1653: FIRST RESIDENT

After the Roanoke debacle, attempts to colonize the southern coast of Virginia (soon to be North Carolina) came to a screeching halt. Seafaring folks finally realized that this particular part of the North American coastline was somewhat disagreeable (see “The Graveyard of the Atlantic”). Meanwhile, the Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia, about 130 miles north of Roanoke, had been deemed a more suitable harbor.

By 1624, the colony of Jamestown (located along the Chesapeake Bay) had been firmly established, and over six thousand English settlers had made the journey to North America. Owing to the number of arrivals, as well as the improved living conditions, the colony of Virginia began to expand exponentially. Simultaneously, available land (land not occupied by Native Americans) was becoming scarcer. As the British government began exerting more control over the developing colony, local governments were also formed and property taxes were eventually imposed. Add all of this up—overcrowding, plus lack of land, plus property taxes—and you have a math formula for populating North Carolina!

By the 1650s, Virginians who wanted large tracts of tax-free land began moving south into a region now called Albemarle Sound. Unable to manage lands that were so far removed from centers of government, this coastal region slowly became populated by runaway slaves, debtors, criminals and, of course, settlers who didn’t want to pay taxes. This new area of settlement would eventually become North Carolina.

In 1653, history records show that the first permanent white resident of Albemarle Sound—and therefore, the first permanent white resident of North Carolina—was a fur trader by the name of Nathaniel Batts. Batts established a trading post and, on an uncharacteristic Anglo-Saxon whim, opted to develop a long-standing friendly relationship with the surrounding Indians—and the incoming riffraff.