Grandys story and other slave narratives were used by anti-slavery movements in the United States and Britain to demonstrate the cruelty of slavery. Were you aware of the presence of maroon communities in the Great Dismal Swamp? After spending a few minutes strolling the boardwalk at the Dismal Swamp State Park or paddling the Canal, travelers are pleasantly surprised to find such a beautifully preserved natural area. Settlers of the Albemarle | NCpedia Mosquitoes loved the stagnant water and rotting vegetation, but worse awaited the traveler. This industry eventually led to the creation of the Great Dismal Swamp Canal to transporting the logs from the deep forests, and the canal remains the oldest man-made waterway in America still in use. Because of its unique properties, Virginians have interacted with the Dismal Swamp in many different ways. Take a moment to look through Nikki Bass website and photo gallery, at https://descendantsofthegreatdismal.com, to see the life and light present in her photos. According to Native American legend, the ghost of "a deranged lover searching for his dead sweetheart"3 wanders its grounds. Their plan was to harvest timber and to drain the swamp and use the land for farming. The canal, the oldest continually-operating in the U.S. today, served as an important passage for transporting agricultural products to coastal ports. He became part of the abolitionist movement and even traveled to Europe to speak about his experiences. Washington was a major investor in the Great Dismal Swamp Company, a company that attempted to colonize the swamp by draining it and transforming it into farmland. It humanises them. Each maroon community created housing structures, developed sustainable survival practices, chose certain spaces in the more or less remote parts of the Dismal based on their desired degree of freedom from the deadly outside world, and created communal spaces for gatherings. The Union Camp Corporation, a paper company located in Franklin, Virginia, with substantial land holdings in the region, granted over 49,000 acres of land to the Nature Conservancy in 1973. They cut much of the cypress trees for use in shipbuilding and the cedars for shingles and other products. The most famous legend from the Great Dismal Swamp comes from slightly north of the border in Virginia, where Lake Drummond stretches for five miles through the swamp. The Dismal Swamp Canal was used heavily by the Confederacy during the initial stages of the Civil War, but in 1862 Union forces took control of the waterway. The water of the swamp is also unusually pure, due to high levels of tannic acids from the juniper, gum, and Cyprus trees, which produces an environment vastly different than the surrounding land. The diverse ecosystem boasts communities ranging from bald cypress to red maple and the globally rare Atlantic white cedar. Today, the swamp is a vibrant ecosystem and one of Virginia's most attractive sites to explore. Prior to emancipation, the Great Dismal Swamp served as home to a small number of Maroon communities. The practice of removing oneself from enslavement and slaveholding society to form communities near or far from plantations is known as marronage and was endemic across the Americas, the Caribbean, and other places where slavery was sustained. How did the Dismal Swamp receive its name? At almost 113,000 acres the refuge offers a little bit of everythinga lake, small ponds, sphagnum moss bogs, and marshes, as well as some . The lake's origins are unknown. Florida: University Press of Florida, 2014, pp. These communities began springing up almost as soon as the slaves were brought into the colonies, and the importance of the Dismal Swamp as a place to escape to was widely understood. Maroon communities of formerly enslaved people thrived in the very heart of the Great Dismal Swamp for decades. She enjoys learning about the South and loves reading imaginative, Black Feminist, and experimental literature. Washington directed the surveying and digging of the 5-mile long ditch from the western edge of the Swamp to Lake Drummond, known today as Washington Ditch. Grandy recounted his story throughout his travels and addressed the Worlds Anti-Slavery Convention in London on June 17, 1843. Boaters traveling the interior passageway with a shallow draft might take the dismal swamp canal route, which runs parallel to US Highway 17, when heading south for the winter. Grandy repaid Captain Minner and eventually settled in Boston, where he did a variety of jobs, but was soon at sea again. Company, a predecessor of Union Camp, acquired all the Dismal Swamp Land Companys property in 1909. In 2003, several sites in the Great Dismal Swamp were added to the National Parks Service Network To Freedom, which recognizes 400 sites that were involved in the Underground Railroad. These ditches worked together to move logs out of the Swamp while also draining it. Often referred to as the Dismal Swamp, the Great Dismal Swamp is a big swamp that is situated in the Coastal Plain region between the cities of Norfolk and Elizabeth City, in the southeastern part of Virginia and the northeastern part of North Carolina. After exploring all of the resources, continue to the next page. References to the Great Dismal Swamp and the escaped slaves who settled there started appearing in newspapers and other sources in the 1700s. Upon his death in 2000, an libretto for an opera based on Moore's poem and written to be performed by hand puppets was found among his papers. If you find any errors in this article, please reach out to [emailprotected]. The Great Dismal Swamp, now reduced by draining and development, is managed as a federal wildlife refuge. Self-liberated Black people who fled nearby plantations settled in the swamp from the 17th to mid-19th century and grew their families. But like many other wetlands, it has an important ecological role and is home to many animals and species. Slavery had become widespread, and the swamp became a place for escaped slaves to hide out. 1822 Cross Canal completed In 1763, the company paid $20,000 for 40,000 acres of Swamp property. Grenville Collection, The National Maritime Museum, accessed September 17, 2011. In North Carolina, The Dismal Swamp State Park can be found off of US 17 is South Mills. Privacy Policy & Terms of Service. Many runaways ended up in this desolate location. Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge The Dismal Swamp was the setting for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, but the book never achieved the same level of popularity as Uncle Tom's Cabin. The swamp is one of the largest natural areas in the Eastern United States, with over 100,000 acres protected by state and federal preserves. Wild Paradise: Hope in the Great Dismal Swamp. Southeastern Geographer 61 (1): 14. This self-guided, digital heritage trail includes more than 20 outdoor interpretive signs and monuments, parks, waterways and museums. Many who now live in surrounding cities and communities like Gates County and Skeetertown claim ancestry and traditions passed down from these diverse forebears. This pure water was a favorite of sailors in the region, who found it stayed cleaner for long journeys at sea. Copyright 2023 Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center, Take a powerful and inspiring road trip and explore the sites and stories that celebrate the contributions of African Americans and their significance in the cultural heritage of northeast North Carolina. Take some time to also explore Bass StoryMap titled Indigenous Life on the Nansemond River: Our Story of Cultural Revitalization through River Stewardship.. Your email address will not be published. 1, 2018, pp. The Great Dismal Swamp was known to the Algonquin people for thousands of years. The swamp exhibits a number of unique qualities that made it a source of economic and cultural fascination for centuries. 1803 Thomas Moore wrote THE LAKE OF THE DISMAL SWAMP Great Dismal Swamp - Encyclopedia Virginia The canal is visible in this 1807 sketch running north-south to the east of the lake. 1823 First passage of completely loaded schooner Rebecca Edwards Encyclopedia Virginia946 Grady Ave. Ste. For many millennia before colonization, archaeological evidence shows that Indigenous tribes hunted, foraged, and traded in the swamp, and had assigned it significant cultural value through folktales and other cultural production. 1929 United States Government purchased the Lake Drummond Company Sunday: 1 pm 5 pm [1] Lake Drummond, a 3,100-acre (13 km 2) natural lake, is located in the heart of the swamp. The Great Dismal Swamp played several roles throughout history, such as being a common route for fleeing slaves, and has been mentioned in many works of literature as well. The main office for the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is in Suffolk Virginia. Links also do not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Black bears can be spotted making a meal of fallen acorns on a warm day. Keeping Time: Maroon Assemblages and Black Life in Crisis. The South Atlantic Quarterly 121 (1): 11. The swamp, said Marcus P. Nevius, author of "City of Refuge: Slavery and Petit Marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp, 1763-1856, was "both a place of slave labor's exploitation and a place . 1763 Lake Drummond charted by George Washingtons surveyor William Byrd II, an 18th century planter, is credited with giving the swamp its name on maps during his 1728 expedition to survey the border line between Virginia and North Carolina. Today, Lake Drummond is the hub of activity in the swamp, drawing fishermen, tourists, and boaters, but the refuge does not permit camping. Unlike most other swamps, the Dismal Swamp actually lies above sea level and water drains out of it from the shallow Lake Drummond (seen in this anonymous 1807 map) rather than into it. Colonel William Byrd II was a member of the commission that surveyed the North Carolina/Virginia state line through the Swamp in 1728 and provided the first extensive description of it. Some had timber-supported roofs complete with trap doors that hid all traces of their presence. This route was the most rugged and treacherous route where insects, snakes, and wild animals were abundant. [i] The Great Dismal Swamp was basically a known secret at the time portrayed by white people as a site to be feared and fought, but for those who lived there, it was a site of resistance, survival, and fugitive community-building. At present, the Great Dismal Swamp covers an area of about 1,940 sq. The refuge's resource management initiatives strive to recover and sustain the swamp's natural ecological variety, including its water supplies, native plant types, and animal species. It was to this inhospitable place many runaways came. Author Hubert Davis took the root meaning a bit further. 2020 Virginia Humanities, All Rights Reserved . Thank you. 1818 President James Monroe visited the Dismal Swamp They were determined to build their own self-ruled communities, with landscape and the forces of nature serving as a buffer between their new lives and the society that enslaved them. 1899 Dismal Swamp Canal enlarged in substantially its present form, 1923 Largest Forest fire ever raged for 3 years consuming 150 square miles A "blue" phase occurs near Yakutat Bay, Alaska, and a nearly white population on Gribble Island, British Columbia, and the neighboring mainland. She fiercely believes that orange juice is much better than apple juice. It was put in kegs and would stay fresh a long time. Professor Dan Sayers is a historical archaeologist at American University and a leading expert on the Great Dismal Swamp. Because of the Swamps role as a delta of trade and transit, the Great Dismal Swamp also hosted one of the only known water-based stops on the Underground Railroad. Working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. Bald eagles return from their summer hangouts and can be seen patrolling the lake's edge or perched on a snag along Lake Drummond Wildlife Drive. Colonel William Byrd II, a land surveyor from Virginia, provided one of the first written descriptions of the swamp in the early 1700s. Maroon communities formed on little plots of high ground islands of relatively dry earth that might cover twenty acres or more. Before the days of refrigeration, water from the Swamp was a highly prized commodity on sailing ships. Marronage and the Great Dismal Swamp | AAIHS There were maroons in other British colonies and in Spanish and Portuguese colonies as well. And its understandable why people calledthe swamp dismal. Temperatures can reach over 100 degrees. Required fields are marked *. Below are two literary representations of marronage, Maroons and fugitive. It is viewed by naturalists and other scientists as one of the best outdoor laboratories in the world! Fish & Wildlife Service So it appears that the Great Dismal Swamp is still inspiring people, and that there are more stories about the swamp to be told, and even more ways to tell them. It's easy to get lost in the mazes of islands and waterways. Today the presence of these communities is commemorated in the recently-added Underground Railroad pavilion located on a trail near the Great Dismal Swamp National Park headquarters in Suffolk, Virginia. Conservation groups across the United States began demanding the preservation of the remaining Great Dismal Swamp and the restoration of its wetlands in the mid-20th century, which was recognized as vital habitat for a broad range of birds, animals, plants, and other living things. Lurking in the dark habitat . For millions of years before the Swamp was formed, it was under the sea. The Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp were comprised of different groups. This 22 mile long canal allowed trade between the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. Dr. Sylviane Diouf, a historian of the African diaspora, says subterranean maroon shelters were often ingeniously constructed. The swamp is stunningly beautiful, but also wildly dangerous. Naturalists and other scientists regard it as one of the most outstanding outdoor laboratories in the world. In England in the ninth century, King Alfred based his successful resistance against the Vikings in the marshes of the Somerset Levels, staying on a patch of dry land called the Isle of Athelney, and later Hereward the Wake based his unsuccessful resistance against the Normans in the eleventh century from the Isle of Ely in the Cambridgeshire Fens. [vi] For a better explanation of the presence of still enslaved laborers in Dismal Maroon communities, see Chapter 4: The Documented Great Dismal, 15851860 in Sayers A Desolate Place for a Desolate People, especially pp. 1862 Confederate troops prevented the destruction of the Dismal Swamp Canal Locks It became an important waterway after the construction of the Great Dismal Swamp Canal completed around 1805. The land was so untamed that horses and boats couldnt enter, and the colonists who were filing into the region detested it. For a soul so warm and true; 1825 Erie Canal completed As Nevius notes, a series of conspiracy scares in the region of the swamp in the early 1800s, including Gabriels Conspiracyin 1800 and Nat Turners revoltin 1831, and the ability of fugitives to evade capture in its depths created its reputation as an almost mythical place of enslaved resistance and rebellion.. Spring awaits. The Great Dismal Swamp is one of the few areas on the Atlantic Coast where populations of migratory birds like the Swainsons warbler remain stable. Services It has been used as a backdrop in Harriet Beecher Stowes novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellows poem, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp. In 1842 Moses sailed to London and met with abolitionist George Thompson, who penned Grandys life story. Great Dismal Swamp maroons - Wikipedia More than a century of efforts to exploit the Dismals natural resources through speculative entities like the Dismal Swamp Company and the Dismal Swamp Canal Company altered its hydrology, however, leading to a dramatic reduction in its swampland. It is viewed by naturalists and other scientists as one of the best outdoor laboratories in the world! Experts say anywhere slavery existed, there were people who escaped to live in the wilderness. In this manner, why is it called the Great Dismal Swamp? None other than George Washington was one of the earliest men dedicated to transforming the swamp into something other than a swamp. The swamp also provided an important source of food and revenue to hunters and fishermen. Some even lived in tiny underground shelters that they dug out in wild areas near plantations. Black crown, nape and moustachial stripe border white cheeks and side of neck. The Great Dismal Swamp is not the only place maroon settlements formed. 2018-2019, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. But the cultural and natural treasures of the Great Dismal Swamp lack full protection, and threats like climate change and encroaching development are set to jeopardize them further. Abundant animal life provided food and clothing. Home to the precolonial polities of the Nansemond Indian Nation, the Great Dismal Swamp once served as a trade center for Native nations of the region, including the Algonquian-speaking members of the Powhatan Confederacy to the north, the Iroquian-speaking nations to the south, and the Eastern Siouan and Muscogean-speaking nations who transited from greater distances. Philbrook Museum of Art via Wikimedia Commons. William Grandy, a prominent slave owner in Camden County was Mosess first slave master. Beginning in the 1730s with the Chesapeake Rebellion, the Dismal Swamp became a place of refuge for Black insurgents as well as for African Americans fleeing slaveryand Native Americans who had been driven off their lands. Lake Drummond is a circular body of water, and is one of only two naturally occurring freshwater lakes in Virginia. It exists today as one of the most ecologically sensitive and important areas on the East Coast, a natural carbon sink that plays a critical role in carbon sequestration, and as a repository of another type, holding the stories of the enslaved people who sought refuge in the swamp and claimed it as a place of resistance to slavery. The name, Dismal, comes from the English understanding of swamps and wetlands as wastelands generally bleak, or dismal, and dangerous to civilized humans. Great Dismal Swamp: Descendants of enslaved, Native Americans want George Washington visited the Swamp and formed both the Dismal Swamp Land Company and the Adventurers for Draining the Great Dismal Swamp with numerous other famous Virginians and North Carolinians. The enslaved peoplewho found refuge in the swamp came to be known as maroons (from the Spanish cimarrn, meaning wild or untamed). Mired Memory: Marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp. Social and Economic Studies, vol. To protect themselves, they retreated to communities sheltered by the swamp. The Dismal Swamp Company, founded by several elite colonists including George Washington, sought to use the labor of enslaved people to transform the swamp from a nearly impenetrable natural barrier into the location of a profitable venture. Such islands could each house a few dozen maroons. 1665 Lake discovered by William Drummond, 1728 Dismal Swamp Canal proposed by William Byrd self-emancipated: People who have freed themselves from slavery, usually by running away or purchasing their freedom. Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge contains some of the most important wildlife habitat in the mid-Atlantic region. Loop Map . From there, the Dismal entered popular consciousness as a place of refuge from slavery through works such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellows poem The Slave in the Dismal Swamp and Harriet Beecher Stowes 1856 book Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, which was inspired by the story of Nat Turner. What's in a name? | Great Dismal Swamp - The Virginian-Pilot Perhaps that spirits of the swamp are even reaching out to help others from joining their ranks. These many different histories all intermingled in the swamp, with economies of trade and exchange created and flourishing far beyond the reach of European or American control. Your playlist is stored within your cookies, clearing your browser data may remove your playlist. 1878 Congress sold its shares in the Dismal Swamp Canal Where Is the Great Dismal Swamp? - Quiz | Wonderopolis Safety and Settlement in the Great Dismal Swamp George Washington has a connection. History - Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center The Dismal also served as a particular kind of refuge for people who had fled enslavement: these Maroon communities (a term derived from the Spanish cimarrn: fugitive, fierce, unruly/unruled) thrived in organized townships on the mesic islands in the very heart of the Swamp for decades. The once-notorious panthers are gone, but bears, birds, deer and amphibians are still. Forest, Lake Drummond, William Drummond, Colonial, Governor, Wildlife, George Washington, Dismal Swamp Company, European, , , Maroon, Maroons, National Underground Railroad Network To Freedom Today's Wonder of the Day was inspired by Darreus. 106, no. Look for monarchs making their annual migration and neotropical birds stopping through on their way south. Closed: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Day. Janay Draughn is the MDC Dan Broun Summer Intern. By and far, there are very few manufactured goods that have been found, showing how self-functioning the communities were. The Dismal Swamp Canal is a canal located along the eastern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina in the United States. The Great Dismal Swamp is a geological wonder. The Dismal Swamp was a well-known path and location for freedom seekers. The Dismal Swamp: One Road out of Slavery Took You Straight into the Prothonotary warblers bounce along branches in the forest. But the swamp is also rumored to be haunted. Resident black bears take to their dens, emerging only occasionally on warm days. Snout tan or grizzled; in profile straight or slightly convex. The Dismal Swamp was a known route and destination for freedom seekers. He was enslaved in the region, born in Camden county North Carolina in 1786. But climate change and sea-level rise, along with extraction and human encroachment, pose significant threats to the Great Dismal Swamp and its wildlife. Over 200 species of bird spend at least part of their annual migratory cycle in the Great Dismal Swamp, and nearly 100 species breed on the refuge. Tundra swans and snow geese gather, sometimes in the thousands, to rest on Lake Drummond. Clippings from the Virginia Gazette, Edenton Gazette, and other periodicals contained bulletins promoting the capture of self-emancipated Black people who had fled into the Dismal. 1819 First Lottery held to raise funds for improving the Canal Dismal Swamp Canal - North Carolina History Project A successful waterman, Moses attempted to purchase his freedom three times, but twice was cheated out of his earnings and release. Many freedom seekers decided to seek sanctuary in the Great Dismal Swamp amid a colony of runaways known as maroons. He wrote, The Dismal is a very large swamp or bogg and a horrible desert, the foul damps ascend without ceasing, corrupt the Air, and render it unfit for Respiration. In contrast, George Washington visits the swamp for the first time in 1763 and describes the area as a glorious paradise abundant in wild fowl and game. In the early 1760s, entrepreneurs started the Adventurers to Drain the Great Dismal Swamp, to which Washington belonged. The peatland and old-growth forests of the Great Dismal Swamp are well-suited to absorbing and locking up heat-trapping gases that drive climate change. km. Despite its unattractive name, the area is environmentally , biologically , and historically important. The swamp covers about 190 square miles today, but at its peak, before parts of it were drained and developed, it was around ten times bigger, spanning roughly 2,000 square miles of Virginia and North Carolina. Shortly after the introduction of slavery in 1619, runaway slaves migrated to the swamp in search of safety. Written warnings of coming slave rebellions, and suspicion that they were tied to the Dismal, are also documented. And she's gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp, 3. 1829 Third Lottery held The story of marronage in the swamp largely ended after the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery. Although conditions were harsh, research suggests that thousands lived there between about 1700 and the 1860s. This was the most complex and dangerous route, full of insects, snakes, and wild creatures. Even though the average depth of the lake is only six feet, its unusually pure water is essential to the swamps survival. 1830 North West Canal completed They harvested several cypress trees for shipbuilding and cedar trees for shingles and other items. Why "Dismal"? - Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center 3 22 cm. The Great Dismal Swamp is a geological marvel. 1812 Feeder Ditch completed Washington was a major investor in the Great Dismal Swamp Company, a company that attempted to colonize the swamp by draining it and transforming it into farmland. A quiet time. For joining the movement to save our lands. The Great Dismal Swamp: A Mythical Place of Enslaved Resistance and A beautiful time on the refuge. While some runaways were able to blend in with free blacks, many chose to seek refuge among a colony of runaways (called maroons) in the Great Dismal Swamp. 1974 Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge created And based on archaeological evidence, it appears that the maroons built elevated cabins that they lifted above the moist ground using wooden posts. Great Dismal Swamp: A large marshy area that straddles the eastern section of the border between Virginia and North Carolina. The adventurers quickly learned that the process of emptying the Swamp was huge and abandoned that portion of their strategy to focus on lumbering. The Great Dismal Swamp | Virginia Studies He made a makeshift raft and followed the vision out onto the lake, but drowned in the attempt to reach her. Several hypotheses have suggested the lake's origin, including that the lake was formed by a meteor/comet strike, a fire that burnt a deep hole in the peat soil, or sustained winds during the last ice age that built an artificial barrier of sand that impeded normal drainage. An 1862 painting by the iconic landscape painter Thomas Moran (a white man) depicts the Great Dismal Swamp as a dark and foreboding place. Map is titled Dismal Swamp Canal connecting the Chesapeake Bay with Currituck, Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds and their tributary streams, by D. S. Walton, Civil Engineer, 1867. Courtesy of http://www.learnnc.org. Under these conditions, Byrd is credited with the Dismal name. Believed to be only about 10,000 years in age, the Great Dismal is a wet, forested mantle of peat above a Pleistocene-era ocean bed. Fish and Wildlife Service. Thomas Moran, Slave Hunt, Dismal Swamp, Virginia, 1862, oil on canvas. 1802 William Farange builds first hostelry in Camden County, N.C. This natural treasure emerged as a landform when the Continental Shelf made its last significant shift.
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