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 ships as they were cheap and a high food value. The first commercial peanuts in North Carolina were grown in the Wilmington, North Carolina area beginning around 1818.

For a long time peanuts were considered simple fare. The War Between the States helped change the peanut status when Union army soldiers found them to their liking and took them home. The call of "Hot roasted Peanuts" was first heard in the late 1800's at P.T. Barnum's circus. Desire for peanuts spread as circus wagons traveled across the country.

The peanut was not a significant agricultural crop until the early 1900's when the boll weevil destroyed the South's cotton crop. Following the suggestion of the noted scientist Dr. George Washington Carver, peanuts replaced cotton's position in the South as a money crop. Today peanuts are a multimillion-dollar industry and an important crop in the Southeastern states because they are one of America's favorite foods.