Greensboro
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Greensboro Cabin
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Historically, Greensboro is best described as an inland port.
In a system called "portage" beginning about 1760, grains were
brought by boat up the Choptank River to Greensboro, hauled by
wagon to Frederica on Delaware Bay, and then carried again by
boat to Philadelphia for export to Europe, the West Indies and
New England. The reverse system returned to Greensboro the
world's goods, and new ideas like abolition and Methodism.
Soldiers who returned from the campaign in the South during
the American Revolution apparently named the town after their
former commander, General Nathaniel Greene. Shipbuilding at
the site of the present town park ultimately replaced portage.
The brig Nelle was constructed here in the 1850s and
sailed to worldwide ports. The bark Olivia Davis (1864)
hauled coffee from South America to Baltimore. The North
America (1870) carried freight on the C & D Canal. The
schooner George Churchman (1874) plied the Atlantic until
sinking off Africa in 1921.
Learn more about Greensboro, past and present, by visiting their
web site.
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