Exploration and colonization of the Cape Fear area was a slow, haphazard affair. One hundred years after the establishment of Jamestown, Virginia, there still wasn't any activity to speak of in this part of North Carolina. It seems that even most of the area's friendly Indians had died out by the early 18th Century, probably as a result of European diseases. About the only people who made use of the place were the pirates who infested North Carolina waters. Some did see potential in the area. As early as 1524, Giovani de Verrazzano returned a favorable report of the area to the King of France. Several attempts at settlement were made by the English and Spanish, but all ended in failure. Not till 1726 was a town established.

The town was called Brunswick. Located on the west bank of the Cape Fear near the ocean, it suffered a number of misfortunes before disappearing about the time of the Revolution.
For several decades before the disappearance of Brunswick, there was real contention between towns for primacy on the Cape Fear. Sometime in the late 1720's, a village called Newton was laid out 20 miles upriver from Brunswick. Amid political wrangling, the town was incorporated in 1739 as Wilmington, in honor of the Governor's patron, Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington. It's been estimated that, at the time of incorporation, Wilmington had 30-35 houses. Not much my modern standards, but enough to make it an important settlement in a sparsely inhabited colony.
Pine trees were the engine driving settlement of the Cape Fear. At the time, the area had one of the largest accessible stands in the world. From them came tar, pitch, and turpentine; products necessary to keep wooden ships afloat. Britain, with the world's largest navy, had a huge appetite for the so called maritime stores. As a result, the region flourished. By 1768, more naval stores cleared the Cape Fear than any other port in the British Empire.
Events soon turned less favorable for the British and their navy.
In 1765 the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act. It was a tax that required all manner of papers, public and private, to have a seal affixed to them. Establishing the American tradition of resistance to the government, the colonies protested. On the Cape Fear the protests were particularly colorful. A November issue of the North Carolina Gazette reported on some of the activities:
On Saturday the 19th of last month, about seven of the clock in the evening, near five hundred people assembled together in this town and exhibited the effigy of a certain honorable gentleman; and, after letting it hang by the neck for some time near the courthouse, they made a large bonfire with a number of tar barrels, etc., and committed it to the flames. The reason assigned for the people's dislike to that gentleman was from being informed of his having several times expressed himself much in favor of the stamp duty.
After the effigy was consumed, they went to several houses in the town, brought all the gentlemen to the bonfire, and insisted upon their drinking 'Liberty, Property and No Stamp Duty and confusion to Lord B--te and all his adherents', giving three huzzas at the conclusion of each toast.
They continued together until 12 of the clock, and then dispersed without doing any mischief.
And on Thursday, the 31st of the same month in the evening a great number of people again assembled and produced an effigy of Liberty, which they put into a coffin, and marched in solemn procession with it to the church yard, a drum in mourning beating before them, and the town bell muffled ringing a doleful knell at the same time; but, before they committed the body to the ground, they thought it advisable to feel his pulse, and, when finding some remains of life, they returned back to the bonfire ready prepared, and placed the effigy before it in a large two-armed chair, and concluded the evening with great rejoicings on finding that Liberty had still an existence in the colonies. Not the least injury was offered to any person.
On Saturday the 16th of this instant, William Houston, Esq., Distributor of the stamps for this province, came to this town; upon which three or four hundred people immediately gathered together with drums beating and colors flying, and repaired to the house said stamp-officer put up at and insisted upon knowing 'whether he intended to execute his said office or not'. He told them 'he should be very sorry to execute any office disagreeable to the people of the province!' But they , not content with such declaration, carried him into the courthouse where he signed a resignation satisfactory to the whole.
As soon as the stamp-officer had complied with their desire, they placed him in an armed chair, carried him first round the courthouse, giving him three huzzas at every corner, and then proceeded with him round one of the squares of the town, and sat him down at the door of his lodgings; formed themselves in a large circle round him and gave him three cheers. They then escorted him into the house, where was prepared the best liquors to be had and treated him very genteelly.
In the evening a large bonfire was made, and no person appeared in the streets without having Liberty in large capital letters in his hat. They had a large table near the bonfire, well furnished with several sorts of liquors, where they drank in great form all the favorite American toasts, giving three cheers at the conclusion of each. The whole was conducted with great decorum and not the least injury to any persons.
Immediately after the appointed stampmaster had compiled with their commands, they called upon Mr. A. Stuart, the printer, (who had not printed the Gazette for some weeks before the Act took place, it having pleased God to afflict him with a dangerous fever). When he appeared they asked him if 'he would continue his business as heretofore?' and publish a newspaper. He told them that, 'as he had no stamped paper, and as a late act of Parliament forbid printing on any other, he could not'. He was then positively told that, 'if he did not he might expect the same treatment of the stamp man'; and demanded a positive answer. Mr. Stuart then answered 'that, rather than run the hazard of life, being maimed or have his printing office destroyed, he would comply with their request', but the whole for witness that he was compelled there to.
The next month the colonists confronted the stamp master en masse and convinced him to resign his office.
Down the river, a British sloop-of-war was trying to put a store of the stamps ashore. Armed townspeople refused to allow the landing. And, since the stamp master had prudently quit his job, there was no one to receive the stamps. The warship, soon joined by another, was helpless.
A final incident occurred when two merchant ships arrived in Brunswick. Not having the required stamps on their clearance papers, they were seized by the British warships. Local citizens were incensed. They confronted the governor and controller of the port. They exacted from the officials a promise that no stamps would be handled in the region. The ships were released, and that was the end of the Stamp Act on the Cape Fear.