Wilmington, North Carolina. Another beautiful old town with a vibrant historic district. On the banks of the Cape Fear River, Wilmington was founded in 1720 and the first slaves arrived from Africa in 1733 and by 1767 over 60 per cent of the population was slaves, most working on the ports and as domestic servants. We visited the Bellamy Mansion, an antebellum home that tells the story of the city. The home was completed in 1861 just as the Civil War broke out. The home was built largely by slave labour and was occupied by Union forces during most of the Civil War. The house took a beating but Bellamy got it back after the war and restored it. The house has fully restored slave quarters in an out building behind the main house. After Bellamy died two of his daughters lived in the house as it went in to a state of decline until the last daughter died in 1946. The house was vacant for a number of years and fell in to even more serious decline until in 1972 at the height of racial tensions relating to integration in Wilmington, it was set on fire by arsonists. It has now been fully restored and the museum gives full credit to the efforts of slaves to build and maintain the home. Ironically, it was descendants of many of the black craftsmen who had the specialized skills (such as old-school plastering) to help in the 1972 restoration.See the photo below

Downtown Wilmington

The Bellamy House

Slave Quarters

Privvies on the first floor of the slave quarters 

These are the workers who handled some of the tricky work in the 1972 restoration