In 1850, George Higby Throop, under the pen name of Gregory Seaworthy, wrote a loosely fictional memoir, under the guise of a novel, called Nag's Head, or Two Months Among "The Bankers". A Story of Sea-Shore Life and Manners. Throop was an itinerant teacher who was living in Bertie County at the time and teaching at a local plantation. In his book he describes the life of a vacationer staying for the summer months in Nags Head. It is a curious slice of life from a different time, where people escaped the still heat of the ...
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In 1850, George Higby Throop, under the pen name of Gregory Seaworthy, wrote a loosely fictional memoir, under the guise of a novel, called Nag's Head, or Two Months Among "The Bankers". A Story of Sea-Shore Life and Manners. Throop was an itinerant teacher who was living in Bertie County at the time and teaching at a local plantation. In his book he describes the life of a vacationer staying for the summer months in Nags Head. It is a curious slice of life from a different time, where people escaped the still heat of the inland plains of North Carolina to enjoy the cool summer breezes of the coast. He tells of a life when Nag's Head was still natural on the ocean side, and a vacation took an entire season. Nag's Head shares the life of locals and visitors on the sound side of the Outer Banks, Roanoke Island, as well as vignettes into the world around them at the time, when the big sailing ships ruled the waters. Written in Throop's colorful and dated language, he touches upon many places that still exist today, only in a much different form. These are some of the earliest descriptions of Jockey's Ridge, Oregon Inlet, Nags Head Woods, and Roanoke Island. Readers will find out so much about how Nags Head has changed over the many decades since the book was written. To aid the reader, citations and footnotes have been added. Throop was partial to add quotes from Virgil's Aeneid to the story, in Latin, without translation, which have been translated in footnotes, and expounded upon when necessary. Early photos of the vacation era have been added to give a visual clue to the life on the sound side for a Nags Head vacationer, and maps of the locale show a vastly different seashore than today.Readers who patiently read Nag's Head will be rewarded with a new perspective on the history of the Outer Banks, in a time before roads, rental homes, beach houses, or even the Wright Brothers. There is a history hidden in the sand that is waiting to be uncovered in Nag's Head.
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