Edenton, Chowan County, January 19, 1825, cover with a manuscript postmark of Edenton used from 1824-1826 and manuscript “Ferry 6” to indicate 6¢ postage was due at destination along with the route marking to be carried by ferry. The cover was posted to the James C. Johnston at Hayes plantation, a distance of only one mile, across Queen Anne’s Creek from Edenton. This was the principal plantation of Samuel Johnston, Governor of the North Carolina from 1787 to 1789 and then one of the two first U.S. Senators from North Carolina. Later he gave the plantation to his son, James C. Johnston, who ultimately owned several plantations totaling over 7,834 acres.

Edenton, Chowan County, September 14, 1821, red Type 2, cog wheel postmark of Edenton, used from 1818 until 1823, and manuscript “Sh[ip] 20½[¢]” postage due at Raleigh. Cover forwarded from Raleigh, September 28, [1821], with a Type 1 black circular datestamp, used from 1802-1827, to Stagville, Orange County. The folded letter was to Duncan Cameron, one of the state’s most distinguished citizens. He owned several plantations, was a judge, politician, and banker. In 1834, he was president of the state’s colonization society which offered slaves their freedom and paid for resettlement to Liberia.

Wilmington, New Hanover County, February 15, [1851-54], Type 8, blue 30.5 mm circular datestamp on a cover marked for 10 cents postage due on arrival in Philadelphia. Pen canceled Honour’s City Post stamp of 1851-58 shows the cover was handled in Charleston by this privately-operated mail and package delivery service, which picked up the letter and carried it to the port of Charleston, where it was placed in a closed mail pouch on the Wilmington & Raleigh Rail Road steamship that carried it to Wilmington and placed it in the U.S. mail there.

Wilmington, New Hanover County, September 6, 1860, envelope with two 3-cents 1857, dull red stamps and a 24-cents 1860, gray stamp paying the 30¢ rate by Prussian Closed Mail from Wilmington to Puschdorf, East Prussia. Wilmington applied a Type 9, 31.5 mm postmark in black and the New York exchange office credited 7¢ to Prussia for this single-rate letter with a red N.YORK AM.PKT postmark.

Chapel Hill, Orange County, September 13, [1832], folded letter marked for 12½ cents postage due at New Bern. The Chapel Hill postmark is a Type 3A, 27.5 mm black circular datestamp. This postmark with dotted inner circle and partial dotted outer circle was used only in 1832. The cover was addressed to William Gaston, a lawyer, legislator, congressman, and jurist. In 1835, while in Raleigh, he wrote the words to “The Old North State,” which was made the State song in 1927.