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NPS Form 10 - 900 - a OMB No . 1024 - 0018
<br /> ( 8 - 86 )
<br /> United States Department of the Interior
<br /> National Park Service
<br /> NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
<br /> CONTINUATION SHEET
<br /> Section 8 Page 20
<br /> Woodville Historic District
<br /> Bertie County, North Carolina
<br /> Roads were connected to privately- operated river ferries . Even today, the Woodville USGS quadrangle map
<br /> remains almost completely covered with forests and swampland with such names as "Buzzard Point" and
<br /> "Roquist Pocosin . " The Native American word " pocosin" meant " swamp on a hill , " because these areas are
<br /> actually thick beds of peat moss supporting a dense tangle of low plant growth . 12 Only a handful of dwellings
<br /> stand outside of Woodville and the neighboring town of Lewiston .
<br /> The Roanoke River provided a navigable waterway from Weldon east to Plymouth and the Albemarle Sound ,
<br /> giving planters in southern Bertie County a convenient route for transporting the crops grown in this fertile soil
<br /> Virginia . By 1756 Roanoke Valley settlers were growing tobacco and
<br /> to the closest major market in Norfolk,
<br /> shipping it to Tidewater Virginia . Many large plantations developed along - the Roanoke and Chowan Rivers in `
<br /> Bertie County during the 1700s, such as the Capehart family ' s seat, Scotch Hall , at the mouth of the Roanoke
<br /> River, the Norfleet family seat, Woodbourne, at Roxobel , and the Pollock family seat , Runiroi , on the Roanoke
<br /> River . By 1860 , twenty-five Bertie County plantations had 1 , 000 acres or more , the greatest number of large
<br /> plantations of any county in the state . Scotch Hall with its 8 , 000 acres and 300 slaves was the largest plantation
<br /> in Bertie County. By 1800 large scale cotton production had begun . Although tobacco and cotton were the
<br /> 13
<br /> major crops, farms were diversified in corn, potatoes , wheat and livestock ,
<br /> In these plantation villages , planters ' wealth was based on the agriculture and forest products of the fertile
<br /> Roanoke Valley . Topography, soil and climate combined to make the region ideal for growing crops, especially I
<br /> corn and cotton . The lands accumulated by Woodville planters , which contained the dark silty loam of the
<br /> Roanoke River flood plains, were among the most fertile soils in Bertie County . There were also enormous j
<br /> populations of free-ranging swine, an essential factor in the farm economy . They were a principal export
<br /> product, driven overland by the thousands, as well as a product used freely in household consumption . One of
<br /> Whitmel Pugh ' s principal sources of agricultural income in the early 19th century were his vast swine herds,
<br /> whose meat was marketed in Norfolk.
<br /> During the nineteenth century the population of the Roanoke Valley was virtually static . In 1810 Bertie had
<br /> i 1850 i ha 12 851 . B the earl 19th century wealth Upper South planters sought
<br /> 11 , 318 people and n t d y. y ry y pp
<br /> opportunities to invest capital and provide profitable employment for surplus slaves in the cotton and sugar
<br /> growing regions of the southwestern states, such as Louisiana and Mississippi . Woodville ' s small ranks were
<br /> certainly thinned by such out- migration ; members of the Pugh, Thompson , and other Woodville families left for
<br /> the Deep South .
<br /> iz Earley , " The Swamp That Burns , " Wildlife in North Carolina (February 1998) .
<br /> 13 Tyler , " A Brief Sketch of Bertie County , " 1985 ; Mattson , Alexander & Associates , Inc . " Tyrrell County and Northampton
<br /> County Reconnaissance Level Surveys , " 1996 ; Taves , " The Rural Architectural Heritage of Halifax County , North Carolina , "
<br /> 1989 .
<br /> 14 Camp , Irfluence of Geography on Early North Carolina , 7 .
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