Chronicles of the Cape Fear River: 1660-1916
There was a time when the Cape Fear was North Carolina’s frontier. The Cape Fear has seen pirates and Indian wars, redcoats and patriot militias, and at least two civil wars. It has sired heroes and villains, as well as statesmen and scholars. Among them was James Sprunt, who as a young man braved the Union blockade as a purser aboard a sleek blockade runner. In later life Sprunt became a wealthy businessman whose cotton exporting business was at one time the largest in the world. He owned Orton Plantation, overlooking the river that played such a central role in his life. A philanthropist whose love of the Cape Fear ran as deep as his bones, James Sprunt also became recognized as one of North Carolina’s most respected historians. In what many consider to be the crowning achievement of a distinguished career, Chronicles of the Cape Fear River: 1660 - 1916 is the momumental histort of southeastern North Carolina that is the starting point for all reseaarch into the Cape Fear’s varied and colorful past. It is the one book that all lovers of Cape Fear history must have on their bookshelves, and that all historical researchers should turn to when exploring what came before us at the place where the river meets the sea.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR..
James Sprunt was a cotton exporter, historian, and philanthropist who arrived in Wilmington, N.C. from his native Glasgow, Scotland in 1854. At age 14 he secured a berth as purser aboard ships running the Union blockade off Cape Fear during the Civil War. After the war, Sprunt's firm became the largest cotton exporters in the world. Sprunt owned Orton Plantation in Brunswick County, N.C., and authored four books of N.C. history.