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Chowan County Timeline 1827-1865 1827 Epidemic of smallpox in Edenton. 1831 Nat Turner Revolt in Southhampton County, VA,  leads to blacks being rounded up and jailed in Edenton. 1837 Completion of Dismal Swamp Canal. 1837 Decline in county's economy attributed to loss of business to the Dismal Swamp Canal and closing of Roanoke Inlet. 1838 Allen Parker's birth. 1842 "The Wet Year"--rains ruined crops and timber. 1850 Fisheries are main employment and money source; 28 fisheries existed on Albermarle Sound, employing over 5,000. 1850 Albermarle Steam Navigation Company begins, serves Edenton for over 80 years. 1850 Chowan County Census reports: 2494 whites, 3673 slaves, 104 free blacks 1853 James Iredell, Jr. dies--former governor of North Carolina and two-term North Carolina senator 1861 Former slave from Chowan County Harriet A. Jacobs publishes Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl. 1862 Edenton is occupied by Union troops after three gunboats--Hull,Perry, and Lockwood--dock at the Edenton waterfront. 1864 Sandy Point residents witness a skirmish between Confederate ironclad, Albermarle,and a squadron of seven Union gunboats. Little damage is done on either side. 1865 Civil War ends, and Chowan County is considered a depressed region. The economy relied on agriculture and fishing and both lost massive amounts of labor with the freeing of slaves.