Gospel Oak
Resting on the banks of the Roanoke River, the residents of Indian Woods’ tight-knit community lay claim to a rich history imparted by their African American, European and Indigenous forebears. One of the nine townships of Bertie County, one of the oldest counties in North Carolina, Indian Woods acts as a microcosmic stand-in of the nation’s tri-racial history.
The original inhabitants of the land, the early Tuscarora Nation, settled the area some 2,000 to 5,000 years ago, and came to encompass all of the tidewater region of the coastal plains of North Carolina and Virginia. The Tuscarora had a reputation for being a fearless, proud people, and even launched a three year war against the British in 1711.
In 1584, the area that would become Indian Woods was first explored by the English, however the English did not settle there until seventy years later, in 1655. A little short of a decade later, in 1663, there were over 500 English settlers in the region. With the Europeans came their methods of plantation farming, and their accompanying African slaves. From 1650 until the expulsion of a vast majority of the Tuscarora in 1713, Europeans, Indigenous peoples, and some African slaves shared the landscape of Indian Woods, trading, hunting, fishing, farming and passing on to each other parts of their culture -- language, religion, music and art. As a result, the lives of English settlers were being shaped by African slaves and Tuscarora, just as the latter two were influenced by the English.
Indian Woods residents played a part in both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, though it was the latter conflict that brought the most change to the community. Following the Civil War, many white settlers fled the area, leaving Indian Woods to the new emancipated African Americans, who quickly made the community their own. Relying primarily on small scale farming to support themselves, the African Americans of Indian Woods established churches, stores, and community centers whilst drawing from inherited indigenous customs to strengthen their community. “Self-Sufficiency”, along with “hard-work” and “community”, became rallying values for Indian Woods’ residents, values that still hold as much purchase today as they did a century ago.
Explore Indian Woods NC
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