Underwater ghost town: NC lake covers 'lost city' with links to Underground Railroad
Many of North Carolina's manmade, recreational lakes have entire ghost towns hidden beneath their surface.
However, one lost town in particular has an incredible story of a clever woman who escaped slavery in the 1800s and became a fugitive brewer that created beer so memorable it's still honored by brewers today.
The town where she lived in freedom, making a living on her beloved ale, was known as Rock Landing. Oddly, unlike the mill towns and farmland that we so often find beneath lakes, Rock Landing was apparently known for being pretty metropolitan for its time, according to Steven Lassiter Green-Hockaday, a historian who has been doing research on the role of the Underground Railroad in Rock Landing.
"It was supposed to be the next New York or Philadelphia," said Green-Hockaday. "Rock Landing was at the beginning of the Roanoke Canal, which was a big deal in 1817."
This would have made Rock Landing a center of shipping in North Carolina, bringing in wealth and people from all over the country.
It also made the town an ideal place for those escaping slavery to hide – because the Roanoke Canal and Roanoke River in Halifax County are both known for their major roles as 'freedom roads,' helping enslaved men and women escape slavery from this area of the state. Even today, Halifax County is the only place in NC with three registered historic sites on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. These are places where visitors can touch tangible remnants of this painful and powerful past.
Patsy Young: 'Fugitive brewer' escapes slavery, serves ale to Roanoke Canal workers from Rock Landing
Before her freedom, Young was known as Piety. Twice in her life, she escaped from Nathaniel Hunt's plantation in Franklin County. First, when she was 16. Then again, several years later, she escaped again, bringing her young daughter with her.
Escaping slavery was so dangerous that experts in Underground Railroad history say many enslaved men and women chose not to escape. Some felt they were not physically capable of making the journey. Others were afraid to leave their families. Still others were unsure how they'd make a living once off the plantation.
Young escaping as a mother with a 4-year-old daughter would have carried extreme risk – but the risk was worth her freedom. Plus, she knew exactly how she would make money and build a life for herself and her daughter, Eliza.
During her time in slavery, Young's cooking and brewing became extremely popular, allowing her enslaver to make a lot of money on her skills, according to storyteller and historic interpreter Jackie Ruffin, who plays Young and shares a 'firsthand account' of her escape into freedom -- and fame as a brewer.
"I heard about free people of color, able to work on the Roanoke Canal, and I wanted that job," said Ruffin, while in character as Young.
Aware of how much money her talents were worth, Young escaped the Franklin County plantation and ran for Halifax, which was known as a place with a large population of free Black families and abolitionists for the Underground Railroad.
According to angry 'slave ads' released from her outraged enslaver Nathaniel Hunt, he was clearly worried about all the money she was making cooking lunches and ale for the Roanoke Canal workers, where she had made plenty of friends and supporters.
He wrote that he was informed she'd been living near Halifax and spent summers in Rock Landing, where "she cooked for the hands employed on the Canal." He added, "at the above places she has many acquaintances.”
He warned her friends and supporters not to help her.
"I forewarn all owners of boats, captains and owners of vessels from taking on board their vessels or carrying away this woman and her child Eliza.
He also tried to steal her free name, writing, "The proper name of the woman is Piety, but she will no doubt change it."
Young was not the only Freedom Seeker known to have escaped to Rock Landing. At least five 'fugitive slave ads' point to Freedom Seekers who made their way to the canal town of Rock Landing.
Why did Rock Landing become a ghost town?
Today, Rock Landing is just a name on a street sign.
In its heyday, Rock Landing was a major terminus on the Roanoke Canal. According to letters and writings from the era, it was slated to be the next New York City or Philadephia and was wondered metropolitan.
"There were taverns, restaurants, shops, a hotel and homes. A bustling port with workers eating lunch. People from New York speculated on the land. Some of my research shows it may have even had one of the first Oddfellows organizations," he said. "It was a canal boom town."
So why would such a metropolitan town eventually become a ghost town?
"The railroad came through and made the canal obsolete," said Green-Hockaday.
The railroad bypassed Rock Landing all-together, leaving the once-bustling port town out of the path of progress.
Even the famous Roanoke Canal itself has even been mostly flooded beneath the lake – forgotten by time.
However, there's a stretch still of dry land where people can hike or even visit the historic remnants at the Roanoke Canal Museum & Trail.
Along that stretch is a 200-year-old stone aqueduct built using enslaved labor that was also used to help freedom seekers escaping slavery along the canal.
Patsy Young inspires new generation of Black women working in brewing
According to experts at Good Beer Hunting, enslaved men and women played a major role in the history of beer brewing.
"It was enslaved people and other household laborers who were critical to beer production in the earliest years of American history," they wrote.
Young's ale was not only popular enough to earn her livelihood in freedom, but famous enough that her story and beer have continued to capture imaginations nearly 200 years later.
"Some local brewers and historians are working to try and re-create her beer in her name and honor her history and memory," said Green-Hockaday.
Celeste Beatty, owner and creator of Harlem Brewing Company – and Harlem Brew South in Rocky Mount – is the first Black woman in the United States to own a brewery. Beatty, who has made history as a brewer herself, is inspired by Patsy Young's story. So nearly 200 years after Young first brewed her famous ale, Beatty hopes to create a beer inspired by Young's story.
Learn more about Harlem Brewing South in Rocky Mount on their website.
