Editing New Bern, North Carolina (section)

==History==<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not add photographs to this section. It would quickly become too unwieldy. Thank you. -->
[[File:Tryon Palace, North Carolina's First Colonial Capital, New Bern LCCN2011631094.jpg|thumb|British governor's palace ([[Tryon Palace]]), by [[John Hawks (architect)|John Hawks]] (rebuilt 1959)]]

New Bern was settled in October 1710 by the [[Palatines]] and [[Switzerland|Swiss]] under the leadership of [[Christoph von Graffenried]].<ref name="nc architecture">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NccTgQkmPIEC |publisher=[[UNC Press]]|year=2005 |page=2 |title=North Carolina Architecture |first=Catherine |last=Bishir|isbn=9780807856246}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Dill|first=A.T.|encyclopedia=Dictionary of North Carolina Biography|title=Graffenried, Christoph, Baron Von |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/graffenried-christoph|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|date=1986 }}</ref> The new colonists named their settlement after the [[Canton of Bern]], home state of their patron. Von Graffenried had the [[plat|original plat]] of the town laid out in the shape of a cross, though later development and additional streets have obscured this pattern within the regular [[grid plan|street grid]]. The British governor's palace (present-day [[Tryon Palace]]) served as the capitol of North Carolina from 1770 until the state government relocated to Raleigh in 1792, after a fire had destroyed much of the capitol. This became the first permanent [[capital city]] of North Carolina.

There was no printer in North Carolina until 1749, when the North Carolina Assembly commissioned [[James Davis (printer)|James Davis]] from Williamsburg, Virginia to act as their official printer.  Before this time the laws and legal journals of North Carolina were handwritten and were largely kept in a disorganized manner, prompting them to hire Davis. Davis settled in New Bern and was appointed by Colonial postmaster general [[Benjamin Franklin]] as North Carolina's first postmaster, who also became active in North Carolina's politics, as a member of the Assembly and later as the Sheriff. Davis also founded and printed the ''[[North-Carolina Gazette]]'' in New Bern, North Carolina's first newspaper.<ref name=powell34-35>[[#powell2000|Powell, 2000]], pp. 34-35</ref><ref>[[#lee1923|Lee, 1923]], p. 53</ref>

During the 19th-century Federal period, New Bern became the largest city in North Carolina, developed on the trade of goods and slaves associated with [[plantations in the American South|plantation agriculture]].<ref name="nc architecture2">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NccTgQkmPIEC| publisher=[[UNC Press]] |year=2005 |page =84 |title=North Carolina Architecture |first=Catherine |last=Bishir| isbn=9780807856246 }}</ref> After [[Raleigh]] was named the state capital in 1792, New Bern rebuilt its economy by expanding on trade via shipping routes to the [[Caribbean]] and [[New England]].<ref name="nc architecture2"/> It was part of the [[Triangle Trade]] in sugar, slaves, and desired goods. It reached a population of 3,600 in 1815.<ref name="nc architecture2"/>

In 1862 during the early stages of the [[American Civil War]], the area was the site of the [[Battle of New Bern (1862)|Battle of New Bern]]. [[United States|Federal]] forces captured and occupied the town until the end of the war in 1865. Nearly 10,000 enslaved blacks escaped during this period in the region and went to the [[Union Army]]  camps for protection and freedom. The Union Army set up the Trent River [[Contraband (American Civil War)|contraband]] camp at New Bern to house the refugees. It organized the adults for work. Missionaries came to teach literacy to both adults and children.

[[File:Gunboat advance, Battle of New Berne.png|thumb|''The advance of the Gunboats up the river to New Berne, N. Carolina. Passing the Barricade'', 1862]]

Due to the continuous occupation by the Union Army, New Bern avoided some of the destruction of the war years. There was much social disruption because of the occupation and the thousands of [[freedmen]] camped near the city. Whereas the [[1860 United States census|1860 Census]] had shown a population of 5,432 (of which 3,072, or 57%, were black), the population had swollen by the end of the war to more than 20,000, mostly because of the influx of freedmen.<ref>[[Whitelaw Reid]], [https://archive.org/details/cu31924028782781/page/29/mode/1up?view=theater ''After the War:  A Southern Tour, May, 1865 to May 1, 1866'', p.29], Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1866.</ref> Still, New Bern recovered more quickly than many cities after the war. By the 1870s the lumber industry was developing as the chief part of New Bern's economy. Timber harvested could be sent downriver by the two nearby rivers. The city continued to be a center for freedmen, who created communities independent of white supervision: thriving churches, fraternal associations, and their own businesses. By 1877 the city had a majority-black population.

The state legislature defined the city and county as part of [[North Carolina's 2nd congressional district]] which, as former plantation territory, held a concentration of the state's black residents. They elected four blacks to the US Congress in the late 19th century. The state's passage of a constitutional suffrage amendment in 1900 used various devices to [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|disenfranchise]] black citizens. As a result, they were totally closed out of the political process, including participation on juries and in local offices; white Democrats maintained this suppression mostly, until after passage of federal civil rights legislation, including the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], which provided for federal enforcement of constitutional rights.

By 1890 New Bern had become the largest lumber center in North Carolina and one of the largest in all of the South. During this time, as many as 16 lumber mills were running and employing hundreds of men from New Bern and the area. The competitive nature of the lumber barons, the abundance of lumber and craftsmen, led to the construction in New Bern of some of the finest homes in the South, many of which have survived. The lumber boom lasted until the 1920s. One by one the lumber mills went out of business. Today only [[Weyerhaeuser]] manufactures lumber in the area.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

The city has four National Historic Districts and two local ones, which have helped preserve the character of the architecture. The Downtown Local Historic District is {{convert|368.64|acre}} or {{convert|0.576|sqmi}}; the Riverside Local Historic District covers {{convert|51.94|acre}} or {{convert|0.081|sqmi}}. Union Point Park borders the [[Neuse River|Neuse]] and Trent rivers.

===Hurricanes===
New Bern's location near the Atlantic coast renders it subject to the effects of [[Atlantic hurricane season]]s. For example, in the 18th century the town suffered severe damage in the [[Great Chesapeake Bay Hurricane of 1769]].<ref name="newbernpaper">Hand, Bill (31 July 2016). [https://www.newbernsj.com/news/20160731/bill-hand-awash-in-hurricanes-wrath-in-1769 Awash in a hurricane's wrath in 1769], ''[[Sun Journal (New Bern, North Carolina)|New Bern Sun Journal]]''</ref>  Other hurricanes such as [[Hurricane Ione]] in 1955 and [[Hurricane Floyd]] in 1999 have also caused significant flooding and damage.<ref name="ione1">Hand, Bill (17 September 2017). [https://www.newbernsj.com/news/20170917/hurricane-ione-was-storm-to-remember Hurricane Ione was a storm to remember], ''[[Sun Journal (New Bern, North Carolina)|New Bern Sun Journal]]''</ref>

In September 2018, [[Hurricane Florence]] made landfall in the United States just south of [[Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina|Wrightsville Beach]], 88.4 miles southwest of New Bern.  A storm surge of up to 13.5 feet, in addition to days of heavy rains, severely flooded various parts of the town. [National Hurricane Center Storm Surge Inundation Map, Sept 13, 2018]