"Even though seafood has always been one of this region's natural resources, it would not be until after the Civil War that it became a commercial enterprise in Hampton. Northerners came South and brought Yankee ingenuity, enterprise, and capital to invest in the seafood industry.

Oysters were always plentiful in the waters surrounding Hampton. This industry really began in 1881 when J.S. Darling founded his oystering farm that eventually became the largest in the world and made the Hampton Bar oyster famous.