This remote part of the world
Subtitle: regional formation in Lower Cape Fear, North Carolina, 1725-1775
By: Bradford J. Wood.
Series: The Carolina lowcountry and the Atlantic world
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Columbia, S.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 344
Subjects: Frontier and pioneer life -- North Carolina -- Fear, Cape, Region; Regionalism -- North Carolina -- Fear, Cape, Region -- History -- 18th century; Land settlement -- North Carolina -- Fear, Cape, Region -- History -- 18th century; Human geography -- North Carolina -- Fear, Cape, Region -- History -- 18th century; Fear, Cape, Region (N.C.) -- History -- 18th century; Fear, Cape, Region (N.C.) -- Social conditions -- 18th century
Description: "Between 1700 and 1775 no colony in British America experienced more impressive growth that North Carolina, and no region within the colony developed as rapidly as the Lower Cape Fear. Totally uninhabited by Europeans in 1700, this isolated corner of North Carolina's southern coast is particularly noteworthy for its relatively late colonization and its rapid rise to economic prominence. First settled in 1725, the region grew to be the most prosperous in North Carolina by 1775. In his study of this eighteenth-century settlement. Bradford J. Wood explores frontier development in a region surrounded by more-established communities. Challenging many commonly held beliefs, he presents the Lower Cape Fear as a prime example for understanding North Carolina - and the entirety of colonial America - as a patchwork of regional cultures." "Employing social history tools used in studies of New England and Chesapeake but seldom applied to colonies further south, Wood examines probate, legal, real estate, and tax records to recreate the lives of 5,000 Cape Fear residents during the era 1725 to 1775. Rarely have such methods of intensive archival research, collective biography, and computer-driven sampling been applied to the writing of Carolina history, and Wood's approach makes for a pathbreaking application in a markedly understudied region."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.