Peanuts were known as early as 950 B.C. It is believed that they originated in Brazil or Peru and were carried to Africa by early explorers and missionaries. From there traders took them to Spain and “The New World.” Colonial traders used the peanuts as food aboard ship as they were cheap and of high food value. The first commercial peanut crop in Virginia was grown in Sussex County (near what is now Waverly) in the early to mid 1840’s and the first ones in North Carolina were grown in the Wilmington area beginning around 1818.