The Great Dismal Swamp | Part 1: A Sanctuary of Freedom and Survival

Humans have lived in and around the Great Dismal Swamp for thousands of years. It and the surrounding lands were home to or used by the Algonquian-speaking peoples, including the Nansemond, Chowanoke, Weapomeo, Croatan, and related coastal groups. They hunted, fished, farmed nearby lands, and used the swamp as a seasonal resource and refuge. The rough terrain and abundant resources served them well, as did their ability to hide when needed. Estimates in the 1830s placed the swamp’s size between 1,000,000 and 1,400,000 acres, but by the late 19^th century, it had shrunk to under 500,000 acres.

After the founding of Jamestown in 1607, interaction between Europeans and Indigenous peoples began slowly. Until 1665, Europeans skirted the swamp’s edges, but dared not settle inside it. Early visitors were a few dozen male surveyors, traders, soldiers, and explorers. Even in the 1700s, when George Washington and others invested in draining the swamp, the effort relied on a small supervisory group. Enslaved people performed most of the labor. The terrain was hostile and extremely dangerous. William Drummond, the first governor of North Carolina, reached a body of water, later named Lake Drummond, in 1665, and was the only one in his party to survive.

Early relations between English colonists and Indigenous peoples in this region were tense and often violent. The Nansemond, whose territory bordered the swamp, experienced repeated attacks by English forces between 1609 and the 1620s, including the burning of towns and crops.

As European settlement expanded, Indigenous peoples increasingly used the Great Dismal Swamp as a place of refuge rather than a central homeland. Europeans were afraid to enter the swamp’s hostile environment. It became the refuge of Indigenous people, escaped enslaved Africans, and escaped white indentured servants because it existed outside direct European authority.