Abstract:
The authors discuss the importance of waterways for transportation in eastern North Carolina during the 17th- and 18th-centuries. At that time it was the only mode of travel to cover any distance in a reasonable amount of time and remained so until railroads replaced them in the early 19th-century. Bridges and ferries were necessities and were sources of income to their operators, and many farmers and manufacturers relied on water travel to get their products to market.