This map is a by-product of a surge of political reform and economic change that North Carolina experienced some fifteen years before its publication. A period of agricultural prosperity in the second decade of the century coincided with the emergence of a group of legislators who worked out a program which they felt would improve North Carolina's political inequalities, lessen her educational backwardness, and stimulate her trade by better transportation facilities. Their program of internal improvements was the proposal to drain the swamps, build canals, and construct roads.

Beaufort Co., NCGenWeb Home Page