Page 71 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 5 #2
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building a canal through the Great Dismal Swamp, which would allow goods
coming down the Roanoke River to arrive in Norfolk.
At first, the NC Legislature was not interested in cooperating with Virginia be-
cause it did not want NC products going to a Virginia port. However, by 1790,
realizing that NC products did not have access to any port and fearing another
war with England, the two states understood that they had to work together.
In 1812, the NC Legislature established the Roanoke Navigation Company as a
private organization that issued 400 shares of stock at $100 each. In 1817, Vir-
ginia and NC authorized the RNC to hire slaves and to transport them across
the state line. By 1819, the company had 128 male employees, 98 of whom were
“Negroes.”
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