Figure Eight Island Figure Eight Island Figure Eight Island is a North Carolina barrier island just north of Wrightsville Beach, widely known as an affluent summer colony and vacation desitination. The island is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Area, and lies between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. As a private island, Figure Eight can only be reached by boat or via a guarded causeway swing bridge — the only private bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in the Southeast. The island has been a destination for celebrities and politicians, including former Vice President Al Gore and Senator John Edwards, — and a
Penal colony The British used colonial North America as a penal colony through a system of indentured servitude. Merchants would transport the convicts and auction them off (for example) to plantation owners upon arrival in the colonies. It is estimated that some 50,000 British convicts were sent to colonial America and the majority landed in the Chesapeake colonies of Maryland and Virginia. Transported convicts represented perhaps one-quarter of all British emigrants during the 18th century. The colony of Georgia, for example, was first founded by James Edward Oglethorpe who originally intended to use prisoners taken largely from debtors' prison, creating a "Debtor's