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    North Carolina Through Four Centuries
    North Carolina Through Four Centuries
    North Carolina Through Four Centuries
    Ebook1,191 pages14 hours

    North Carolina Through Four Centuries

    By Henry Bibb

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    About this ebook

    This successor to the classic Lefler-Newsome North Carolina: The History of a Southern State, published in 1954, presents a fresh survey history that includes the contemporary scene. Drawing upon recent scholarship, the advice of specialists, and his own knowledge, Powell has created a splendid narrative that makes North Carolina history accessible to both students and general readers. For years to come, this will be the standard college text and an essential reference for home and office.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe University of North Carolina Press
    Release dateJan 20, 2010
    ISBN9780807898987
    North Carolina Through Four Centuries
    Author

    Henry Bibb

    William S. Powell is professor of history emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Among his many books are the Encyclopedia of North Carolina and North Carolina through Four Centuries.

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    • 4/5
      Old-school history of the ancient commonwealth of North Carolina. Top down, political history of great white men doing great white deeds. Still, Powell is one of the foremost colonial era historians and he shows the breadth and depth of that knowledge in this work.

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    North Carolina Through Four Centuries - Henry Bibb

    NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH FOUR CENTURIES

    NORTH CAROLINA

    THROUGH FOUR CENTURIES

    WILLIAM S. POWELL

    THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS

    Chapel Hill and London

    ©1989 The University of North Carolina Press

    All rights reserved

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Powell, William Stevens, 1919–

    North Carolina through four centuries /

    by William S. Powell.

    p. cm.

    Bibliography: p.

    Includes index.

    ISBN 0-8078-1846-1 (alk. paper).

    ISBN 0-8078-1850-x (text ed. : alk. paper)

    1. North Carolina—History. 2. North Carolina—

    Politics and government. I. Title.

    F254.P63    1989                                                88-7691

    975.6—DC19                                                       CIP

    The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

    Printed in the United States of America

    05                                      9 8 7

    For

    Stephanie Lind Powell

    James Keegan Powell

    Caitlin Waldrop Powell

    Charles Stevens Powell V

    David Nathanael Feild

    in expectation that their

    lives in North Carolina

    in the twenty-first century

    will be as happy as their

    grandfather’s has been

    in the twentieth

    CONTENTS

    Preface

    1.

    Natural Features and Native Peoples

    The Coastal Plain

    The Piedmont Plateau

    The Mountains

    The Influence of Geography

    Geology

    Soil

    Minerals

    Climate and Weather

    Native Americans

    Indian Tribes

    2.

    Exploration and Early Settlement

    French Interest

    Spanish Interest

    English Interest

    Amadas and Barlowe Expedition

    The Ralph Lane Colony

    The John White Colony

    Searches for the Lost Colony

    Results of Raleigh’s Efforts

    The Carolana Grant

    3.

    A Proprietary Colony, 1663–1729

    The Carolina Charter of 1663

    Beginning Government

    Concerns over Land

    Culpeper’s Rebellion

    Seth Sothel’s Excesses

    Gibbs’s Rebellion

    Extended Settlement

    Religion in the Colony

    Cary’s Rebellion

    Tuscarora Indian War

    Piracy

    Expansion to the South

    The Proprietors Sell Their Shares

    4.

    Royal Government

    Imperial Conflicts

    Difficulties of the First Royal Governor

    A Compromising Governor

    The Granville District

    Colonial Wars

    5.

    Colonial Society and Culture, 1729–1776

    Growth and Expansion

    Highland Scots

    Scots-Irish

    Germans

    Moravians

    Welsh

    Blacks

    Orders of Society

    Housing

    Food

    Public Accommodations and Entertainment

    Religion and Churches

    Schools and Education

    6.

    Colonial Economy: Agriculture, Trade, and Communication

    Agriculture

    Livestock

    Forest Products

    Transportation and Communication

    7.

    Sectional Controversies in the Colony

    The Albemarle versus the Cape Fear

    The Regulator Movement

    8.

    A Decade of Dispute

    The Royal Proclamation of 1763

    Parliamentary Acts of 1764 and 1765

    The Stamp Act Resisted

    The Non-Importation Association

    The Last Royal Governor

    Edenton Tea Party

    First Provincial Congress

    Second Provincial Congress

    Mecklenburg Resolves

    Third Provincial Congress

    Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge

    9.

    Attaining Independence

    The First Call for Independence

    Fourth Provincial Congress Adopts Halifax Resolves

    Fifth Provincial Congress Draws Up a Constitution

    Weak State Government

    Loyalist Activities

    State Finances

    Military Concerns

    The War Moves South

    Steps to Victory

    10.

    A Free State

    Unsettled Conditions

    Factionalism

    Treatment of Loyalists

    Creating a New State Capital

    Foundations for the Future

    Plans for a National Union

    The State of Franklin

    A New National Government

    The Federal Constitution Rejected

    11.

    A Jeffersonian Republic

    The Federal Constitution Accepted

    North Carolina and Washington’s Administration

    Rise of Republicanism

    Money and Banking

    The Walton War

    War of 1812

    12.

    A State Asleep

    The State’s Dismal Outlook

    Causes of Backwardness

    Farm Conditions and Migration

    Economic Conditions and Sources of Revenue

    Political Conditions

    13.

    The Vision of Archibald D. Murphey

    Murphey’s Preparation for Leadership

    The Literary Fund

    Internal Improvements

    The State Hires an Engineer

    Call for Constitutional Reform

    14.

    The Constitutional Convention of 1835

    National Issues and North Carolina Politics

    Rise of the Whig Party

    Demands of the West

    The Convention

    15.

    The Whig Era, 1835–1850

    Many Prompt Improvements

    Railroads

    The North Carolina Railroad

    Common Schools Established

    War with Mexico

    Concern for the Unfortunate

    16.

    A Change in Midstream

    The Democrats Prevail on Suffrage Issue

    Educational Progress

    17.

    The Economy and Antebellum Society

    Tobacco

    The Gold Boom and Iron

    Manufacturing

    Higher Education

    Reading, Writing, and Religion

    18.

    The Coming of the Civil War

    The Balance of Power: Slave and Free States

    The Hedrick Affair

    The Banning of a Book

    Political Dissension in 1860

    The Roots of Secession

    19.

    The Civil War

    Comparison of Resources and Aims

    Troops and Supplies Raised

    Troops

    Military Activity

    Emancipation Plans

    The War in Eastern North Carolina

    Activity in Western North Carolina

    Blockade-Running

    Split Loyalties

    Around-the-World Cruise of the Shenandoah

    Sherman’s Coming

    Battle of Bentonville

    Fort Fisher

    The Surrender at the Bennett Farmhouse

    20.

    A State Made New

    Presidential Plans to Restore the Union

    Reaction to a Constitution Rejected

    Military Rule

    A New Constitution

    Ku Klux Klan Appears

    North Carolina Returns to the Union

    Carpetbaggers, Scalawags, and the Klan

    The Kirk-Holden War

    Impeachment of the Governor

    21.

    A Fresh Start

    The Constitution Amended

    Conservatives Return to Power as Democrats

    Industrialization

    Urbanization

    Agriculture Languishes

    Education

    22.

    A Time of Readjustment

    Farmers’ Organizations

    Political Party Fusion

    Black Officeholders

    Democratic Campaign Plans

    The Wilmington Race Riot

    Blacks Disfranchised

    Signs of Progress

    23.

    Great Anticipations for the Twentieth Century

    The South Dakota Bond Case

    Impeachment of Two Justices

    The Educational Governor

    The Crime of Lynching

    State Literary and Historical Association

    Mount Mitchell State Park

    Wireless Experiments

    First Airplane Flight

    Alcoholic Beverage Control

    Farmers’ Organizations

    Organized Labor

    Child Labor

    Academic Freedom

    World War I

    Woman Suffrage

    The Roaring Twenties

    The Evolution Controversy

    Higher Education

    Books and Writers

    Politics

    24.

    Down But Not Out: The State Survives the Great Depression

    The Businessman’s Governor

    Roads and Transportation

    A Rise in Republican Strength

    Governor Gardner’s Program

    Economic Hardships

    University Consolidation

    New State Government Agencies

    Widespread Suffering

    Unemployment and Labor Problems

    Relief

    25.

    New Points to Ponder in a Restless World

    Signs of Progress

    Military Maneuvers in the State

    World War II

    Wartime Accomplishments and Postwar Planning

    Experimental Rockets Tested

    Polio Epidemic

    Expanded Role of the Federal Government

    Health Concerns

    Labor, Unions, and Strikes

    Communist Hunt

    Progressive Developments

    The Graham-Smith Campaign

    Korean War

    26.

    A New Face for the State

    Race Relations

    The Pearsall Plan

    Token School Integration

    The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Case

    Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-Ins

    Violence in Wilmington

    Death to the Klan Rally

    Black Candidates for Office

    The Research Triangle Park

    The Vietnam War

    Student Unrest

    Communism and the Speaker Ban

    Governor Sanford’s Progressive Program

    Environmental Concerns

    Crime

    Historical Observances

    Reorganization of State Government

    Constitutional Reform

    Higher Education

    Great and Unexpected Changes

    27.

    The State Looks to the Future

    Appendixes

    A. British Monarchs during Exploration, Settlement, and the Colonial Period

    B. Chief Executives of North Carolina

    C. North Carolina Counties

    D. Population of North Carolina

    E. Sites of Meetings of the Legislature

    F. Chronology

    Further Reading

    Index

    PREFACE

    NORTH CAROLINA has been fortunate in the twentieth century in having many good survey histories. Samuel A. Ashe in 1908, soon after the appearance of the final volumes of the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, published the first volume of his History of North Carolina through the end of the American Revolution; it was followed in 1925 by a second volume bringing the account down to his own day. Ashe, a native of New Hanover County, an alumnus of the United States Naval Academy, a Confederate officer, and then a Raleigh newspaper editor, organized his history chronologically yet dealt with the government, people, society, war, religion, education, and a host of other topics. Succeeding historians of the state have generally followed the pattern set by Ashe.

    A three-volume cooperative History of North Carolina, written by professional historians, was published in 1919. R. D. W. Connor was responsible for the volume recounting the colonial and revolutionary periods. William K. Boyd wrote on the federal and antebellum periods, while J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton covered North Carolina after 1860. This work became the standard source for information about the state’s past for many years. Without actually supplanting the Connor-Boyd-Hamilton series, Connor in 1929 was the author of a two-volume work, North Carolina: Rebuilding an Ancient Commonwealth. Containing more detailed information yet written in a graceful style, Connor’s work contributed to an even better understanding of the state’s history.

    In 1941 Archibald Henderson’s North Carolina: The Old North State and the New appeared in two volumes. A mathematician rather than a historian, although he was certainly a student of history, Henderson prepared a readable account of the state that contained a great deal of new information particularly on social history. Published on the eve of World War II, this work never received the attention it might have otherwise. Because Professor Henderson strongly supported certain aspects of the state’s history that others questioned, and because his work was neither annotated nor had a bibliography, it was viewed with skepticism by many professional historians.

    Widely acclaimed as Mr. North Carolina and beloved by his students at North Carolina State College and at the University of North Carolina, Hugh T. Lefler was the author of several textbooks and survey histories of North Carolina. Read by untold thousands, Lefler’s books were frequently cited to settle questions on points of state history. With his Chapel Hill colleague, Albert Ray Newsome, Lefler was coauthor of North Carolina: The History of a Southern Statepublished in 1954. Revised with the addition of more current material in 1963 and 1973, it became both the standard textbook for advanced courses in North Carolina history and the reference book on the subject in homes across the state. In 1956 a two-volume version by Lefler alone, based largely on the 1954 work but with additional material in some places, appeared in a small edition.

    North Carolina: The History of a Southern State was written in the late 1940s and early 1950s; its second author, Newsome, died in 1951. Although each of the three editions was reprinted many times, the heart of the work in its final 1987 printing was virtually unchanged from that issued almost thirty-five years earlier. The pressing needs of instructors and students, as well as the general reader, for a new work became more urgent as time passed. The increasing availability of new source materials in the flourishing archives and manuscript collections of the state, the constant appearance of significant articles in scholarly journals, the large number of theses and dissertations on North Carolina subjects, and above all the new specialized books on all aspects of the state’s history shed new light on North Carolina’s past. The contemporary scene also changed dramatically in the last quarter of the twentieth century with the growth of industry, a new relationship between the state and federal governments, the influx of outsiders, and altered race relations. It was widely recognized that the time had come for a totally new history of the state.

    In accordance with Lefler’s wish expressed some years before his death, the University of North Carolina Press, publisher of the Lefler-Newsome book since its inception, asked me to undertake such an assignment. This provided an opportunity to review what I had said in my own North Carolina history classes since 1964, to reconsider notes I had made and filed away over many years, and to undertake some fresh research and reading. Most importantly, it led me to think more about the immediate past and to attempt in my own mind to account for certain things about the state today. While much that has been written about our history since the days of Ashe, Connor, and other authors remains valid, it has now become possible to understand more clearly the consequences of some of the turns the state took many years ago. We now know more about when and why decisions were made, who the responsible people were, and sometimes even what lay behind their actions. These fresh interpretations as well as modern methods of computing statistics reveal much of interest about our past that is new. North Carolina through Four Centuries may serve to explain to Tar Heels, old-timers as well as newcomers, what has brought us to our present state.

    In preparing to write this new book, my first step was to seek the advice of a number of my colleagues across the state who have taught North Carolina history at the college level. I requested their guidance both as to what changes were desirable in the topics covered in the Lefler-Newsome volume and what entirely new topics should be included. I asked what they felt should be stressed and what omitted. They also were consulted as to organization and length of the book. Each of them responded in considerable detail, and I attempted to comply with their counsel as fully as I could. This book, I hope, meets the basic needs that they defined. To each of them I have expressed my gratitude; but on the chance that one or more of them might not be entirely pleased with what I have produced, they shall remain anonymous for the present. I am, however, indebted to Lindley S. Butler, Jerry C. Cashion, and Robert F. Durden for their careful reading of the entire manuscript and for their valuable suggestions. In the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina, H. G. Jones, Alice Cotten, and Jeffrey Hicks provided advice and sources to help answer my questions, as did William S. Price and George Stevenson at the State Archives. At the University of North Carolina Press, David Perry went beyond the call of duty as an editor and helped me to see portions of my work that needed expanding. Also at the Press, Stevie Champion’s skill as copy editor improved my manuscript greatly; her penetrating questions often sent me back to the sources. My wife, Virginia Waldrop Powell, gave me the benefit of her trained eye in discovering unclear passages in my prose. To one and all go my thanks for their help and interest and a blanket pardon to each from any share of the criticism that may be leveled at this work.

    William S. Powell

    Chapel Hill, North Carolina

    NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH FOUR CENTURIES

    Map 1. North Carolina Counties

    1

    NATURAL FEATURES AND NATIVE PEOPLES

    THE VARIED features of the land in North Carolina have had a pronounced effect on its development. The state is usually described as being composed of three regions: the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, and the Mountains. Each of these has a distinct history, and only in recent years have social and economic factors created a unifying force sufficient to overcome the differences and divisions long attributed to geographic influences.

    One of the South Atlantic states, North Carolina is bounded on the north by Virginia, on the west by Tennessee, on the south by Georgia and South Carolina, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 52,712 square miles of which 49,067 are land and 3,645 are water, and ranks twenty-eighth in size among the states. From east to west North Carolina is slightly more than 500 miles, while at its widest point it is 188 miles from north to south. In elevation the range is from sea level on the Outer Banks at the Atlantic Ocean to 6,684 feet at Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. It lies between latitudes 33°27′37″N and 36°34′25″N, and longitudes 75°27′W and 84°20′W.

    The Coastal Plain

    The broad, flat region of eastern North Carolina extends inland from the ocean for 100 to 150 miles and covers nearly 21,000 square miles. It is part of the vast coastal plain extending from New York southward down the Atlantic coast and around the Gulf of Mexico. The eastern limit of this region in North Carolina is the chain of long, narrow, sandy islands called the Outer Banks, extending from the Virginia state line to Bogue Inlet at the mouth of White Oak River on the Carteret-Onslow county line. The Outer Banks are separated from the mainland by several wide but shallow sounds. At Cape Hatteras, a little south of the midpoint of the Outer Banks, the land juts farther east into the Atlantic than at any other point on the North American continent south of Delaware Bay. The warm currents of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic give Cape Hatteras and other portions of these Outer Banks a milder winter climate than they otherwise would have.

    This early twentieth-century view of the North Carolina coast made by Bayard Wootten probably differs little from the isolated scene that greeted the earliest explorers of the region. (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

    The Outer Banks are more than 175 miles long, and until the twentieth century, when bridges and paved highways were built, they were accessible from the mainland only by boat. Inlets through which water from some of the state’s rivers enters the ocean are frequently changed by storms. From north to south the most important inlets are Oregon and Hatteras, both opened by a hurricane on 7 September 1846, and Ocracoke which has been known since the days of the earliest explorers, although its exact location has shifted slightly with passing storms.

    Of the sounds, Pamlico is the largest of the bodies of water between the Outer Banks and the mainland. It is approximately 80 miles long and ranges in width from 15 to 30 miles. It is the largest sound on the eastern coast of the United States, while Albemarle Sound is approximately 52 miles long and 5 to 14 miles wide. Other sounds in this section are Bogue, Core, Croatan, Currituck, and Roanoke.

    The mainland of eastern North Carolina is level, marked by numerous swamps and lakes, and drained by many rivers and small streams. The soil is generally fertile black loam, moderately easy to farm and relatively productive. Much of this region is less than 20 feet above sea level, but along its western limits it may rise to 500 feet. The strip of eastern counties where the altitude seldom exceeds 30 feet above sea level is sometimes referred to as the Tidewater Region.

    The swamps and cypress trees on the shore of Albemarle Sound were typical of much of eastern North Carolina and suggest the difficulty of passage from one part of the colony to another. (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

    Along the South Carolina border an area of the Coastal Plain is somewhat higher than the adjacent section. It is called the Sandhills and covers most of Richmond, Moore, and Hoke as well as portions of Cumberland, Harnett, Montgomery, Scotland, and Lee counties, reaching an elevation of around 300 feet. In this area the pleasant winter climate has contributed to the development of Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Aberdeen, and other communities as winter resorts.

    The Coastal Plain is drained by several important rivers. Flowing into the sounds are the Chowan, Roanoke, Tar-Pamlico, and Neuse rivers. The short White Oak and New rivers flow directly into the Atlantic. The Cape Fear River, formed in the Piedmont by the junction of the Deep and Haw rivers, flows through southeastern North Carolina into the Atlantic. A well-traveled waterway since the early eighteenth century, this is the state’s busiest river.

    Natural lakes abound in this section of the state. In the northeast are Lake Phelps and Lake Mattamuskeet, the latter being the largest in the state with an area of 30,000 acres. Great Lake in the central east and Lake Waccamaw, White Lake, and Black Lake in the southeast are among the largest. The last three lie in an area marked by numerous smaller lakes as well as peat beds that once were lakes. Known as the Carolina Bays and particularly impressive when seen from the air, these elliptical-shaped features are believed to have been formed in prehistoric times by a shower of meteorites that pushed up a rim of sand along their southeastern rim. They are unique to this area along both sides of the line between the two Carolinas.

    Eastern North Carolina, the earliest settled portion of the colony, was the scene of considerable growth as settlement pushed from north to south. After the Revolutionary War, however, the backcountry began to surpass the Coastal Plain in population and industry.

    The Piedmont Plateau

    The Piedmont section of North Carolina covers about 22,000 square miles. It is marked on the east by gently rolling hills with an elevation of around 500 feet and extends west to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains with an elevation of around 1,500 feet. It is part of a broad belt extending from southern New York to northern Georgia. The soil of the Piedmont is frequently a sticky red clay when wet or hard and sometimes powdery dust when dry. Rocks of varying size, even up to large immovable boulders, are common here. Farmers have found the soil in the Piedmont to be more difficult to work and usually less fertile than that of the east; as a result, farms traditionally have been smaller here.

    Rivers and other streams of the Piedmont often flow through deep cuts made in the clay soil. Their steep banks sometimes fill rapidly during heavy rains when excess water drains off the surrounding countryside. The chief rivers of this section are the Catawba and the Yadkin-Pee Dee, both of which rise in the mountains and flow southeast into South Carolina. Many smaller streams, swift and shallow, have been dammed to produce waterpower to operate mills. Numerous gristmills sprang up in the Piedmont soon after settlers arrived, and the first cotton mill south of the Potomac River was erected in Lincoln County on the banks of a small stream, which provided ample power.

    Dams erected on the rivers and streams of the Piedmont in the twentieth century impounded waters that made large lakes of considerable importance for recreation, flood control, or the production of hydroelectric power. Among them are Lake Gaston, Kerr Lake, Lake Hickory, Lake James, and Lake Norman. The face of the Piedmont has been changed from a country of small farms to a growing industrial region. The Piedmont Crescent extending from Wake County on the east through the cities of Raleigh and Durham and across Orange, Alamance, Guilford, Randolph, Forsyth, Davidson, Rowan, Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Gaston, and Lincoln counties is an almost continuous strip of industrial activity through the heart of the Piedmont.

    The Piedmont also is marked by some unusual features. The Uwharrie Mountains extending northeast-southwest across Montgomery, Randolph, and Stanly counties have peaks rising to nearly 1,800 feet above sea level. Kings Mountain in Cleveland and Gaston counties extends down into South Carolina, but its highest point, The Pinnacle, at the northern end, has an altitude of 1,705 feet. A few miles away in Burke, Cleveland, and Rutherford counties are the South Mountains with several impressive peaks, the tallest of which is High Peak with an altitude of 2,720 feet. In the Sauratown Mountains of Stokes County, Moore’s Knob is 2,579 feet. Pilot Mountain in southeastern Surry County, an isolated peak standing alone in generally flat country, is 2,700 feet above sea level, but it stands 1,500 feet above the countryside, serving as a landmark, a pilot, visible from a great distance away.

    While North Carolina was still its colony, England recognized the Piedmont as a potential source of profit. In 1767 an English writer described it as being more fruitful and healthy than the east; once peopled and secured, he predicted, it would become a significant part of the British dominions and of service to the nation. From this region, he believed, would come people to settle up the Mississippi and across the continent to the territories of the Ohio. Time proved him correct, but only after independence was achieved.

    The Mountains

    The mountainous region of western North Carolina covers approximately 6,000 square miles and ranges in elevation from around 1,500 feet on the east to 6,684 feet a few miles northeast of Asheville at Mount Mitchell. In North Carolina this region is about 200 miles long and ranges in width from 15 to 50 miles. The mountains here are a part of the Appalachian system, which extends from Canada into northern Alabama but attains its greatest height and mass in North Carolina. The eastern limit of the section is marked by the Blue Ridge, the eastern continental divide, while the Great Smoky Mountains mark the division between North Carolina and Tennessee on the west. The average elevation of the Blue Ridge is 4,000 feet, but there are passes that sink as low as 2,000 feet above the level of the Piedmont. There are 49 peaks in the state’s mountains with an elevation in excess of 6,000 feet, and 174 exceed 5,000 feet; hundreds are between 4,000 and 5,000 feet. In many areas this is extremely rugged country marked both by the main ridge running northeast-southwest and by lesser spurs shooting off to the east and west from them. On the streams of the mountains occur numerous waterfalls, many of which have intriguing names such as Bear Wallow, Raven Cliff, Bridal Veil, Whitewater, Soco, and Cullasaja. In some cases the water of these falls plunges into a deep pool over 1,300 feet below, while others tempt the visitor to slide down the smooth rock over which the water glides.

    A view in the mountains of western North Carolina with an unimproved variety of corn in the foreground, an old-fashioned apple tree on the right, and some wildflowers in the lower right corner. This photograph was made in the early twentieth century by Bayard Wootten, noted North Carolina artist-with-a-camera. (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

    Rainfall on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge drains into the Atlantic Ocean through streams which rise in that region. Most of them then flow through the Piedmont and across South Carolina where they enter the Atlantic Ocean. On the western slopes water drains into the Gulf of Mexico through tributaries of the Mississippi River that rise in the mountains of western North Carolina. Chief among these are the Hiwassee, Little Tennessee, French Broad, Nolichucky, Pigeon, Elk, and Watauga rivers. The New River, however, formed on the Ashe-Alleghany county line, flows north; it is said to be the only large river in the United States to flow in this direction.

    With Mount Pisgah in the distance on the Buncombe-Haywood county line, gently sloping grassland on the right, and a field on the left enclosed by a rail fence, this nineteenth-century view was intended to suggest that western North Carolina was a region of great beauty. (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

    Many valleys formed by the mountain streams are deep and narrow, and of the numerous waterfalls many are high and spectacular. The narrow defile through which Linville River flows in northwestern Burke County has been acclaimed the wildest gorge in the eastern United States. The New River, so called because it was discovered comparatively recently, is also in a wild and isolated section in the northwestern corner of the state. It is considered to be the second oldest river in the world, next after the Nile. In its waters and along its banks live fish and plants not known elsewhere.

    With the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933, many rivers of the North Carolina mountains were harnessed for the production of electricity. Among the lakes formed by dams are Chatuge, Fontana, and Hiwassee. Numerous smaller ones, some formed prior to 1933, also dot the region. In addition to power, these waters provide the means of flood control, recreation, and excellent fishing, and are sources of municipal water.

    Many of the peaks in the Great Smoky Mountains are marked by balds. These are areas without trees, sometimes several thousand acres in size, usually above the 5,000-foot mark, and covered with thick native grass. The soil is black and deep, and almost invariably small springs may be found near the edges. No satisfactory explanation of the origin of the balds has been presented, but often landslides, fires, storms, and the direction of the prevailing winds have been credited with their formation.

    The mountains were first explored by Europeans when a Spanish expedition under Hernando de Soto arrived in 1540. He reported the area to be pleasant and spent a month resting his horses and enjoying the hospitality of the natives. The region has been a popular resort since it first became accessible by road and rail. Many visitors enjoy the mild summer climate, long climbing expeditions, and the search for wildflowers and gemstones. The Appalachian Trail, a noted hiking route, passes through the region and brings many visitors as does the lure of ski slopes and some noted caves, particularly Linville Caverns and Bat Cave.

    The Influence of Geography

    A North Carolina historian, Christopher Crittenden, once wrote: When Nature came to design the topography of eastern North Carolina, she almost persuaded herself to create a great maritime center. But this she did not do. The inlets and sounds along the coast are shallow and shifting. Nature intended instead that North Carolina should be first an agricultural region—soil and climate dictated this. Sources of power spurred the later development of industry in the backcountry, settled about a century later.

    The lack of good harbors meant that few settlers would come directly to North Carolina from abroad. Many made their way to the Carolina frontier from Charles Town,¹ Norfolk, or Philadelphia, if they were recent arrivals from England or the Continent. Most, however, had been born and spent a part of their life in one of the other colonies (or states).

    The course of the rivers in the Piedmont channeled traffic, which used their waters or the roads along their level banks, not to the towns of the Coastal Plain but into South Carolina. The Dan River carried trade into Virginia. The lack of deepwater ports along the coast forced the delivery of much produce to the markets of Virginia and South Carolina. Isolation and sectionalism played important roles in the development of North Carolina. Sectional conflicts occurred in the colony several times. Hardly a movement or an event can be described without reference to geographic factors.

    Geology

    The state consists of only two basic geologic regions. The eastern region coincides with the Coastal Plain where the soil is composed of sand and a black clay varying in thickness from ten to forty feet in belts ten to fifteen miles wide. Examination of the subsurface reveals marine terraces underlying the region. Seven of these terraces exist in the state. Each was once the coasdine. Evidence of these terraces can be seen in the steep banks of the Cape Fear River near Fayetteville, the Neuse River between Goldsboro and Kinston, and the Roanoke River east of Scotland Neck. These terraces began to be formed around 125 million years ago.

    As the sea retreated, pockets of water remained and to these marine life retreated. The water finally evaporated or seeped into the earth, leaving shells and bones to form marl beds. Such beds exist in at least twenty-five Coastal Plain counties, and they have long been a source of lime for farms in the region. For generations, children in many parts of eastern North Carolina have delighted in finding sharks’ teeth along the banks of many streams after heavy rains washed away the topsoil.

    The Piedmont and Mountain regions comprise the second geologic region. Mountains once covered much of the Piedmont and their worn-down remains are known as the Uwharrie, Kings, and Pilot mountains. Some of the mountains that once existed in the Piedmont were formed by volcanic action. Many hills in Orange, Caswell, and Granville counties were formed in this manner. The Piedmont and Mountain sections, as they now exist, are the result of some 500 million years of evolution.

    In addition to the shells and bones and the sharks’ teeth, other fossils have been found throughout the state; these reveal much about the region in ancient times. Among the very oldest fossils discovered in North Carolina are a few teeth and bones, including jaws, of mammal-like reptiles from the Triassic period, 180 million years ago, in the Dan River and the Deep River basins. By the Cretaceous period, which began around 125 million years ago, magnolia, sassafras, poplar, and fig trees were growing here. These are among the oldest plant fossils found in the state. By the end of this period, 60 million years ago, the area was covered with the hardwoods commonly known today. There also were evergreens, as well as sedges and grasses.

    In 1967, near Gulf in Chatham County, remains were discovered of at least four prehistoric animals from an era that began 180 million years ago. One was a crocodile-like reptile; another resembled an ox but with a turtle-like beak and three eyes. The third was an armored lizard with spikes similar to cow horns down its back, and the fourth was a dinosaur about twenty-five feet long.

    Highly specialized dinosaurs and duckbills existed here, in addition to various flying and marine reptiles and marsupials, one of which was remarkably similar to modern opossums. Mastodons and mammoths roamed the swamps and woods of eastern North Carolina, while whales, porpoises, and dolphins, still swimming in the coastal waters off the state, were there at least 25 million years ago.

    Soil

    Heat, cold, rain, and wind operating on the geologic material and organisms, mainly plant life, have produced the covering soil of North Carolina. Geologic differences between the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont-Mountain sections account for the differences in the soil. Basically the latter two have similar soils, but the cool and moist climate of the mountains has had some influence on the type of soil found there.

    The Coastal Plain, evolving in more recent geologic times, was never a mountainous region, and overlying the basic rock core is a sedimentary soil left as the sea retreated and as rivers and rains washed pulverized particles from the interior over it. The soil here is fine, often containing much sand mixed with clay. Drainage in many places has been poor and decaying plant life has been added to the soil. This has given a gray to dark gray color to much of the soil of eastern North Carolina. Some of it, however, is tinged red with iron oxide or, in well-drained areas, bleached white. The surface soil in this section is between ten and thirty-six inches deep, overlying the subsoil of sandy clay.

    Most of the surface soil in the Piedmont is more than thirty-six inches deep over a bed of rock. It is composed of clay with a red, reddish-yellow, or yellow color in most areas, but in sections where drainage is not good it may have a gray color.

    The Mountain soil is similar to that of the Piedmont, but it is usually less than thirty-six inches deep. The colors generally are brown to reddish brown. In both the Mountain and Piedmont sections the surface is frequently marked by numerous rocks.

    Minerals

    More than three hundred kinds of rocks and minerals are known to exist in North Carolina. This represents a large potential mineral wealth and is probably the greatest number found in any state. More than seventy of these have economic value and about fifty have been produced in commercial quantities.

    The Coastal Plain is a source of clay, sand, gravel, and phosphate rock, and to a lesser extent of sandstone, greensand, shell limestone, marl, peat, and ilmenite sand. The Piedmont contains clay, shale, slate, granite, kaolin, mica, quartz, pyrophyllite, and soapstone. It also contains ores of gold, copper, iron, manganese, chromium, titanium, and tungsten. In the Mountain region the chief minerals are feldspar, mica, kaolin, and quartz. Granite, marble, limestone, talc, and ores of iron, manganese, titanium, copper, and gold are present.

    Small quantities of other metallic minerals have been produced, and a few of them continue to be mined in some areas. Among these are lead, zinc, silver, molybdenum, nickel, pyrite, tin, and tungsten. The latter, from a mine in Vance County, was especially important during World War II when sources from abroad were cut off or difficult to obtain. This mine has been worked intermittently since the end of that war.

    North Carolina has substantial deposits of nonmetallic minerals and rocks, and its production of feldspar, mica, kaolin, and pyrophyllite is significant. Sizable quantities of talc, marble, granite, and slate are also produced commercially. Grindstones for sharpening and shaping metal objects and millstones for grinding grain have been made in the state since the eighteenth century. Pottery clay and fine clay for china have been valued for just as long. Large numbers of bricks are also produced, while sand and gravel for highways, railroad beds, and the construction of buildings are found from one end of the state to the other. Quartz from the Chestnut Flats mine near Spruce Pine was used in making the world’s largest telescope lens, two hundred inches in diameter, on Palomar Mountain in California.

    Interest in gemstones is high. Rubies, beryls, emeralds, garnets, and other stones have been located. Diamonds have been found in four different counties.

    The only mineral fuel found to date is a poor-quality coal in Chatham, Rockingham, and Stokes counties, but recent studies have suggested that between 70 and 100 million tons of recoverable coal is available. Serious faulting in the fields, however, has thwarted mining efforts.

    Tests for oil and gas made between 1925 and the 1960s in the Coastal Plain were unproductive. Nevertheless, it has been reported that the thickness and character of the sedimentary beds found along the coast makes the area interesting for further search.

    Both the variety and the quantity of minerals found are perhaps the basis for a slogan sometimes applied to the state: Nature’s sample case.

    Climate and Weather

    In 1524 the earliest European explorer to visit the North Carolina coast commented on the good and wholesome ayre, temperate, betweene hot and colde, [where] no vehement windes do blowe. Sixty years later explorers sent by Sir Walter Raleigh also recorded their observations of sun, wind, and weather. In the seventeenth century authors of promotional tracts, determined to persuade Europeans to immigrate to Carolina, pointed out that the colony lay in the same latitude as the Mediterranean Sea and the Near East from which many spices and fruits came. By implication Carolina enjoyed the same climate. Many trees and herbs that did not grow in England would thrive in Carolina, they believed.

    Only gradually did the transplanted English come to realize that climates

    Dr. John Brickell’s book, The Natural History of North Carolina, published in Dublin in 1737, attempted to suggest the variety of wildlife of the region. It contains other illustrations of this nature. (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

    around the world, even in the same latitude, could be quite different. Climate is determined by the various daily weather conditions through the year. Weather, of course, differs from day to day and from place to place within a geographic area. Weather has been described as the momentary state of the atmosphere. Temperature and precipitation are the main elements of climate and weather, although wind and air pressure must also be considered in establishing a broad definition. These elements of climate are affected by geography; not only the latitude and longitude but also the relation of the land mass to the ocean and mountains are significant. All of these factors must be considered in any description and explanation of the climate of North Carolina.

    Lying wholly within the warmer part of the temperate zone, the state is near enough to the equator to have a moderate temperature. The length of the winter day provides enough sunshine to warm the surface of the earth and the surrounding air so that cold periods are of short duration. Yet the greatest variations in temperature occur during the winter, when low-pressure storms push farther south. These storms may be followed by warm southerly winds, which produce springlike days even in January and February. By March and April, when the northerly movement of the sun warms the land to the north, few masses of cold air from the arctic region and Canada ever push as far south as North Carolina. Warm spells and cool periods characterize the weather, and the precipitation changes from the more regular steady rains of winter to spring showers.

    Toward the end of May most rainfall begins to come as thunderstorms, and these can be expected throughout the summer. Warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico or from the tropical Atlantic Ocean produces warm, humid weather. Fall is often considered to be the dry season in North Carolina. It is the harvest time, with pleasantly warm days and cool nights which often last into November. December through February are the cold, damp winter months. Since temperature affects the rate of evaporation, the ground is almost always wet during this period.

    The average year-round temperature for the state is 59°. For the Coastal Plain it is 62°, for the Piedmont 60°, and for the Mountains 55°. The record low for the state is −26°, recorded at Grandfather Mountain in Avery County on 30 January 1966. A maximum temperature of 110° was recorded at Fayetteville on 22 August 1983. The earliest reported killing frost in the fall occurred on 28 September 1947 in Ashe County. On the other hand, Hatteras in Dare County often passes the entire fall and through December without frost. The last killing frost in the spring has occurred as early as 20 January in Dare County and as late as 1 June on Mount Mitchell and at Banner Elk. The frost-free season in the state ranges from an average of 280 days in the east to 170 in the west.

    In 1858 Silas McDowell of Franklin, Macon County, originated the thermal belt concept which became widely disseminated and spread to other states. It was modified by scientists and by residents of the area to suit their understanding of the theory. A thermal belt is generally recognized simply as a zone or belt on a mountainside where frost or freezing temperatures are less likely to occur than at higher or lower elevations. Although these temperature inversions may develop at any time, they are important in the early spring when the likelihood of damage to tender vegetation is greatest. When cold air drains down a slope into a valley in clear weather, it loses heat by radiation to space and is further cooled. Temperatures below freezing occur in the lower valley while temperatures in the thermal belt, farther up the slope, remain above freezing because of the heat lost by the circulating air. Higher up the slope frost will develop naturally as the temperature decreases with altitude.

    Thermal belts have been described in Polk and Rutherford counties and elsewhere in western North Carolina. In reality they differ from time to time and from place to place, seldom following the exact pattern that popular tradition in the area assigns to them with positive limits and special characteristics. The term has come to be applied not only to the lower slopes of the mountains but also to a whole region. Much publicity has been given to this rather unusual occurrence in nature, and in many instances its benefits have been exaggerated.

    Moisture in the form of rain or snow is fairly evenly distributed over the state throughout the year. The largest amount of rain usually falls in July and August and the least in October and November. Even so, most areas recognize no special rainy or excessively dry seasons. The Coastal Plain and the Mountain sections, however, generally receive more rain than does the Piedmont. Thunderstorms occur frequently during the hot months but more often in the mountains and along the southern coast than elsewhere. A hailstorm can be expected in most sections once or twice a year, but damage to growing crops is generally limited to small areas during any particular storm.

    The southern coast is generally free of snow and sleet all winter, but the northern coastal counties sometimes have up to four inches annually. This amount may increase in the Piedmont to about seven inches. In the mountains some southern valleys may have about eight inches a year, whereas thirty inches or more may fall during a winter on the higher peaks. Except in some parts of the Mountain region, snow seldom lies on the ground for more than a day or two.

    Hardly a summer passes without reports of dry areas within the state. In some years crops have suffered from the scarcity of rain. Such droughts occurred, for example, in 1911, 1925, 1953, 1954, 1968, 1983, 1986, and 1988. Topsoil and cultivated fields dry out rapidly through the top level; however, it is difficult for moisture to rise to the surface from deeper layers through a top dry crust. This fact has preserved many deep-rooted plants through a dry season.

    The prevailing wind over North Carolina is from the southwest except in September and October when it is from the northeast. The speed of the wind varies greatly, but as a rule it is about thirteen miles per hour on the Outer Banks, about ten miles per hour in the eastern Coastal Plain, and about eight miles per hour elsewhere in the interior. Wind speed is reduced at night; it begins to increase about sunrise and reaches its maximum by the mid-afternoon. Storms, of course, considerably alter this pattern.

    Wind has been recognized as both a positive and a negative force in North Carolina. Numerous windmills to grind grain were erected on the Outer Banks from the eighteenth century and used into the twentieth. Windmills for pumping water were more common across the state before the advent of cheap electricity, but they can still be seen occasionally. In 1978 the United States Department of Energy and the Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, at a cost of approximately $30 million, erected the world’s largest windmill atop Howard’s Knob at Boone. Designed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to produce inexpensive electricity, the windmill stood 140 feet high with 100-foot propeller blades. A test machine, it was also the world’s first wind-driven megawatt electrical generator. The energy produced was more expensive than anticipated; the turning propellers made an unbearable noise, and they rattled windows and disrupted television signals. The giant windmill was turned off in 1981 and torn down in 1983.

    Coastal winds move the loose and shifting sands along the beaches. Wind erosion is as serious a problem in some spots as water erosion, and unstable sand dunes have been known to engulf beach cottages. Isolated trees have been buried in sand, while thickets of stunted trees, many of them misshapen by the steady ocean breezes, have been invaded by blowing sand. Picket fences and various kinds of grasses sometimes anchor these shifting dunes, and many of them have been stabilized.

    Native Americans

    The first report by a European of the coast of the United States was made in July 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine navigator in the service of Francis I of France. During a brief visit at the mouth of the Cape Fear River and on Bogue Banks in the spring he saw a large number of native people who first fled at the sight of Europeans, but after being assured with signes that we made them they returned and proved to be quite friendly. The account describes them as being of a russet color with thick black hair tied behind and worn like a little taile. Their clothing was of animals’ skins and they wore garlands of byrdes feathers. The natives were further described as well built, strong armed, broad breasted, and somewhat taller than Europeans.

    The first English encounter with the natives came when the expedition under Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, sent by Walter Raleigh, arrived off the Outer Banks in July 1584. The Indians on Hatteras Island were friendly and curious to know more about their visitors. Barlowe’s report to Raleigh described them as handsome, well-built people. They are of colour yellowish, and their haire blacke for the most, and yet we sawe children that had very fine auburne, and chestnut colour haire, he continued. The Indians presented gifts to the Englishmen and received gifts in return.

    This engraving made in 1590 by Theodor de Bry of a John White watercolor depicts the Indians’ method of making a boat. A controlled fire of moss and wood chips at the base of a tree caused it to fall, and a fire was then built along the top of the log. After the wood was charred, shell scrapers were used to hollow it out. Further fires and scraping followed until it was completed. (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

    Leaving the Hatteras area after a brief stay, the expedition made its way into the sound and up to Roanoke Island where further friendly demonstrations were exchanged between natives and explorers. The English were keen enough in their observations to realize that they had encountered two different Indian tribes; they also learned that there were others to the north on the mainland. They recorded the names of some of the tribes and of the kings, and they acquired a little knowledge of the surrounding country both from brief expeditions and from some kind of conversation with the Indians—probably by gestures and maps drawn in the sand with sticks.

    Painted by John White probably in 1584, this Indian wears a fringed deerskin apron and a necklace of beads or pearls holding a metal gorget. His hair is thin at the side with a roach down the middle and tied up at the back. White labeled this picture A cheife Herowan but the engraving by Theodor de Bry is marked A cheiff Lorde of Roanoac. David B. Quinn, the English scholar who has studied the White drawings, suggests that this might be Manteo. (British Museum, London)

    In 1585 Raleigh sent a colony of men to occupy the region, and under Ralph Lane’s leadership they ranged farther afield from their base on Roanoke Island. Visiting numerous towns and discovering more tribes, they attempted to use the names given them by the Indians. Thomas Harriot, an outstanding scientist, and John White, an artist, were members of the colony. Harriot seems to have learned to speak some Algonquian, the language of the local tribe, and he recorded much of what he saw and could learn from them. White painted watercolor pictures of them, recording a large amount of detail not otherwise known.

    Most Indian settlements contained ten or twelve houses, a few had twenty, while the largest seen had thirty. Some settlements were palisaded with poles stuck upright into the ground close together but others were open. The houses were made of poles for their sides with a rounded arch roof, all covered with bark or mats made of long rushes. A chief in some cases controlled only one town, but in other instances he might have as many as eighteen. The chief who commanded eighteen towns was able to raise between seven and eight hundred fighting men, Harriot believed. The language of every government is different from any other, and the further they are distant the greater is the difference, he observed.

    In wars, Harriot learned, their chief strategy was a sudden, unexpected attack carried out either at sunrise, by moonlight, or by ambush in daylight. Set battles are very rare, except it fall out where there are many trees, where eyther part may have some hope of defence, after the deliverie of every arrowe, in leaping behind some or other. Scattered experience suggested that in an engagement with the English, Indians recognized that their best defense was to flee.

    Harriot realized that two cultures had met. The English, of course, he regarded as superior, yet he wrote with admiration for the Indians and in hope that they might adopt English ways. Even without the tools and crafts of the English, the Indians were very ingenious and displayed excellencie of wit. He further noted: by howe much they upon due consideration shall finde our manner of knowledges and craftes to exceede theirs in perfection, and speed for doing or execution, by so much the more is it probable that they shoulde desire our friendship & love, and have the greater respect for pleasing and obeying us. Whereby may bee hoped if meanes of good government bee used, that they may in short time be brought to civilities, and the imbracing of true religion.

    It was the invading English who broke the peace. Ralph Lane and his men were responsible for seizing an Indian chief, his son, and several others as well as for killing a number of Indians. Some of the natives ceased to assist the English or to provide food. Soon after the arrival of the John White colony in 1587, one of his colonists was slain, yet many of the Indians, particularly those in the Hatteras area, remained friendly. When White returned to England, contact with native Americans in the area was broken; it was not resumed until 1622, when John Pory from Virginia made an expedition to the Chowan River. Pory was well received by the great King who was desirous to make a league with us.

    Settlers from Virginia who moved into the North Carolina area in the second half of the seventeenth century purchased land from the Indians. The earliest surviving document concerning a transfer of land was dated 24 September 1660 and recorded in the deeds of Norfolk County, Virginia. It indicates that Nathaniel Batts acquired land from Kiscutanewh Kinge of Yausapin.

    Restored ceremonial mound at the Town Creek Indian Mound State Historic Site in Montgomery County. It was built by Creek Indians who migrated here about A.D. 1500. (North Carolina Division of Archives and History, Raleigh)

    Only after the publication in London of John Lawson’s A New Voyage to Carolina in 1709 was a considerable body of information on the Indians of North Carolina available. His general description of them was similar to that of Verrazano. Lawson, however, lived so intimately with the Indians that he was able to understand, sympathize with, and even love them. He was as concerned as Harriot had been nearly a century and a quarter before with the welfare of these native Americans. Whites, he thought, ought to encourage the Savages to adopt English customs.² In brief, every Englishman ought to do them Justice, and not defraud them of their Land, which has been allotted them formerly by the Government; for if we do not shew them Examples of Justice and Vertue, we can never bring them to believe us to be a worthier Race of Men than themselves.

    According to Lawson, the native Americans were somewhat larger than Europeans and had good eyesight; they were quite dexterous with both hands and feet and unafraid of high places, readily helping to build houses for the English and showing no hesitancy in walking on roofs while thatching them or laying shingles; they were capable of running long distances or dancing vigorously with no sign of exhaustion; and they composed and sang long songs while accompanying themselves with drums and rattles. Young men were said to labour stoutly in planting corn and peas as well as in hunting to provide for their families. In their pole houses, they slept on benches covered with skins or rush mats. Lawson also reported on their marriage customs, on warfare, on community government, and on other aspects of their life. Husquenawing he considered a most abominable Custom by which young men approaching maturity were subjected to almost unbelievably harsh treatment from which they sometimes died. These traits, both good and bad, Lawson ascribed to the Indians he encountered all over the colony. He was well aware that they spoke different dialects, and that one tribe, or Nation as he called them, might be at war with another. Nearly all of the Indians lived in settled villages, engaged in agriculture, fished, and hunted; the men also went on long trading expeditions or fought distant tribes.

    Lawson cataloged nineteen Nations of Indians that are our Neighbours and mentioned three others that he encountered while traveling across the colony’s interior. His primary list, composed of Coastal Plain and neighboring Indians, included those whom he called Bear River Indians, the Chowanoc, Coree, Hatteras, Keyauwee, Machapunga, Meherrin, Neusiok, Nottoway, Occaneechee, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Potoskeet, Saponi, Shakori, Tutelo, Tuscarora, Woccon, and Jaupim or Weapemoc. Farther inland were the Eno, Esaw or Catawba, and the Sissipahaw. On his way from Charles Town to North Carolina he saw Congarees, Santees, Sewees, Sugarees, Waterees, and Waxhaws, some of whom could also be found within the bounds of North Carolina. In reporting on twenty-two tribes in the colony, Lawson missed only one important group—the Cherokees. In all, thirty-four tribes have been identified as having lived in North Carolina at one time or another. Today several additional small groups, which ethnologists apparently have never studied or classified, still make their homes in the state.

    Ethnologists classify American Indians according to the root language they used, although it was not unusual for tribes belonging to the same general group to find it impossible to understand each other. Three basic groups—Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan—were present in North Carolina, and each of these was part of a much larger group that flourished elsewhere in North America.

    Only five of the many tribes in North Carolina played significant roles in the European settlement of the colony. Except for the Cherokees, most native Americans fell victim to white men’s diseases, to their guns, or to their treachery before the mid-eighteenth century. The tribes with which the colonists were involved, in order of their initial contact, were the Hatteras, the Chowanoc, the Tuscarora, the Catawba, and the Cherokee.

    Indian Tribes

    The Hatteras (or Croatoan) Indians (Algonquian) greeted the earliest English explorers along the North American coast from their home near Cape Hatteras; they also frequently visited Roanoke Island. Manteo, who befriended the earliest English explorers and settlers on the North Carolina coast, was of this tribe. Many of these people stood by the English for more than 175 years. When Lawson talked with some of the Hatteras Indians before 1709, they told him that several of their Ancestors were white People, and could talk in a Book as we do; the Truth of which is confirm’d by gray eyes being found frequently amongst these Indians, and no others. They value themselves extremely for their Affinity to the English, and are ready to do them all friendly offices. At that time they occupied only one town on the Outer Banks and had fifteen warriors, representing perhaps a total population of just under ninety.

    During the Tuscarora Indian War between 1711 and 1715 the Hatteras supported the English, but apparently many of the tribe were captured. On escaping they appealed to the royal governor’s Council for Some Small reliefe from ye Country for their services being reduced to great poverty. The Council responded by giving them sixteen bushels of corn from the public store. According to Governor George Burrington, the Hatteras still lived in the colony in 1731 but they had fewer than twenty families. In 1761 and 1763 an Anglican missionary found the remaining Hatteras Indians living contentedly with the last of the Roanokes and a few others at Lake Mattamuskeet

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