Great Dismal Swamp

A vast wetland spanning southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, with deep peat, diverse wildlife, and a history as a refuge for people escaping slavery.

Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge: A federally protected wildlife refuge encompassing much of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina. It preserves the swamp’s core habitats and supports its modern conservation.
Peatland: A wetland where waterlogged conditions slow plant decay and allow organic matter to accumulate as peat. The swamp’s deep peat is the product of this wetland-forming process.
Atlantic Coastal Plain: A broad, low-lying region along the eastern United States, formed from sediments bordering the Atlantic Ocean. The swamp occupies this low-relief coastal landscape.
Nansemond people: An Indigenous people of Tidewater Virginia whose homeland includes areas near the Great Dismal Swamp. Their longstanding presence predates colonial transformations of the swamp.
Maroonage: The formation of communities by people who escaped enslavement and lived beyond slaveholders’ control. The swamp’s refuge communities are a major North American example of maroonage.
Lake Drummond: A shallow natural lake near the center of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. This unusual open-water feature anchors the swamp’s interior landscape.
Peat: Partly decomposed plant material accumulated in waterlogged, oxygen-poor environments. Its deposits store carbon and form the swamp’s deep, combustible soils.
Sea-level rise: An increase in the average height of the ocean surface relative to land. Changing sea levels helped shape the coastal wetlands surrounding the swamp.
Chesapeake Bay: A large estuary on the Atlantic coast bordered chiefly by Maryland and Virginia. The swamp’s maroon communities existed within a wider Chesapeake world of slavery and escape.
Chattel slavery in the United States: A system that treated enslaved people as property and compelled their labor in the United States. The swamp’s refuge history arose from resistance to this system.

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