Slavery & Maritime Trade

With the 1791 movement of the state capital inland, New Bern’s already strong maritime trade became an even more vital means of local support. The town’s growing prosperity depended primarily on the trade of goods and enslaved persons associated with plantation agriculture. Surrounded by dense pine forests, New Bern exported large quantities of lumber, hogshead staves, barrel parts, and naval stores - tar, pitch, and turpentine. 

Agricultural products like pork, corn, and peas passed through the town’s port from plantations and farms in the west. New Bern became a central hub in the “Triangular Trade” in sugar, slaves, and other goods between the Carolinas, the West Indies, and New England. The coastwise trade with mid-Atlantic ports like New York and Philadelphia, and southern cities of Charleston and Wilmington was also key to New Bern’s affluence.