New Bern, NC news and local guide

The royal governor's palace, now Tryon Palace, served as the capitol of North Carolina from 1770, making New Bern the first permanent capital, until the government moved to Raleigh in 1792. In the Federal period New Bern became the largest city in the state, built on trade in goods and enslaved people tied to plantation agriculture. After losing the capital it expanded its shipping trade with the Caribbean and New England, part of the triangle trade in sugar and enslaved people, and it had 3,600 residents by 1815. In 1862, early in the Civil War, Union forces won the Battle of New Bern and occupied the town until 1865. Nearly 10,000 enslaved people in the region escaped to Union camps for protection and freedom, and the Army set up the Trent River contraband camp at New Bern, where adults were organized for work and missionaries taught reading to adults and children. Because of the continuous occupation, the town escaped some of the war's destruction. Sources Wikipedia: New Bern, North Carolina