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North Carolina: the story on HearLore | HearLore
— Ch. 1 · Indigenous Foundations And Colonial Encounters —
North Carolina.
~11 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
The Hardaway Site in North Carolina dates back 10,000 years to the earliest evidence of human occupation. Before 200 AD, people built earthwork platform mounds for ceremonial and religious purposes across the region. Succeeding peoples like those of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture established by 1000 AD continued this mound-building tradition throughout the Piedmont and mountain regions. The largest city of that era was Cahokia in present-day southwestern Illinois, which featured numerous mounds and a highly stratified society. In the 500, 700 years preceding European contact, Mississippian polities fell apart due to destabilizing events known as the "Mississippian shatter zone." This period saw high mortality from new Eurasian diseases and the emergence of Native militaristic slaving societies. Historically documented tribes included the Carolina Algonquian-speaking groups such as the Chowanoc, Roanoke, Pamlico, Machapunga, and Coree along the coast. Iroquoian-speaking Meherrin, Cherokee, and Tuscarora inhabited the interior while Southeastern Siouan-speaking tribes like the Cheraw, Waxhaw, Saponi, Waccamaw, Cape Fear Indians, and Catawba lived in the Piedmont. Starting in 1540, Spanish explorers traveling inland recorded meeting Mississippian culture people at Joara near what later became Morganton. Hernando de Soto's expedition met these people in 1540 before Captain Juan Pardo led an expedition to claim the area for Spain in 1567. Pardo made a winter base at Joara renaming it Cuenca and built Fort San Juan leaving 30 Spaniards there. His forces constructed five other forts before returning by a different route to Santa Elena on Parris Island. In spring 1568 natives killed all but seventy four of the Spaniards and burned the six forts including Fort San Juan. Although the Spanish never returned to the interior this effort marked the first European attempt at colonization of what became the United States. A 16th-century journal by Pardo's scribe Bandera and archaeological findings since 1986 at Joara have confirmed the settlement.
Revolutionary Birth And Civil War Divisions
On the 12th of April 1776 the colony became the first to instruct its delegates to vote for independence from Britain through the Halifax Resolves passed by the North Carolina Provincial Congress. The date appears on the state flag and seal as a memorial to that event. During the Revolutionary War fierce guerrilla warfare erupted between pro-independence and pro-British colonists settling private grudges along the way. Around 7,800 Patriots joined the Continental Army under General George Washington while an additional 10,000 served in local militia units led by figures like General Nathanael Greene. On the 7th of October 1780 a force of 1,000 Patriots from western North Carolina overwhelmed British troops led by Major Patrick Ferguson at King's Mountain along the border with South Carolina. Most soldiers fighting for the British side were Carolinians called Tories or Loyalists who had remained loyal to the Crown. Following General Daniel Morgan's victory over Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens on the 17th of January 1781 southern commander Nathanael Greene led Lord Charles Cornwallis across the heartland of North Carolina away from Charleston. This campaign known as "The Race to the Dan" saw Generals Greene and Cornwallis meet at Guilford Courthouse in present-day Greensboro on the 15th of March 1781. Although British troops held the field their casualties were crippling leading Cornwallis to move to Virginia where he eventually surrendered at Yorktown later in 1781. On the 21st of November 1789 North Carolina became the twelfth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1861 President Abraham Lincoln called on the state to invade its sister state South Carolina making it one of the last states to officially join the Confederacy. Around 125,000 troops from North Carolina served in the Confederate Army while about 15,000 including both black and white North Carolinians served in Union regiments. Over 30,000 North Carolina troops died from combat or disease during the war. Elected in 1862 Governor Zebulon Baird Vance tried to maintain state autonomy against Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond. The largest battle fought in North Carolina was at Bentonville which was a futile attempt by General Joseph Johnston to slow Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's advance through the Carolinas in spring 1865. In April 1865 after losing the Battle of Morrisville Johnston surrendered to Sherman at Bennett Place in what is today Durham. The port city of Wilmington fell to the Union in February 1865 after the Second Battle of Fort Fisher. At Appomattox Court House in Virginia the 75th North Carolina Regiment fired the last shots of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
Reconstruction And The Jim Crow Era
Following the collapse of the Confederacy in 1865 North Carolina came under direct military control until ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment. A constitutional convention restored the state government in 1868 though the Fifteenth Amendment remained ineffective for almost a century due to paramilitary groups and lynching with impunity. Elections in April 1868 led to a narrow victory for a Republican-dominated government with 19 African-Americans holding positions in the State Legislature. New Republican Governor William W. Holden declared martial law on counties allegedly not complying with law and order using the Shoffner Act. A coalition of black freedmen northern carpetbaggers and local scalawags controlled state government for three years before white conservative Democrats regained control in 1870 through Ku Klux Klan violence and terrorism at the polls. Republicans held the governorship until 1876 when Red Shirts a paramilitary organization allied with the Democratic Party helped suppress black voting. More than 150 black Americans were murdered in electoral violence in 1876. Post-Civil War debt cycles pushed people from subsistence agriculture to commodity agriculture where the notorious Crop-Lien system developed financially difficult landless whites and blacks due to high usury. The free range ended forcing people to fence animals and crops in open areas. In 1896 a biracial Populist-Republican Fusionist coalition gained the governor's office passing laws extending voting rights to blacks and poor whites. Democrats regained control in 1896 passing Jim Crow laws imposing racial segregation of public facilities. Voters elected four African-American congressmen from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district during these late 19th century years. Political tensions ran so high that a small group of white Democrats planned to take over Wilmington if their candidates lost. In the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 white Democrats led around 2,000 supporters attacking the black newspaper and neighborhood killing an estimated 60 to 300 people. They installed Alfred M. Waddell as mayor in the only successful coup d'état in United States history. In 1899 the state legislature passed a new constitution requiring poll taxes and literacy tests for voter registration which disenfranchised most black Americans. Exclusion from voting meant black Americans could not serve on juries or hold local office until after federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed. It was not until 1992 that another African American was elected as a U.S. Representative from North Carolina.
Economic Transformation From Agriculture To Tech
After Reconstruction North Carolina became a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party with an economy based on tobacco cotton textiles and commodity agriculture. Large towns remained few but a major industrial base emerged in late 19th and early 20th century counties of the Piedmont Triad based on cotton mills established at the fall line. Railroads connected new industrializing cities while the state hosted the first successful controlled powered heavier-than-air flight by Wright brothers near Kitty Hawk on the 17th of December 1903. Research Triangle Park established in 1959 serves as the largest research park in the United States formed near Raleigh Durham and Chapel Hill. Governor Luther H. Hodges launched transformation of his state from one of poorest to most prosperous through a 1956 meeting helping create the park. By the 1990s Charlotte had become a major regional and national banking center while universities like NC State Duke and UNC Chapel Hill attracted educated workforce to Research Triangle area. In 1988 North Carolina gained its first professional sports franchise the Charlotte Hornets of NBA whose name stems from British General Cornwallis describing Charlotte as "a hornet's nest of rebellion." The Carolina Panthers NFL team began play in 1995 while Carolina Hurricanes NHL moved to Raleigh in 1997 sharing colors with NC State Wolfpack. Late 20th and early 21st century saw technology pharmaceuticals banking food processing vehicle parts and tourism emerge as main economic drivers marking shift from tobacco textiles and furniture. Factors driving this shift included globalization higher education system national banking agricultural transformation and new companies moving to state. Since 2000 clear division exists between urban prosperity and rural decline where half of 100 counties lost population since 2010 due to poor economy. Urban areas enjoyed steady job growth low unemployment rising wages while many rural counties suffered job loss poverty and population loss as manufacturing base declined.
Geographic Diversity And Climate Patterns
North Carolina consists of three main geographic regions: Atlantic coastal plain occupying eastern portion central Piedmont region and mountain region in west part of Appalachian Mountains. Coastal plain includes Outer Banks string of sandy narrow barrier islands separated from mainland by sounds including Albemarle Sound and Pamlico Sound native home of venus flytrap. So many ships have been lost off Cape Hatteras that area known as "Graveyard of the Atlantic" with more than thousand ships sunk since records began in 1526. Most famous shipwreck is Queen Anne's Revenge flagship of pirate Blackbeard which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718. The coastal plain transitions to Piedmont along Atlantic Seaboard fall line elevation at which waterfalls first appear on streams and rivers. Piedmont contains gently rolling countryside broken by hills or low mountain ridges including Sauratown Mountains Pilot Mountain Uwharrie Mountains Crowder's Mountain King's Pinnacle Brushy Mountains South Mountains ranging about 400 feet east to 1,500 feet west. Western section part of Blue Ridge Mountains subranges Great Smoky Mountains Black Mountains highest in eastern United States culminating Mount Mitchell 6,684 feet highest point east Mississippi River. North Carolina has 17 major river basins five flowing Gulf Mexico remainder Atlantic Ocean. Eleven originate within state but only four contained entirely within border: Cape Fear Neuse White Oak Tar-Pamlico basin. Climate influenced by elevation Atlantic Ocean Gulf Stream causing warmer winter temperatures along coast where freezing points rarely drop below night. Coastal plain averages around 3 inches snow annually many years no snow ice. Atlantic Ocean exerts less influence on Piedmont region having hotter summers colder winters though winters still mild. State experiences severe weather summer winter bringing hurricanes tropical storms heavy rain flooding. Destructive hurricanes include Fran Florence Floyd Hugo Hazel latter strongest storm landfall Category4 1954. Hurricane Helene ranks most destructive 21st century. Average fewer than 20 tornadoes per year many produced hurricanes tropical storms coastal plain. Tornadoes thunderstorms risk especially eastern part western Piedmont often protected mountains breaking storms re-forming farther east phenomenon cold-air damming occurs northwestern part weakening storms leading major ice events winter. April 2011 worst tornado outbreak history thirty confirmed tornadoes Eastern Piedmont Sandhills killing at least 24 people September 2019 Hurricane Dorian hit area.
Demographic Shifts And Cultural Identity
At 2020 census population reached 10,439,388 making state ninth-most populous United States. Between 2021 and 2024 population increased from 10,551,162 to 11,046,024 recording fourth-largest gain nationally between 2023 and 2024. Population growth heavily concentrated largest metropolitan counties Wake County reported 1,135,576 residents Mecklenburg County 1,118,967 both over one million. Migration primary factor driving recent change: net migration gained estimated 573,000 residents April 2020 July 2024 representing 95% total population growth. Domestic migration accounts majority increase gaining 82,000 residents July 2023 July 2024 second-highest figure nation after Texas. International migration rebounded accounting 46% net migration 2023-2024 with 70,000 net international arrivals year. Top countries origin Mexico India Honduras China El Salvador. Racial composition 2020 census showed White non-Hispanic 62.2% Black or African American 20.5% American Indian Alaska Native 1.2% Asian 3.3% Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander 0.1% other race 5.9% multiracial 6.8%. Hispanic population more than doubled size 1990-2000 many Mexican descent working agriculture manufacturing military installations. Most common ancestries African-American American German English Irish. State eighth-largest Native American population home eight tribes four urban organizations. Languages spoken include Spanish 6.93% French 0.32% German 0.27% Chinese Mandarin 0.27% Vietnamese 0.24% Arabic 0.17% Korean 0.16% Tagalog 0.13% Hindi 0.12% Gujarati Russian Hmong tied 0.11% Italian Japanese tied 0.08% Cherokee 0.01%. In 2010 89.66% residents age five older spoke English primary language while 10.34% spoke mother language other English. Religion historically overwhelmingly Protestant first Anglican then Baptist Methodist. Southern Baptist Convention largest Christian denomination 4,241 churches 1,513,000 members 2010 second largest Roman Catholic Church organized two dioceses Charlotte Diocese 530,000 members 196 parishes Raleigh Diocese 80 parishes nearly 500,000 Catholics. United Methodist Church third largest 660,000 members 1,923 churches Presbyterian fourth largest 186,000 members 710 congregations brought Scots-Irish immigrants settled backcountry colonial era. Rapid influx Northerners Latin America steadily increasing ethnic religious diversity number Roman Catholics Jews state increased general religious diversity whole substantial Quakers Guilford County northeastern North Carolina.
When did the Hardaway Site in North Carolina first show evidence of human occupation?
The Hardaway Site in North Carolina dates back 10,000 years to the earliest evidence of human occupation. Before 200 AD people built earthwork platform mounds for ceremonial and religious purposes across the region.
What happened during Hernando de Soto's expedition to North Carolina in 1540?
Hernando de Soto's expedition met Mississippian culture people at Joara near what later became Morganton in 1540. Captain Juan Pardo led an expedition to claim the area for Spain in 1567 and established Fort San Juan before natives killed most Spaniards in spring 1568.
Why is April 12th 1776 significant to the history of North Carolina?
On the 12th of April 1776 the colony became the first to instruct its delegates to vote for independence from Britain through the Halifax Resolves passed by the North Carolina Provincial Congress. The date appears on the state flag and seal as a memorial to that event.
How many troops from North Carolina served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War?
Around 125,000 troops from North Carolina served in the Confederate Army while about 15,000 including both black and white North Carolinians served in Union regiments. Over 30,000 North Carolina troops died from combat or disease during the war.
What occurred during the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 in North Carolina?
In the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 white Democrats led around 2,000 supporters attacking the black newspaper and neighborhood killing an estimated 60 to 300 people. They installed Alfred M. Waddell as mayor in the only successful coup d'état in United States history.
When did Wright brothers achieve their first controlled powered heavier-than-air flight near Kitty Hawk in North Carolina?
The state hosted the first successful controlled powered heavier-than-air flight by Wright brothers near Kitty Hawk on the 17th of December 1903. Research Triangle Park established in 1959 serves as the largest research park in the United States formed near Raleigh Durham and Chapel Hill.