In the early pioneer days of North Carolina, Wilmington was a small port, mostly seasonable. Its history dates back to 1739, when it was incorporated and named after Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington. Its location on the Cape Fear River supported immigrants from Europe. Typically, Scots-Irish and French Huguenots.
The Cape Fear River offered access to other ports, such as Philadelphia and New York, and produce was brought to inland towns from the interior by land carriage and, from there, were transported to Wilmington in large flat boats.
In the lower part of the country, the transportation of Lumber Naval Stores, Timber, and Spars was facilitated by rafts, conducted by a few hands down numerous rivers and creeks.
In times of uninterrupted commerce, many ships and vessels were annually loaded and bound for European ports with cargoes of naval stores, tobacco, flaxseed, cotton, rice, and large timer of pitch pine.
The produce produced in the Wilmington region was particularly adapted for the markets of the West India Islands. When there was free trade, many vessels from Wilmington and the Northern States, during winter and spring, loaded at this port, departing for the West Indies in as many directions as there are Islands, their cargoes assorted with lumber, flour, rice, pork, bacon, lard, butter, tobacco, tar, livestock, etc. Some of the produce was transported to ports like New York.
Tobacco, raised in the upper country, was brought and inspected at Fayetteville, the head of boating navigation, ninety miles above Wilmington. However, as the soil wore out and tobacco crops were less profitable, cotton culture took the lead in a profitable market.
Source: Wilmington, North Carolina, Past and Present: A History of its Harbor, with Detailed Reports of the Work for Improving and Restoring-The Same, Now Being Conducted by the U. S. Government. Resources and Advantages as an Entropot for Western Cities, Harbor of Refuge, Coaling Depot for the Navy, and Merchant Marine. (1872).