David Stone and Hope Plantation

Four miles northwest of this marker stands Hope Plantation, the home of David Stone, one of North Carolina's most accomplished early statesmen. Stone was born in Bertie County in seventeen seventy, graduated from the College of New Jersey, which is now Princeton, and rose through every level of public life. He served in the state House of Commons, as a United States Representative, and twice as a United States Senator.

In between he was Governor of North Carolina from eighteen oh eight to eighteen ten. Stone built Hope Plantation on land given to him by his father and used his tenure as governor to promote education and defend property rights. His Senate career ended in friction: the state legislature censured him for opposing certain war measures.

Hope Plantation survives as a museum, one of the few intact examples of Federal-period plantation architecture in eastern North Carolina.