"King George and Broadswords!" The Story of the Battle at Widow Moores Creek
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In 1776, America was a country at war with itself. British soldiers had shot colonial militia at Lexington and Concord, only to be shot in return by Massachusetts farmers and Minutemen on the long march back to Boston. In North Carolina, people were divided between those who wanted to remain loyal to King George III, and those who were ready to break away from Great Britain to form their own nation. North Carolina’s Royal Governor, Josiah Martin, had fled from New Bern’s fabulous Tryon Palace to the safety of a British warship anchored in the Cape Fear River. From there, he made a plan to put down the rebellion in the South with an army of Highlanders. Patriots who wanted a break with England wanted to stop that army. In February 1776, the two sides came together in a brief, fierce clash at a small creek in modern Pender County. It would be the first patriot victory against the British in the South, and the battle’s outcome would shake governments on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This is the story of that clash.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and teaches history in Wilmington, N.C.
Under Three Flags: The Fort Johnston Story
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
There is one place in North Carolina with a history of active service that stretches from our earliest colonial days right up through the War on Terror. Fort Johnston, named after one of North Carolina’s five royal governors, has guarded the Cape Fear since 1748. It has seen service in virtually every war America has fought for more than two and a half centuries, and witnessed everything from Spanish pirates to British redcoats, Confederate soldiers wearing butternut and gray, to modern soldiers supplying the munitions American soldiers need to defend our nation on battlefields across the world. The names of the men associated with Fort Johnston reads like a Who’s Who list of people who played important roles in the history of North Carolina and the nation: Josiah Martin, Major General Robert Howe, Col. James Moore, President James Monroe, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Gen. Nelson Miles, Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Abner Doubleday - all have ties to this one-of-a-kind piece of North Carolina’s colorful past. This is Fort Johnston’s story, one that spans more than 250 years.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
The Yellow Death: Wilmington & The Epidemic of 1862
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
Before the coming of modern medicine, people living near the swampy coastal areas of North Carolina were frequently plagued by diseases that left many sick and dead. One of the worst of these was yellow fever. Carried by mosquitoes, the disease was a mystery to doctors until 1898. That was 36 years too late to save the hundreds of Wilmington residents who perished in the deadly outbreak of 1862. While the Civil War raged throughout the country, and Union warships stood offshore to stop the blockade runners making for the Confederate port at Wilmington, the city was full of soldiers and speculators, sailors, slaves and citizens. Before the yellow fever epidemic ended in November, a full third of Wilmington’s population would be dead. This is the story of a baffling illness that killed more often than not, and of the people who came together to weather the storm of death it brought.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
The Battles for Fort Fisher: The story of the South's largest fort and the terrible struggles to defeat it
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In the Civil War, there was no fort more important than Fort Fisher. Guarding the Cape Fear River and the port at Wilmington, the fort was the largest in the Confederacy. As long as it stood guard over the blockade runners bringing much needed supplies to the South, America’s bloodiest war could drag on and on. By 1864, the Northern generals knew Fort Fisher had to go. This is the story of their attempts to capture the fort, and the story of the brave men on both sides who fought to defend their homes and nations on the sandy beaches of the Cape Fear. The outcome of the battles at Fort Fisher would decide the fate of the nation. Would the Union troops fail, and as a result see the country forever split? Or would they succeed, and finally see North and South once again together as the United States? The answers are inside!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
Pirates of the North Carolina Coast: Being an account of Blackbeard, Bonnet, Low, Lowther, Bellamy, Bonny, Rackham, Vane, Worley, Read, and the villains who sailed with them
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In the Golden Age of Piracy, swashbuckling sea robbers were a terror to merchant ships loaded with the riches of the New World. Men like Henry Morgan, Edward Low, George Lowther, Stede Bonnet, and women like Anne Bonny and Mary Read rampaged through the islands of the Caribbean and along the coast of the American colonies. North Carolina had more than their fair share of dealings with pirates, because North Carolina’s 300-mile coastline was a perfect place for buccaneers to hide. And in many cases, the people of the Carolinas welcomed them! This book tells the story of the those colorful rogues who robbed and pillaged at will, including Blackbeard, that most famous of sea robbers. You’ll also learn what the life of a pirate was really like, and how these thieves of the high seas were nothing like the happy rovers usually seen in the movies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
Plantations: Living and Working on North Carolina's Great Estates
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In the South, the plantation was recognizable as something unique to the lands below the Mason-Dixon Line. In popular imagination, great estates like Orton Plantation on the Cape Fear River, or Drayton Hall in Lowcountry South Carolina, remind modern people of Tara, the grand house of Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone With the Wind." Southern plantations were their own ecosystems, producing virtually everything they needed themselves. In most instances, the work of the plantation was done by the hands of the enslaved until the Civil War brought that institution to an end. Nevertheless, plantations hold a fascination for modern Americans, and the estates of North Carolina offer prime examples of life in a society built on agriculture made possible by chattel slavery. In this book, we introduce readers to what life was like for those who lived it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
1898: The Violent Taking of a Southern City
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In 1898, Wilmington, N.C. was a shining example of what a Southern city could be, with a thriving majority-Black population made up of not just laborers, but also a strong professional and middle class. But when the Fusion movement of the 1890s delivered big wins for Republican candidates across the state, Democrats began plotting to retake power - even if it meant violence to do it. It all came to a head in an insurrection on November 10, 1898, when armed white supremacists took to the streets. When it was over, hundreds of Blacks had been dispossessed and run out of town, a legally elected government had been overthrown in the only successful coup d’etat in U.S. history, and African Americans had been killed in the streets in untold numbers. This is that story.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
The Coastal Chronicles Vol. I
Over more than four centuries, the coastal Carolinas have seen just about everything: Pirates, British redcoats, patriot militiamen, yellow fever, killer storms, blockade runners and mighty forts. We’ve been home to heroes and villains, spies and signers of the Declaration of Independence. We’ve fought Indian wars and built stately plantations. Perhaps in no other part of the country is the history of a people such a part of the regional identity. In the pages of Coastal Chronicles magazine, locals and tourists alike were treated to the stories that make up the rich historical fabric of the Carolina coast. Historically accurate, but told as a storyteller would, the tales in The Coastal Chronicles Volume I and Volume II are delightful stories that educate and entertain at the same time. Native coastal Carolinians read it because who we were is a big part of who we are. Newcomers read it to help in the assimilation process when they choose to make their homes by the Carolina shore. Visitors read it because it tells the stories they love in vivid, compelling detail. Teachers use it to teach local history. Dram Tree Books is pleased to offer in one volume these collection of stories for those who want to keep and preserve the history of one of the country’s most historic coastlines.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR..
Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history at E.A. Laney High School and at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, N.C.
The Coastal Chronicles Vol. II
In The Coastal Chronicles Volume I, lovers of Cape Fear and coastal North Carolina history were treated to a collection of true, factually accurate stories that entertained as well as educated and informed. In this latest volume, that tradition continues. The Coastal Chronicles Volume II offers up true tales of Blackbeard the Pirate, King Hancock and North Carolina’s most vicious Indian War, plus biographical sketches of home-grown heroes and a lady heroine from the Highlands of Scotland. There are stories here about the British invasion of Beaufort, the African Prince who served a governor, and the sleek blockade runners that braved the Yankee fleet. These stories and more make this second volume in the Coastal Chronicles series a must-have edition for locals, newcomers, and tourists alike.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR..
Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history at E.A. Laney High School and Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, N.C.
The Coastal Chronicles Vol. III
North Carolina and the Cape Fear have a vivid history that stretches for more than four centuries. Early explorers, Native America nations, pirates, Redcoats and Patriots, Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs, U-Boats and Space Shuttle astronauts - the Tar Heel State can claim it all! In the pages of Carolina Chronicles Magazine (formerly Coastal Chronicles Magazine) , we tell those stories - true, factually accurate, and written as a storyteller would - to share the fascinating people and events of North Carolina's storied past. In this volume, you will find stories about: Tar Heel doughboys in World War I, the clash at Fort Dobbs in the French & Indian War, a floating theater that brought Broadway to secluded coastal communities, a firsthand account of the fall of Fort Fisher, what sharecropping was like in Depression-era North Carolina, and much, much more!
"...aficionados of local history should find it fascinating...Fryar rewards one's attention..."
- Wilmington StarNews
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history at E.A. Laney High School and Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, N.C.
Charles Towne on the Cape Fear: The Rise and Fall of the First Barbadian Settlement in Carolina
While South Carolina has the most famous Charles Towne in Carolina, the first one was along the banks of the Cape Fear River. Between 1664-1667, Barbadians led by John Vassall and Puritans from Massachusetts established plantations stretching as far as sixty miles along what was then called the Charles River, until neglect by the Lords Proprietors, distractions on the world stage, and competing settlement doomed the efforts of the hundreds of souls who worked to build the first English outpost below the Albemarle. This is their story.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR..
.Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history at E.A. Laney High School and Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, N.C.
Buccaneers & Pirates of Our Coasts
From the very beginnings, America has been a fertile hunting ground for high seas rogues willing to take what they wanted when they found it. Even great men like Christopher Columbus and Sir Francis Drake took a turn as sea robbers. In later years, names like Blackbeard, Low, Bonnet and Kidd struck terror into the hearts of merchant captains, sailors and the civilian passengers they carried across the waves. North Carolina’s 300 miles of coastline, dotted with secluded coves and inlets, became a favorite haunt of pirates and buccaneers. In this book, first published in 1898, author Frank R. Stockton tells the stories of the villains who plundered the high seas and plagued America’s coastsduring our country’s early years. With original illustrations enhanced by additional maps and pictures, this new rendition of a classic book about the men and women who sailed under the Black Flag is sure to please!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR..
Frank R. Stockton, (1834 – 1902) was an American writer and humorist, best known today for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular during the last decades of the 19th century. Though he continued to write some juvenile fiction, Stockton wrote mostly for adults after 1887, including Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts (1898).
The Lost Rocks
What if the survivors left Roanoke Island and found their way to Georgia? That is the scenario scholars contemplatedwhen a series of engraved stones were found in the 1930’s.The first, found near the Chowan River in North Carolina, claimed that Eleanor Dare and a few other settlers had made their way inland after an Indian attack wiped out the rest of the colony - including Eleanor’s daughter, Virginia, and her husband Ananias. The rest, more than forty in number, told a fantastic tale of how the survivors made their way overland, first to South Carolina, and then to Georgia. If true, North Carolina stood to lose one of its most cherished historical
legends. If not, the stones would prove to be one of the greatest hoaxes of all time. Author David La Vere does a masterful job of weaving the story of the Dare Stones with that of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, in a tale that will fire your imagination and give you pause at the same time. The question: Was the greatest American mystery finally solved?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David LaVere teaches American Indian History at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He is an award-winning author and public speaker. He came to the UNC-Wilmington Department of History in 1993 and has risen through the ranks to full Professor. La Vere has written six other books on American Indian History, and has
also written numerous articles for Our State North Carolina magazine and has been a contributing author to two Our State Press publications.
"King George and Broadswords!" The Story of the Battle at Widow Moores Creek
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In 1776, America was a country at war with itself. British soldiers had shot colonial militia at Lexington and Concord, only to be shot in return by Massachusetts farmers and Minutemen on the long march back to Boston. In North Carolina, people were divided between those who wanted to remain loyal to King George III, and those who were ready to break away from Great Britain to form their own nation. North Carolina’s Royal Governor, Josiah Martin, had fled from New Bern’s fabulous Tryon Palace to the safety of a British warship anchored in the Cape Fear River. From there, he made a plan to put down the rebellion in the South with an army of Highlanders. Patriots who wanted a break with England wanted to stop that army. In February 1776, the two sides came together in a brief, fierce clash at a small creek in modern Pender County. It would be the first patriot victory against the British in the South, and the battle’s outcome would shake governments on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This is the story of that clash.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and teaches history in Wilmington, N.C.
Under Three Flags: The Fort Johnston Story
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
There is one place in North Carolina with a history of active service that stretches from our earliest colonial days right up through the War on Terror. Fort Johnston, named after one of North Carolina’s five royal governors, has guarded the Cape Fear since 1748. It has seen service in virtually every war America has fought for more than two and a half centuries, and witnessed everything from Spanish pirates to British redcoats, Confederate soldiers wearing butternut and gray, to modern soldiers supplying the munitions American soldiers need to defend our nation on battlefields across the world. The names of the men associated with Fort Johnston reads like a Who’s Who list of people who played important roles in the history of North Carolina and the nation: Josiah Martin, Major General Robert Howe, Col. James Moore, President James Monroe, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Gen. Nelson Miles, Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Abner Doubleday - all have ties to this one-of-a-kind piece of North Carolina’s colorful past. This is Fort Johnston’s story, one that spans more than 250 years.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
The Yellow Death: Wilmington & The Epidemic of 1862
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
Before the coming of modern medicine, people living near the swampy coastal areas of North Carolina were frequently plagued by diseases that left many sick and dead. One of the worst of these was yellow fever. Carried by mosquitoes, the disease was a mystery to doctors until 1898. That was 36 years too late to save the hundreds of Wilmington residents who perished in the deadly outbreak of 1862. While the Civil War raged throughout the country, and Union warships stood offshore to stop the blockade runners making for the Confederate port at Wilmington, the city was full of soldiers and speculators, sailors, slaves and citizens. Before the yellow fever epidemic ended in November, a full third of Wilmington’s population would be dead. This is the story of a baffling illness that killed more often than not, and of the people who came together to weather the storm of death it brought.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
The Battles for Fort Fisher: The story of the South's largest fort and the terrible struggles to defeat it
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In the Civil War, there was no fort more important than Fort Fisher. Guarding the Cape Fear River and the port at Wilmington, the fort was the largest in the Confederacy. As long as it stood guard over the blockade runners bringing much needed supplies to the South, America’s bloodiest war could drag on and on. By 1864, the Northern generals knew Fort Fisher had to go. This is the story of their attempts to capture the fort, and the story of the brave men on both sides who fought to defend their homes and nations on the sandy beaches of the Cape Fear. The outcome of the battles at Fort Fisher would decide the fate of the nation. Would the Union troops fail, and as a result see the country forever split? Or would they succeed, and finally see North and South once again together as the United States? The answers are inside!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
Pirates of the North Carolina Coast: Being an account of Blackbeard, Bonnet, Low, Lowther, Bellamy, Bonny, Rackham, Vane, Worley, Read, and the villains who sailed with them
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In the Golden Age of Piracy, swashbuckling sea robbers were a terror to merchant ships loaded with the riches of the New World. Men like Henry Morgan, Edward Low, George Lowther, Stede Bonnet, and women like Anne Bonny and Mary Read rampaged through the islands of the Caribbean and along the coast of the American colonies. North Carolina had more than their fair share of dealings with pirates, because North Carolina’s 300-mile coastline was a perfect place for buccaneers to hide. And in many cases, the people of the Carolinas welcomed them! This book tells the story of the those colorful rogues who robbed and pillaged at will, including Blackbeard, that most famous of sea robbers. You’ll also learn what the life of a pirate was really like, and how these thieves of the high seas were nothing like the happy rovers usually seen in the movies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
Plantations: Living and Working on North Carolina's Great Estates
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In the South, the plantation was recognizable as something unique to the lands below the Mason-Dixon Line. In popular imagination, great estates like Orton Plantation on the Cape Fear River, or Drayton Hall in Lowcountry South Carolina, remind modern people of Tara, the grand house of Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone With the Wind." Southern plantations were their own ecosystems, producing virtually everything they needed themselves. In most instances, the work of the plantation was done by the hands of the enslaved until the Civil War brought that institution to an end. Nevertheless, plantations hold a fascination for modern Americans, and the estates of North Carolina offer prime examples of life in a society built on agriculture made possible by chattel slavery. In this book, we introduce readers to what life was like for those who lived it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
1898: The Violent Taking of a Southern City
Dram Tree Books' Young Reader's Series of North Carolina History consists of short (32-64 pages on average), very visual and colorful books about the history of North Carolina, aimed at youths between ages 8-18. The idea is to introduce youngsters to the four centuries of great stories we have in North Carolina in a way that is fun, entertaining, and true. As an added bonus, as many adults enjoy the books as kids because they are a great way to learn about our history without having to commit to a thick "regular" history book!
In 1898, Wilmington, N.C. was a shining example of what a Southern city could be, with a thriving majority-Black population made up of not just laborers, but also a strong professional and middle class. But when the Fusion movement of the 1890s delivered big wins for Republican candidates across the state, Democrats began plotting to retake power - even if it meant violence to do it. It all came to a head in an insurrection on November 10, 1898, when armed white supremacists took to the streets. When it was over, hundreds of Blacks had been dispossessed and run out of town, a legally elected government had been overthrown in the only successful coup d’etat in U.S. history, and African Americans had been killed in the streets in untold numbers. This is that story.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and taught history in Wilmington, N.C.
Wild, Wicked, Wartime Wilmington: Being an account of murder, malice and other assorted mayhem in N.C.'s largest city during the Civil War
When America went to war with itself, Wilmington was North Carolina’s largest city. From the imposing grandeur of the Bellamy Mansion that overlooked a busy harbor, to the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, which at one time boasted the longest rail line in the world, the port city was a bustling example of Southern industry. But when conflict came, the city became a pivotal player in the Confederate government’s war efforts. Paddy’s Hollow boasted more than thirty saloons, while murders happened with alarming frequency. Prostitutes offered their services to the thousands of soldiers passing through town, while civilian and military authorities tried to keep a lid on it all. Local police were woefully inadequate to keep the peace against rioting soldiers who had witnessed the horrors of places like Chickamauga and Gettysburg. Doctors performed heroically to save lives, fighting disease, battlefield disfigurements, and death with too little of every kind of medicine and supplies. Civilians, railroads, and military officials all competed for too few resources, while offshore the Union blockade of what became the last open port of the Confederacy grew tighter with each passing day. Robert J. Cooke’s ten years of research has resulted in a picture of Wilmington that more closely resembles the Wild West’s Dodge City than it does some genteel antebellum city.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Robert J. Cooke is a New Yorker by birth and an avid historian by nature. He graduated with a BA in History from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, N.Y. After retiring from the telecommunications industry in 1994, Bob relocated to Wilmington, N.C., where he and his wife Joan and “a couple of dogs” now reside. Robert J. Cooke has also contributed articles and stories to several journals and magazines. Wild, Wicked, Wartime Wilmington is his first book, the result of more than a decade of research.
Potter's Raid: The Union Cavalry's Boldest Expedition in Eastern North Carolina
As early as 1862, Union forces held a sizeable portion of eastern North Carolina’s northern coastal region. While blockade runners dashed in and out of the port at Wilmington, safe from Yankee interference thanks to the mighty guns of Fort Fisher, it was a different story just ninety miles to the north. In New Bern, it was the Union army that was in control. Confederate military leaders and civilians kept a wary eye on what was going on behind the Yankee lines occupied by John Gray Foster’s Billy Yanks, wondering what mischief the enemy might be up to, and when they might strike into the countryside. Their fears were realized when Union cavalry under the command of Brigadier General Edward Potter cut a swath through eastern North Carolina in what would be the war’s largest Union raid in the eastern part of the state. From Kinston and Goldsboro, to Greenville, Rocky Mount, and Tarboro, Federal and Confederate troops clashed on foot and horseback while civilians suffered and slaves took advantage of the confusion to make a dash for freedom. In this book, historian David A. Norris brings all of the suspense and drama of Potter’s raid to life with a narrative that will have you on the edge of your seat. For the Civil War buff, this book is a top-notch story about a little known episode of North Carolina’s wartime past. For the casual reader, it is a tale full of the drama, heroism, and tragedy that is the hallmark of a gripping story - one that happens to be true.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Freelance writer and artist David A. Norris was born in Charlotte, N.C. He has a BFA degree in art from East Carolina University, and lived in Greenville for a number of years after graduation. David has written over two hundred magazine and encyclopedia articles diverse publications like Our State, American Heritage, CNN.com, America’s Civil War, History Magazine, Civil War Times, American History, the North Carolina Historical Review, Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy, South Carolina Magazine, True West, Mental Floss, and Learning Through History. In addition, he has contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, the Encyclopedia of New Jersey, the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina History, and the Mississippi Encyclopedia. Although the Civil War is a favorite subject, he has also written on topics ranging from the Roman Army to the celluloid collar and the derby hat. He lives in Wilmington with his wife Carol.
Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution in the Carolinas & Georgia
Every school child in America has heard the stories of Lexington & Concord, Bunker Hill and Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River. That’s due in large part to the fact that most history books were written by authors who lived in the northern colonies. But how many people know the first victory for the Patriot cause came at a little creek in North Carolina? Or that the truly decisive battles of the American Revolution were fought south of Virginia? In 1848, New Yorker Benson J. Lossing embarked on a two year trek that covered thousands of miles through the original thirteen states and Canada. His mission was to collect and preserve the stories of the men and women who had fought to make the United States a reality. His original work was published in 1850, consisting of two illustrated volumes comprising over 2,000 pages of first-hand history. In this book, we have excerpted the chapters that deal with the war in the Carolinas and Georgia. It was here that the battles which beat the British were fought. It was in the South that America stood up to an empire that spanned the globe and won. Benson J. Lossing tells the stories of the heroes and villains of the war from the accounts of the people who were there. If a Redcoat and an American stood on opposite banks of a stream and threw rocks at each other, it’s probably in his book. It includes illustrations of the people and places that played such a big role in our nation’s founding, but that too often have been lost to the passing of time. Lossing’s account of his travels also present a wonderful picture of the Carolinas and Georgia as they were in the decade before America’s next great crucible, the Civil War.
ABOUT THE EDITOR..
Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than twenty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and currently teaches history in Wilmington, N.C.
Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution in Virginia & Maryland
It was by the placid waters of the Chesapeake Bay that some of the most dramatic scenes of the Revolutionary War were played out, paving the way for the birth of a new nation. In Virginia and Maryland, the struggle for independence from Great Britain was finally won at battlefields and towns that stretch from Annapolis to the Shenandoah Valley. In 1848, New Yorker Benson J. Lossing embarked on a two year trek that covered thousands of miles through the original thirteen states and Canada. His mission was to collect and preserve the stories of the men and women who had fought to make the United States a reality. His original work was published in 1850, consisting of two illustrated volumes comprising over 2,000 pages of first-hand history. In this book, we have excerpted the chapters that deal with the war in Virginia and Maryland (including Washington, D.C. and the Albemarle region of North Carolina).It was the scene of some of the war’s hardest fights. Benson J. Lossing tells the stories of the heroes and villains of the war from the accounts of the people who were there. If a Redcoat and an American stood on opposite banks of astream and threw rocks at each other, it’s probably in his book. It includes illustrations of the people and places that played such a big role in our nation’s founding, but that too often have been lost to the passing of time. Lossing’s account of his travels also present a wonderful picture of the original thirteen states as they were in the decade before America’s next great crucible, the Civil War. We hope you’ll enjoy this incredible account of the American Revolution.
ABOUT THE EDITOR..
Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has authored or edited more than thirty volumes of North Carolina and Cape Fear history. His historical specialty is colonial North Carolina, particularly during the seventeenth century. Jack has served as a United States Marine, worked as a broadcaster, freelance magazine writer, sports announcer, and book designer. He holds a Masters degree in History and another Masters in Teaching, and currently teaches history in Wilmington, N.C.