Traders Save the Day

The Cape Fear River was called “Rio Jordan” by the Spanish in 1756

Note: The Cape Fear River consists of almost 200 miles of blackwater river in east central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The first settlement in this region is believed to have occurred in 1729 by the Scotch-Irish from Ulster.

It is unknown by many historians the vital role that traders played in the peaceful settlement of America.

The colonial traders in America made no small contribution. They were the first to confront the French and Spanish and various Indian tribes.

During the eighteenth century, when the colonists of Virginia and the Carolinas were only a handful of settlers, it was the trader who defeated each successive attempt made by French and Spanish agents to weld the tribes into a confederacy to annihilate the English settlements.

While examining the colonial records, one might not be impressed with the mercenary figure or trader. However, in so many instances, the trader, as he traveled about the wild country, managed to maintain a casual trade with local Indians.

Colonel William Bull, Indian Trader

“If we wonder, for instance, why the Scotch Highlanders who settled in the wilds at the headwaters of the Cape Fear River, about 1729, and were later followed by Welsh and Huguenots, met with no opposition…