08/13/2026
Before Raleigh, before New Bern's Tryon Palace, North Carolina's earliest colonial government did its business out of a small port town on the Albemarle Sound. ⚓
Edenton was established as the colony's first permanent capital in 1722, serving as the seat of government at a time when North Carolina was still finding its footing as a functioning colony rather than a scattered collection of settlements. Ships loaded with to***co and naval stores left its wharves for England, while colonial officials worked out of a modest brick courthouse that still stands today.
It's easy to think of Raleigh as the state's political heart, but that heart started beating somewhere much smaller and much closer to the water. 🚢
