The Tidewater Region?

Have you ever heard meteorologists or others refer to an area called the Tidewater Region? It’s one of those things that for years I wanted to learn more about.  You know, what’s “tidewater” mean and just how large is the region; does it span more than one state?

The Tidewater Region

After the last ice age, rising sea levels caused the coastal plain to flood river valleys, forming the tidewater region. Located on the North Atlantic coast, the Tidewater region includes lowlands in southeast Virginia, northeastern North Carolina, southern Maryland, and the Chesapeake Bay. Nearly 90 percent of this freshwater comes from five tributaries: the Susquehanna, Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James. These rivers send 51 billion gallons of freshwater into the Bay each day.

In fact, the North Atlantic Coastal Plain covers about 50,000 square miles and extends northward from North and South Carolina’s border to Long Island, New York. The flat Tidewater Region along the ocean coast stretches inland to a Fall Line that separates the Coastal Plain Tidewater and Piedmont regions. Waterfalls and rocks prevent ships from going further inland because rivers drop abruptly from the Piedmont Region.

Residents of the Tidewater region were among the first to settle and establish themselves economically, socially, and politically. Following their culture’s traditions and values, they exploited the government’s system to resist any efforts to weaken their hold on power.

Basically, I wanted to compare my genealogy data to others’ descriptions of the Tidewater Region. A friend’s social media post about Colin Woodard’s 2012 best-selling book, “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America,” fascinated and excited me. The book identifies 11 distinct cultures that historically have divided our country. and conflicts among them have shaped our past and continue to shape our future.

According to Woodard’s book, the Tidewater region was fundamentally conservative during colonial and early republican times, placing a high value on tradition and authority instead of equality and civic engagement. These attitudes don’t surprise me, since its founders were younger sons of the English nobles, who wanted to recreate an English manorial society in the rural areas. Indentured servants and, later, slaves took the place of peasants in Virginia, Maryland, southern Delaware, and northeastern North Carolina, making it an ideal place for country gentlemen.

During the founding of the United States, tidewater nobility played a huge role in shaping many of the elements of aristocracy in the Constitution, including the Electoral College and Senate, whose members were supposed to be appointed by legislators, not voters. Southern power declined in the 1830s and 1840s because its ruling class generally followed the Deep South planters’ politics. Today, it’s still a fading nation, losing influence, cohesion, and territory to its southern neighbors. Its undoing was due to the geographical features that blocked its progress over the Appalachian Mountains.

My research continued onto the middle and southern Atlantic regions that initially were British colonies and later became states of the federal union (Maryland and Virginia in 1788, and North Carolina in 1789). Next, I turned to my family’s demographic information and identified 3,547 Tidewater settlers who originally emigrated from the Old World and learned that the region slowly had become one of considerable wealth. Planters grew tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton, while merchants and shippers lived in the towns.

Virginia’s Tidewater Region
Located north of the James River and east of the Fall Line (named for a zone of falls and rapids in rivers along the Coastal Plain-Piedmont boundary) lies Virginia’s Tidewater Region. Today’s Commonwealth of Virginia has 134 counties and equivalents, including 95 functioning governmental counties, of which only 29 counties or county-equivalents exist within the Region. It was an early home for many migrating south and west families, including 2,559 ancestors or relatives. Pocahontas (my 11th paternal great-grandmother) was among them. Her father, Chief Wahunsonacock Powhatan, was the eldest in the Tidewater Region and oversaw more than 30 tribes when the Jamestown colonists arrived in his territory in 1607. Starting with the earliest colonial settler, the origins of some of my notable Tidewater families were present. Among the noteworthy surnames: Bell (2), Blair (22), Bolling (23), Butler (40), Campbell (15), Cheadle (2), Clements (16), Cotton (3), Ellyson (2), Fleming(10), Hamlin (1), Hampton (2), Harris (29), Harrison (2), Hurt (4), Jefferson (23), Lee (172), Monroe (9), Nelson (14), Peatross (6), Randolph (66), (Spencer (2), Tarleton (1), Taylor (289), Tyler (1), Washington (78), Watkins (5). Webster (14), and Wilson (42). Within these surnames, one can find that my family is related to seven of the eight former United States Presidents:

My Top 25 Number of Ancestors, born in Virginia Tidewater Region
223 Not Elsewhere Specified in Virginia 223
264 Tazewell
184 Campbell
117 Westmoreland
102 Spotsylvania
78 Henrico
75 Orange
67 Culpeper
62 Stafford
58 Albemarle
57 Charles City
52 Gloucester
51 Hanover
50 Louisa
47 Northumberland
44 Middlesex
44 Wise
38 Richmond
36 Chesterfield
35 Bedford
31 Amherst
30 New Kent
27 Fairfax
24 Goochland
21 Isle of Wight
Rankings of Presidents
1 George Washington 1789-1797
2 James Madison 1809-1817
3 James Monroe 1817-1825
4 John Tyler 1841-1845
5 Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809
6 William Henry Harrison 1841-1841
7 Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921
8 Zachary Taylor 1849-1850

North Carolina’s Tidewater Region
Three landforms define North Carolina’s major geographic regions: The Tidewater Region or Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Mountains. North Carolina has 100 counties, yet, only 19 counties (including eight sounds: Back, Pamlico, Albemarle, Currituck, Croatan, Roanoke, Core, and Bogue) make up the Coastal Tidewater Region. This region has many low-lying areas called wetlands, where water covers the land.

Five hundred and thirty-nine of my ancestors settled in North Carolina. In total, 52 relatives live/lived in North Carolina’s Tidewater region. Those counties included: Albemarle (1 ancestor), Beaufort (1 ancestor), Bertie (2), Brunswick (2), Chowan (2), Cumberland (1), Currituck (1), Dare (11), Pasquotank (4), Tyrell (26), and Washington (1).

Maryland’s Tidewater Region
Maryland’s Tidewater Region has 23 counties and one Independent City (Baltimore City). Two hundred and ninety-seven of my 449 Maryland ancestors and relatives who migrated to the area, lived in the Southern Maryland counties of Calvert (10 relatives), Charles (148 relatives), and Saint Mary’s (50 relatives). Some definitions of the Tidewater region include Prince George’s (85 relatives) and Anne Arundel (10 relatives), representing two-thirds of my Maryland extended family.