell, ed. (1980), Correspondance of William Tryon and Other Selected Papers. I. (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History), 136; 139-40;
in Clairborne, Jack; and Price, William, eds. Discovering North Carolina: A Tar Heel Reader. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press): 16-19.
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Questions for Thought: |
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What groups are counted in the population? Are there any groups not counted? Why might that be? Are the demographics similar in nearby states, such as South Carolina and Virginia (that is, is the population in these states equally, more, or less dense, and are Whites and Blacks in the same proportions; how can you find out this since the populations of other states are not described in the letter?
- How far are the most Westward settlements from the Coast based on Tryon's information? How far will these settlements extend later? In what year will these settlements reach the mountains? Do you think Tryon expects the settlements to ultimately extend up the mountains too? Why or why not?
- What kind of people live near the coast? Nearer to the mountains? What causes different groups to get land in different parts? Where does Tryon find the people more industrious? What might be different about the attitudes of the coastal and western peoples? What are some things you can think of that pertain to the two groups--which are poor, which rich, which have lots of land to clear, which live on land already cleared? Also, do you think the Negroes feel a sense of ownership? Do you think this affects the Whites they live among? Do you think the Negroes work hard? You might want to compare this with descriptions of Negro labor in other accounts.
- What do you think the people are like towards the center, who have come here from Virginia? What do they grow? Which group are they more like, or are they a little bit like both? (See the poem,"Old Dan Tucker.")
- What are major products of North Carolina?
- Compare the description of 'lighting the darkness' here with Schaw's information on candle making.
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