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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in New Hanover County, North Carolina.
Official Website
Located in the Low Country or Tidewater of North Carolina, the county was formed in 1729 as New Hanover Precinct of Bath County.
Some of the closing battles of the American Civil War took place in this county, including the Second Battle of Fort Fisher (the last major coastal stronghold of the Confederacy) and the Battle of Wilmington.
Racial terrorism on a larger scale took place in the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, when a group of white Democrats rejected a duly elected, biracial city government. After overthrowing the Fusionist government, the mayor and city council, they led mobs that rioted and attacked the city's black neighborhoods and residents. A total of 60 to 300 blacks are believed to have been killed in the rioting, leaders were driven out of the city, and the presses of a black-owned newspaper were destroyed, along with many houses and businesses.
The insurrection was planned by a group of nine conspirators, who included Hugh MacRae. He later donated land to New Hanover County for a park; it was named in his honor. A plaque was installed there explaining the donation and his life; it does not refer to his role in the 1898 coup d'état.
Soon after, the state passed a new constitution raising barriers to voter registration: this effectively disenfranchised most blacks and imposed Jim Crow laws, forcing blacks out of the political system and into legal second-class status. These civil rights injustices were largely maintained into the 1960s.
Adjacent Counties
Cities, Towns, Townships & Communities
Bayshore | Cape Fear | Carolina Beach | Castle Hayne | Federal Point | Harnett | Hightsville | Kings Grant | Kirkland | Kure Beach | Masonboro | Monkey Junction | Murraysville | Myrtle Grove | Ogden | Sea Breeze | Seagate | Silver Lake | Skippers Corner | Wilmington (County Seat) | Wrightsboro | Wrightsville Beach
Cemeteries
Links
National Register. of Historic Places
USS North Carolina BB-55
Burgwin-Wright House & Gardens
New Hanover Marriages - (1779-1868)
