True Stories Behind Where the Crawdads Sing: Oyster Wars

Connecting the Docs: True Stories from the Old North State

Inspired by the bestselling novel and film adaptation Where the Crawdads Sing, Connecting the Docs explores true stories that happened in the wild marshes of eastern North Carolina. This episode dives deep into oysters and oystering, a major industry of the state for more than a century. In 1891, conflict between local fishermen and northern opportunists, who illegally dredged oysters from the coast, erupted into what became known as the Oyster Wars of North Carolina. Though no documentation indicates that either side escalated to violence, legend tells a different story. Outer Banks History Center director Samantha Crisp shares this tale and more food for thought with host John Horan in this final episode of our three-part series inspired by Where the Crawdads Sing.

Sources Mentioned

Images can be found at the OBHC’s oystering flickr album 

  

Map of Pamlico Sound and Tributaries, Showing the Natural and Artificial Oyster Beds, the Depth and Specific Gravity of the Water, the Character of the Bottom, and the Limits of the Sections as Determined by Lt. Francis Winslow, USN, circa 1886. 33MAP-0-529, Outer Banks History Center. [Digital copy linked here] 

  

Winslow, Francis. Report on the Waters of North Carolina: With Reference to Their Possibilities for Oyster Culture; Together with the Results Obtained by the Surveys Directed by the Resolution of the General Assembly, Ratified March 11, 1885. Raleigh: P.M. Hale, State Printer and Binder, 1886. [Digital copy linked here] 

  

Carter, Kathleen. The Oyster Wars of Pamlico Sound, circa 1994. 33BOK-0-10477, Outer Banks History Center.

 

PC.5033, Letter to T. S. Meekins from D.O. Midgett requesting an oyster license for John Simpson of the sloop Green, 23 November 1900, Outer Banks History Center. [Digital copy linked here] 

  

Handwritten account by Allen Taylor of Sealevel, North Carolina, 1956, recalling his days as an oysterman on the schooner J.J. Taylor in the 1880s. From box 250, PC.5001, David Stick Papers, Outer Banks History Center.

 

North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey. Bulletin No. 15: Experiments in Oyster Culture in Pamlico Sound North Carolina. Raleigh: The Survey, 1915. [Digital copy linked here] 

 

Office of the Secretary of State Records. Land Office (State), Shellfish Franchises, Oyster Bed Surveys. 

 

Carteret County Records. Oyster Bed Records. CR.019.928, Miscellaneous Records.  

 

"An act for the better protection of the oyster interests of North Carolina and for other purposes." Laws and resolutions of the State of North Carolina, passed by the General Assembly at its session of 1891. Raleigh, N.C.: Edwards and Broughton.1891. p.43. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/u?/p249901coll22,434319

"An act to promote and protect the oyster interests of the state." Laws and resolutions of the State of North Carolina, passed by the General Assembly at its session of 1891. Raleigh, N.C.: Edwards and Broughton. 1891. p.369. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/u?/p249901coll22,434645