Which europeans built settlements in the northeast

Many ships ran aground in the shallow waters near these islands. The Great Dismal Swamp , poor roads, and rivers that were difficult to navigate also made traveling difficult. But settlers did find ways to migrate into the area. Others may have come to Carolina by ship, sailing from other colonies along the Atlantic coast and passing through the Outer Banks at Currituck and Roanoke Inlets. In the late s some settlers began crossing the Albemarle Sound to settle in the middle Coastal Plain , which stretches from the Albemarle Sound to present-day Duplin and Onslow Counties.

By they had settled along the Pamlico River in Bath County. More settlers traveled down the coast to settle in present-day Craven County by , Carteret County by , and Onslow County by These settlers included people from the Albemarle, Virginia, Maryland, and New England as well as immigrants from England.

Like those who settled in the Albemarle, these people hoped to profit by farming the colony's fertile land and by trading with the Native Americans.

French, German, and Swiss people also settled in the middle Coastal Plain. Many French Huguenots had settled in Virginia. But as the population in Virginia grew, land became more scarce. As a result, some Huguenots moved to Carolina. One group settled at the head of Pamlico Sound in , and another settled along the Trent River around or Swiss people and Germans from the Palatinate also came to present-day North Carolina.

The Swiss were fleeing religious persecution, and the Germans were fleeing war, cold winters, and poverty. In , under the direction of Baron Christoph von Graffenried , the Swiss and Germans created and settled the town of New Bern and other areas near the joining of the Neuse and Trent Rivers. Immigration to the middle Coastal Plain increased afterward because the war reduced the threat of Indian attacks on settlers. In the mids, the first permanent settlers arrived in the area around the lower Cape Fear River.

Moore had come to North Carolina to help fight the Tuscarora Indians. He became interested in settling in the Cape Fear area and encouraged others in South Carolina to settle there as well.

Instead, he granted this land to settlers who left South Carolina to settle in North Carolina. The settlers from South Carolina were fleeing economic depression, high taxes, and political unrest in their colony. Most settlers were attracted to this region by vast amounts of unclaimed land that were available and by commercial opportunities offered by the Cape Fear River. Since the Cape Fear River was the only deep river in the Coastal Plain that emptied into the ocean, large ships could travel it to the ports of Brunswick and Wilmington.

As a result, settlers could send their goods to market and could trade with other colonies and with Europe more easily. The Scotch-Irish were fleeing high rents, heavy taxes, and famine in Ireland. Lowland Scots, often merchants, also came to North Carolina.

While some went north to the Albemarle , many went to Wilmington to improve their fortunes. Highland Scots immigrated to North Carolina as well. The first group arrived in Many more came in the following years, especially in the s and s. Some of the Highland Scots may have been political refugees fleeing Scotland after a failed uprising against the English. But most wished to escape the high rents, unemployment, and poverty in their country.

African Americans , most of whom were slaves, greatly added to the population of the colony. White Virginians and South Carolinians who immigrated to North Carolina often brought slaves with them. Slaves were also brought from abroad. Available records of slaves imported from to show that The origin of the remaining 4. Most slaves lived in the lower Cape Fear area, where early immigrants from South Carolina brought the plantation culture with them.

Though most settlers lived on small farms, some settlers owned large tracts of land and large numbers of slaves. These plantations produced most of the colony's rice, indigo, and exportable naval stores. The fertile land in this area and the closeness of the Cape Fear River made trade with other colonies and with Europe profitable. These factors encouraged the plantation culture here.

Slaves were not as common in the Albemarle and middle Coastal Plain for a number of reasons. First, just as the Dismal Swamp and poor roads made travel and immigration by land difficult, they also made importing slaves by land difficult. Also, the dangerous Outer Banks and the absence of a deepwater port discouraged importing them by sea. Second, getting goods to market was difficult. The rivers in these areas emptied into sounds, not the ocean, and ports along the rivers were located far inland.

This meant that boats required more time to reach port, to pick up or deliver cargo, and to return to the ocean. Because getting goods to market was so difficult, most settlers could not make money by raising crops for export and did not need slaves.

Though some did grow wheat and tobacco for export, many lived as subsistence farmers. Differences in geography, economic interests, and settlement patterns divided the Coastal Plain and helped make each subregion different. Swamps, rivers, and poor roads made transportation, trade, and contact between them difficult. Along the Arkansas River, the longlot system prevailed during the Spanish regime — and maybe earlier.

Even with the move upriver and the longlot system, agriculture still did not become the focus of economic activity at Arkansas Post. Most of those who were most involved in agriculture were also merchants.

By the last two decades of the eighteenth century, major farming activity centered around three French farming families who arrived from Illinois in , one of which built the first flour mill at the post, and five German Protestant families who arrived soon after.

A small gentry class, headed by the commandants, led the post. The commandants were the civil and military judges of the post but usually remained in residence only three to four years. This class of gentry was descended from the troupes de la marine , French colonial soldiers, and their families who formed a colonial aristocracy loyal to the French king and the governor of the colony.

The Spanish regime also cultivated its form of a loyal military class. The military gentry were well educated and refined and in order to attract them to outposts, the government granted them the privilege of trading with settlers and neighboring Indians. Often officers asked for and received a trading monopoly with an Indian tribe.

Most of all, they were the most prosperous merchants who were considered the social equals of the military officers and were often given the respect due to the gentry. At any time, however, there were only four or five of these men. By the end of the colonial era in , Arkansas Post itself, with a population of nearly , was an ethnically and racially diverse community.

At least five languages—French, Spanish, German, English and Quapaw—as well as other Indian languages, were spoken at the post. Most slaves were African or of African descent, but a few, especially in the early years of the post, were Indian.

The Spanish, however, outlawed the enslavement of Indians. In , there were fifty-six slaves at Arkansas Post, some of whom worked in the farm fields. By the late eighteenth century, most Arkansas Post farmers owned a few slaves for field work. Slaves, as well as free blacks and mulattoes, also worked as domestics, artisans, and workers in the fur and skin trade—dressing and packing hides and loading carts and boats. Although there was much diversity in interracial marriages, most unions were between Quapaw women and French men.

Besides Quapaw, church records reveal Osage and Kansas from the prairies and plains to the west; Abenaki, who had moved from northern New England; Cherokee from the southeast, and Delaware from the northeast.

The records mentioned several from the Padouca or Padot nation, the name the French gave to some Plains Indians. Early in the eighteenth century, the name Padouca referred to Plains Apaches, but by the s, the time of most of the records, the term usually referred to Comanche. One woman, Marie Anne, was identified as a Laitanne, another band of the Comanche.

Many of these women were captives who had then been given to French men engaged in the Indian trade. Among the captives who became Arkansas wives were two women from New Mexico.

Two of the Anglo-Americans were from Pennsylvania and Maryland. There were occasions when two metis were married, but there is only one record of the marriage of two Indians: Marie, an Abenaki, and Jean Baptiste Sans Cartier, a Comanche. Links between members of the metis community were strengthened as they participated as witnesses and godparents in the sacramental rituals of the church. New Posts and the Louisiana Purchase In the s, the Spanish colonial government also realized the need for an additional post on the Ouachita River between the posts at Arkansas and Natchitoches.

The settlement at St. Louis de Caddodoches had been abandoned in except for a small garrison of soldiers, and there was no colonial governmental presence on the upper Red or Ouachita rivers. By , he had moved downriver to establish the Poste du Ouachita, later known as Fort Miro, on the present site of Monroe, Louisiana. Ecore a Fabri was just one place where Ouachita hunters established caches to store and hide their bounty and rendezvous to trade along the river. The hunters were of many nationalities besides French, and they competed with numerous Indian hunters.

They went up the Ouachita River and its tributaries to the Ouachita Mountains and the hot springs and to the numerous game-attracting salt licks of the Saline River. These men hunted in a region that had changed little since the survivors of the La Salle expedition wandered and hunted across southern Arkansas. The tradition of hunting continues in those forests and river bottoms. The United States gained control of the east bank of the river, and the Spanish moved their east bank garrisons across the river.

As part of the trans-river transfer, San Fernando de las Barrancas was moved to present-day Crittenden County and renamed Campo de la Esperanza Hopefield. Benjamin Fooy, a Dutchman who served Spanish Louisiana as an Indian agent and interpreter, supervised the establishment of the new garrison. Arkansas once again peacefully changed governments and was now a part of the young republic. For additional information: Arnold, Morris S. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, Bolton, Herbert, ed.

Athanase de Mezieres and the Louisiana-Texas Frontier, — Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company, DuVal, Kathleen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Faye, Stanley. Hudson, Charles.

Athens: University of Georgia Press, Key, Joseph Patrick. Scott, Robert J. Toudji, Sonia. Usner, Daniel H. West, Cane W. Whayne, Jeannie, ed. Honor or memorial gifts are an everlasting way to pay tribute to someone who has touched your life.

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Become a Volunteer Involve Students. Other Online Encyclopedias Other Resources. Lesson Plans History Day Volunteers Donors. European Exploration and Settlement, through The region that became Arkansas was unknown to Europeans until the s.

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Practice: Native American societies before European contact. Pre-colonization European society. African societies and the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade.