The Great Dismal Swamp: Part 3, Building the Dismal Canal

After William Byrd II and George Washington first planned the Dismal Swamp Canal, Virginia approved construction in 1787, and North Carolina in 1790. A North Carolina/Virginia private company, the Dismal Swamp Canal Company, began construction in 1793. Funding was sporadic and often insufficient, and at the beginning, the engineering was primitive. Enslaved labor, rented from nearby landowners, was the first workers on the canal.

Builders constructed the canal from both ends, Deep Creek, Virginia, and South Mills, North Carolina, meeting in the middle. When it was first finished, the canal was about 22 miles long, 50 feet wide, and about 6 feet deep. It opened in 1805 after 12 years of construction. Observers described it as “little more than a muddy ditch,” appropriate for flatboats and small craft. Although limited, it enabled lumber and shingles from the swamp to reach markets via Norfolk. In the beginning, the loads were sporadic, but by 1829, after the canal’s enlargement, about 10–30 million board feet went to market each year.

Workers labored under harsh conditions, including standing water, disease, heat, insects, and unstable peat soil. The enslaved did all the work by hand, using shovels, axes, and simple tools, standing in water. They removed trees as water seeped in from the banks, refilling the excavated areas. Water moccasins, copperheads, mosquitoes, yellow flies, and other deadly creatures were a constant menace. If labor ran short, the company would advertise in local newspapers for white laborers.

The leasing system hid the severe human cost of building the canal. About 1000-2000 people worked on the canal. The workers worked submerged in cold water and could not get dry. Malaria and other fevers raged because of the insects. The overseers often left axe and shovel injuries untreated while working in filthy water. Severe beatings were common, and as most enslaved people could not swim, drownings were frequent.