The Journal of Frances Anne Kemble and the Stagecoach Line of Wilmington and Raleigh Rail Road - Enfield to Stantonsburg

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the route used by the stagecoach line of the Wilmington & Raleigh Rail Road, to locate modern roads that closely approximate the stage route, and compare the present landscape along the route with descriptions of that provided in historic documents. Although its service was brief, this stagecoach line is significant because the use of stagecoaches by the railroad illustrates how transportation was organized during railroad construction. Frances Anne Kemble’s Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838 – 1839 is explored because it describes travel on this particular stagecoach line, and places the line in a geographic context.

A combined program of archival research, map analysis, and field study were used in this inquiry. This study concluded that in late 1838 the stage route commenced (going in southward direction) from the area of Fishing Creek below the town of Enfield, passed within the neighborhood of Tarborough, with a stop at Stantonsburg before continuing to Waynesborough. The section of the route south of Stantonsburg was not examined. The modern landscapes fronting the approximate stagecoach route remain rural. Additionally, Mrs. Kemble was not able to observe the established towns of Halifax, Enfield, Tarborough, and Stantonsburg. Her observations of the landscape and people of North Carolina, thus, are hobbled by the limitations for her
immediate experience and assumptions.