George Durant: Albemarle's First Rebel

Twenty miles east of this marker, at a peninsula still called Durant's Neck, stood the home of George Durant, one of the most consequential figures in early North Carolina. Durant was settled in the Albemarle by sixteen sixty-two, and in sixteen sixty-one he purchased land from the Yeopim people in a deed among the oldest on record in North Carolina. He led an armed uprising against the Lord Proprietors, and later served as attorney general.

In sixteen seventy-seven Durant joined John Culpeper in seizing the colonial governor, convening a rebel legislature, and running the colony for two years. He was later Speaker of the Assembly. His life managed to contain both the founding and the first rebellion of what became North Carolina, often at the same time.