Burgwin-Wright Presents...

Have you ever heard of the Suicide Club in Colonial Wilmington? If you haven't, you aren't alone. According to Louis T. Moore, the bizarre and grim story would have sent shockwaves through a young Wilmington. But the strange tradition also reveals the intricacies of the culture of religion at the heart of the American Colonies. Joining the episode is Dr. Jamie Brummitt, an associate professor of p...

Wilmington is known for many things, but perhaps one of its most unique features is its historic performing arts center that doubles as city hall. The harmonious convergence of entertainment and government inside an iconic building has been among the Cape Fear's most impressive traits over the past century and a half. But how did it happen? And how is it all connected to what some say is the oldes...

Do you think you could spot a con artist in the Colonial era? It might have been harder than you think in the days before lightning-fast technology. In 1771, Sarah Wilson was certainly counting on it when she impersonated a member of King George III's family in the American Colonies. She traveled through Wilmington and New Bern in her march south, scamming unsuspecting colonists who jumped at the...

The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge is a storied moment in American history, but many people learn about the lesser-known battle through the heroic feat of a woman who didn’t fight in it. Polly Slocumb is said to have rode her horse into the night of February 26, 1776 to save her husband from dying in the battle after dreaming of his demise. Her legend is iconic, but it’s also littered with details...

In Colonial America, a duel at ten paces could defend something the law couldn't – a man's honor. But history doesn't look fondly on those who chose to serve justice with a bullet. Especially in the case of two young men in the British Navy in 1765, who fought a vicious and bloody duel at Brunswick Town over a woman – during a moment of growing unrest for the Cape Fear. Joining the episode to talk...

When it comes to icons of the Cape Fear, few stand as sturdy as the Old Dram Tree. Although it has long since been lost to progress, the story of the Dram Tree is one that charts the entire developed history of the Wilmington area. The bald cypress tree served as a "a grim sentinel," as it has been called, for mariners traveling the Cape Fear River all the way back to the pre-Colonial period. But...

Have you heard of the tunnels underneath Wilmington, where pirates supposedly smuggled their treasure and slaves escaped on the Underground Railroad? Perhaps the most enduring legend in Wilmington's history is ripe with salacious and fictitious stories, the passages under the city have a far more practical and not-so-flashy origin. On this week's episode, we dispel some of the legends that wind th...

What did Christmas look like for the enslaved people of Colonial Wilmington? While no holiday celebration was guaranteed, the port city's streets were often a stage granted to enslaved communities for a display of their culture known as John Kuners or John Canoe. With the help of special guest Dr. Tara White, an assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, this ep...

The new season, "Burgwin-Wright Presents... Cape Fear Legends & Lore," begins with a story right in our backyard – the myth of Cornwallis Headquarters in Wilmington. During the American Revolution, did Lord Cornwallis, commander of the British army, stay at the Burgwin-Wright House will he was in Wilmington in 1781? The house has been known for centuries as "Cornwallis Headquarters," but is it...

For the new season of "Burgwin-Wright Presents...," we are cracking open the chapters of Louis T. Moore's "Stories Old and New of the Cape Fear Region" for a season titled "Cape Fear Legends & Lore." First published in 1956, the seminal local history book is a collection of legends and traditions that have defined the Cape Fear region since the Colonial period. Each episode this season, we wil...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." For this special Halloween episode, host Hunter Ingram reads a compelling and chilling ghost story written in 1898 by noted Cape Fear historian James Sprunt entitled "A Colonial Apparition." Pulling from the true history of Scottish Hi...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." On this week's season finale, we look to the future of the "Outlander" story with a visit to Moores Creek National Battlefield, the site of an early American Revolution battle defined by the involvement and sacrifice of Scottish Highla...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." On this week's episode, we look at the involvement of American Indian tribes in the Revolutionary War. In the "Outlander" story, characters have long interacted with tribes like the Cherokee and Mohawk, but what is the true history of...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." On this week's episode, we are jumping into the future for a look at the current culture of Scottish heritage in North Carolina. The story of the Scots in America begins in the early 1700s, before Claire and Jamie Fraser arrive in 1767...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and Starz TV series "Outlander." On this week's episode, we mine the many pop culture lives of Stede Bonnet, known as the Gentleman Pirate. How did someone with such a non-threatening nickname go on to inspire the vicious Stephen Bonnet on "Outlander" and HBO Ma...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." On this week's episode, we delve into a recent season six episode of “Outlander” with a look at the life and legacy of Flora MacDonald, a Scottish heroine after the Battle of Culloden whose notoriety carries her into the st...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." On this week's episode, we are traveling to Burlington to revisit the consequential Battle of Alamance in 1771, a bloody confrontation between the Regulators of North Carolina's Colonial backcountry and Royal Governor William Tryon. It...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." On this week's episode, we take a trip to New Bern to get a peek at life of Royal Governor William Tryon, a complicated man who granted Jamie and Claire Fraser a new chapter in North Carolina in 1767. In real life, he was a controversi...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." On this week's episode, host Hunter Ingram joined by special guest Matthew Roberts, the showrunner, writer and executive producer of the "Outlander" series on Starz. During this special conversation, Matthew recalls his research trip t...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." On this week's episode, we are taking a page from the fourth season of "Outlander" by looking at the brutal Colonial justice system that earned a reputation for "cruel and unusual punishment" in the American Colonies. Through the event...

"Burgwin-Wright Presents... Outlander in the Cape Fear" explores the history of Colonial North Carolina through its depiction in the book and TV series "Outlander." On this week's premiere episode, host Hunter Ingram is joined by Jim McKee, site manager for the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site, to explore the real Scottish Highlander immigration through Wilmington and Brunswick Tow...

Welcome to the new podcast series, Burgwin-Wright Presents...! Each season, Burgwin-Wright Presents... will debut a new series focusing on a topic that explores the history of North Carolina's Cape Fear region through one of its oldest Colonial historic sites – the Burgwin-Wright House and Gardens in Wilmington. Our first season, titled "Outlander in the Cape Fear," will uncover the real Nor...