Editing Wilmington, North Carolina (section)

===Colonial beginnings===
[[File: Mitchell-Anderson House.jpg|thumb|left|Mitchell-Anderson House (built 1738)]]
The city was founded in the 1730s. After going through a series of different names (New Carthage, New London, Newton), its name became Wilmington.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |first=Lawrence |last=Lee |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/865969052 |title=The Lower Cape Fear in colonial days |date=1990 |publisher=Library of Congress Photoduplication Service |pages=119–125 |oclc=865969052}}</ref> In 1739, Col. [[William Bartram (North Carolina politician)|William Bartram]], the uncle of [[William Bartram|the naturalist]], introduced a bill to establish Wilmington, named for one of his patrons, [[Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington|Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington]].<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{cite news|last=Hotz|first=Amy|url=https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2003/10/03/riverfest-celebrates-centuries-of-commerce-beauty-and-history/30526843007/|title=Riverfest celebrates centuries of commerce, beauty and history|website=Star-News|date=October 3, 2003}}</ref>

The area along the river had been inhabited by various successive cultures of [[indigenous peoples]] for thousands of years. At the time of European encounter, historic Native Americans were members of tribes belonging to the [[Eastern Siouan]] family.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Wilmington, NC History - Wilmington-NC.com |url=https://www.wilmington-nc.com/wilmington-nc-history.html |access-date=June 2, 2022 |website=www.wilmington-nc.com |language=en-us}}</ref>

In the early 16th century, Italian explorer [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]], commissioned by the king of France with a French crew, was reportedly the first European to see this area, including the city's present site. The first permanent colonial settlement in the area was established in the 1720s by [[Colonial history of the United States|European settlers]].<ref name=":1"/> In September 1732, a community was founded on land owned by John Watson on the [[Cape Fear River]], at the confluence of its northwest and northeast branches.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr03-0129|title=Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina}}</ref> The settlement, founded by the first royal governor, [[George Burrington]], was called New Carthage, and then New Liverpool; it gradually took on the name New Town or Newton.<ref name="Watson">Alan D. Watson ''Wilmington, North Carolina, to 1861''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2003.</ref> [[Gabriel Johnston|Governor Gabriel Johnston]] soon after established his government there for the [[Province of North Carolina|North Carolina colony]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bcbrooks.blogspot.com/2014/01/historical-execution-of-gov-george.html|title=B.C. Brooks: A Writer's Hiding Place: Historical Execution of Gov. George Burrington of North Carolina|author=B.C. Brooks|date=January 7, 2014}}</ref>

Some early settlers of Wilmington came from the [[Albemarle Sound|Albemarle]] and [[Pamlico Sound|Pamlico]] regions, as well as from the colonies of [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]] and [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]], but most new settlers migrated from the [[northern colonies]], the [[West Indies]], and [[Northern Europe]].<ref name="Lennon">Donald R. Lennon and Ida B. Kellam, eds. ''The Wilmington Town Book, 1743–1778''. Raleigh, NC: Division of Archives and History, 1973.</ref> Many of the early settlers were [[Indentured servitude|indentured servants]] from Northern Europe. As the indentured servants gained their freedom and fewer could be persuaded to travel to North America because of improving conditions back home, the settlers imported an increasing number of [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|slaves]] to satisfy the labor demand.<ref name="Watson"/> By 1767, African slaves accounted for more than 62% of the population of the Lower Cape Fear region.<ref>Marvin Michael Kay and Lorin Lee Cary. ''Slavery in North Carolina, 1748–1775,'' Chapel Hill: Univ of North Carolina Press, 1995.</ref> Many worked in the port as laborers, and some in ship-related trades.

[[Naval stores]] and lumber fueled the region's economy, both before and after the [[American Revolution]]. During the Revolutionary War, the British maintained a garrison at [[Fort Johnston (North Carolina)|Fort Johnston]] near Wilmington.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Fort Johnston |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/fort-johnston |access-date=June 2, 2022 |website=NCpedia}}</ref>