USA

A View of Asheville. North Carolina, Robert Scott Duncanson

North Carolina Mountain Landscape, William Charles Anthony Frerichs

View Dismal Swamp North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux

North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. The United States Census Bureau classifies North Carolina as a southern state, in the subcategory of being one of the South Atlantic States.

North Carolina consists of three main geographic sections: the Atlantic Coastal Plain, which occupies the eastern 45% of the state; the Piedmont region, which contains the middle 35%; and the Appalachian Mountains and foothills. The extreme eastern section of the state contains the Outer Banks, a string of sandy, narrow barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and two inland waterways or "sounds": Albemarle Sound in the north and Pamlico Sound in the south. They are the two largest landlocked sounds in the United States.

So many ships have been lost off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic"; more than 1,000 ships have sunk in these waters since records began in 1526. The most famous of these is the Queen Anne's Revenge (flagship of the pirate Blackbeard), which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718.[10]

Immediately inland, the coastal plain is relatively flat, with rich soil ideal for growing tobacco, soybeans, melons, and cotton. The coastal plain is North Carolina's most rural section, with few large towns or cities. Agriculture remains an important industry.

The coastal plain transitions to the Piedmont region along the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, a line which marks the elevation at which waterfalls first appear on streams and rivers. The Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the state's most urbanized and densely populated section. It consists of gently rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low mountain ridges. Small, isolated, and deeply eroded mountain ranges and peaks are located in the Piedmont, including the Sauratown Mountains, Pilot Mountain, the Uwharrie Mountains, Crowder's Mountain, King's Pinnacle, the Brushy Mountains, and the South Mountains. The Piedmont ranges from about 300 to 400 feet (91 to 122 m) in elevation in the east to over 1,000 feet (300 m) in the west. Because of the rapid population growth in the Piedmont, a significant part of the rural area in this region is being transformed into suburbs with shopping centers, housing, and corporate offices. Agriculture is steadily declining in importance. The major rivers of the Piedmont, such as the Yadkin and Catawba, tend to be fast-flowing, shallow, and narrow.

The western section of the state is part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Among the subranges of the Appalachians located in the state are the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, Great Balsam Mountains, and Black Mountains. The Black Mountains are the highest in the eastern United States, and culminate in Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet (2,037 m)[11] the highest point east of the Mississippi River. Although agriculture still remains important, tourism has become a dominant industry in the mountains. Growing Christmas trees has recently become an important industry as well. Because of the higher altitude, the climate in the mountains often differs markedly from that of the rest of the state. Winter in western North Carolina typically features high snowfall and subfreezing temperatures more akin to those of a midwestern state than of a southern state.
Cullasaja Falls in Macon County

North Carolina has 17 major river basins. The basins west of the Blue Ridge Mountains flow to the Gulf of Mexico (via the Ohio and then the Mississippi River). All the others flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 17 basins, 11 originate within the state of North Carolina, but only four are contained entirely within the state's border – the Cape Fear, the Neuse, the White Oak, and the Tar-Pamlico basin.[12]
Climate
Main article: Climate of North Carolina
Snow in Old Fort, North Carolina caused by the 2009 Blizzard
Graveyard Fields in autumn
A rainy day at Charlotte Motor Speedway

The geographical divisions of North Carolina are useful when discussing the climate of the state.

The climate of the coastal plain is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, which keeps conditions mild in winter and moderate, although humid, in summer. The highest coastal, daytime temperature averages less than 89 °F (32 °C) during summer months. The coast has mild temperatures in winter, with daytime highs rarely below 40 °F (4 °C). The average daytime temperature in the coastal plain is usually in the mid-50s °F (11–14 °C) in winter. Temperatures in the coastal plain only occasionally drop below the freezing point at night. The coastal plain averages only around 1 inch (2.5 cm) of snow or ice annually, and in many years, there may be no snow or ice at all.

The Atlantic Ocean has less influence on the climate of the Piedmont region, which has hotter summers and colder winters than in the coast. Daytime highs in the Piedmont often reach over 90 °F (32 °C) in the summer. While it is not common for the temperature to reach over 100 °F (38 °C) in the state, such temperatures, when they occur, typically are found only in the lower-elevation areas of the Piedmont and far-inland areas of the coastal plain. The weaker influence of the Atlantic Ocean also means that temperatures in the Piedmont often fluctuate more widely than in the coast.

In winter, the Piedmont is colder than the coast, with temperatures usually averaging in the upper 40s–lower 50s °F (8–12 °C) during the day and often dropping below the freezing point at night. The region averages around 3–5 in (8–13 cm) of snowfall annually in the Charlotte area. The Piedmont is especially notorious for sleet and freezing rain. Freezing rain can be heavy enough to snarl traffic and break down trees and power lines. Annual precipitation and humidity are lower in the Piedmont than in the mountains or the coast, but even at its lowest, the average is 40 in (1,020 mm) per year.

The Appalachian Mountains are the coolest area of the state, with temperatures averaging in the low 40s and upper 30s °F (6–3 °C) for highs in the winter and falling into the low 20s °F (−5 °C) or lower on winter nights. Relatively cool summers have temperatures rarely rising above 80 °F (27 °C). Average snowfall in many areas exceeds 30 in (76 cm) per year, and can be heavy at the higher elevations; for example, during the Blizzard of 1993 more than 60 in (152 cm) of snow fell on Mount Mitchell over a period of three days. Mount Mitchell has received snow in every month of the year.

Severe weather occurs regularly in North Carolina. On the average, a hurricane hits the state once a decade. Destructive hurricanes that have struck the state include Hurricane Fran, Hurricane Floyd, and Hurricane Hazel, the strongest storm to make landfall in the state, as a Category 4 in 1954. Hurricane Isabel stands out as the most damaging of the 21st century.[13] Tropical storms arrive every 3 or 4 years. In addition, many hurricanes and tropical storms graze the state. In some years, several hurricanes or tropical storms can directly strike the state or brush across the coastal areas. Only Florida and Louisiana are hit by hurricanes more often. Although many people believe that hurricanes menace only coastal areas, the rare hurricane which moves inland quickly enough can cause severe damage; for example, in 1989, Hurricane Hugo caused heavy damage in Charlotte and even as far inland as the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwestern part of the state. On the average, North Carolina has 50 days of thunderstorm activity per year, with some storms becoming severe enough to produce hail, flash floods, and damaging winds.

North Carolina averages fewer than 20 tornadoes per year, many of them produced by hurricanes or tropical storms along the coastal plain. Tornadoes from thunderstorms are a risk, especially in the eastern part of the state. The western Piedmont is often protected by the mountains, which tend to break up storms as they try to cross over; the storms will often re-form farther east. Also a weather phenomenon known as "cold air damming" often occurs in the northwestern part of the state, which can also weaken storms but can also lead to major ice events in winter.[14]

In April 2011, the worst tornado outbreak in North Carolina's history occurred. Thirty confirmed tornadoes touched down, mainly in the Eastern Piedmont and Sandhills, killing at least 24 people. Damages in the capital of Raleigh alone were over $115 million. Sanford and Fayetteville received a similar degree of devastation.[15][16]
Monthly normal high and low temperatures (Fahrenheit) for various North Carolina cities.
City Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Asheville[17] 47/27 51/30 59/35 68/43 75/51 81/60 84/64 83/63 77/56 68/45 59/36 49/29
Boone[18] 42/21 45/23 52/29 61/37 69/46 76/54 79/58 78/57 72/50 63/39 54/31 45/24
Cape Hatteras[19] 52/39 54/40 59/45 66/53 74/61 81/69 85/74 84/73 80/69 72/60 64/51 56/43
Charlotte[17] 51/30 55/33 63/39 72/47 79/56 86/64 89/68 88/67 81/60 72/49 62/39 53/32
Fayetteville[20] 52/31 56/32 64/39 73/47 80/56 87/65 90/70 89/69 83/63 74/49 63/40 54/32
Greensboro[20] 48/30 52/32 61/39 70/47 78/56 85/65 88/69 86/68 80/61 70/49 61/40 51/32
Raleigh[20] 51/30 54/32 63/40 72/48 80/57 87/66 90/70 88/69 82/62 73/50 64/41 54/32
Wilmington[21] 56/36 60/38 66/44 74/52 81/60 87/69 90/73 88/71 84/66 76/55 68/45 59/38
History
Main article: History of North Carolina
Ceremony of Secotan warriors in North Carolina. Watercolour painted by English colonist John White in 1585.
A plaque to commemorate the first indigenous person who was converted to Christianity, Manteo at the Roanoke Colony
Dr. M.T. Pope (after whom the Pope House Museum was named), a prominent citizen of Raleigh, 1900
The North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh

Before A.D. 200, residents were building earthwork mounds, which were used for ceremonial and religious purposes. Succeeding peoples, including those of the ancient Mississippian culture established by A.D. 1000 in the Piedmont, continued to build or add onto such mounds. In the 500–700 years preceding European contact, the Mississippian culture built large, complex cities and maintained far-flung regional trading networks. Historically documented tribes in the North Carolina region included the Carolina Algonquian-speaking tribes of the coastal areas, such as the Chowanoke, Roanoke, Pamlico, Machapunga, Coree, Cape Fear Indians, and others, who were the first to encounter the English; Iroquoian-speaking Meherrin, Cherokee and Tuscarora of the interior; and Southeastern Siouan tribes, such as the Cheraw, Waxhaw, Saponi, Waccamaw, and Catawba.

Spanish colonial forces were the first Europeans to make a permanent settlement in the area, when the Juan Pardo-led expedition built Fort San Juan in 1567 at the site of the Native American community of Joara, a Mississippian culture regional chiefdom in the western interior, near the present-day city of Morganton. The fort lasted only 18 months; the local inhabitants killed all but one of the 120 men Pardo had stationed at a total of six forts in the area.[22]

In 1718, after losing his ship and appealing to the governor of North Carolina who promised safe-haven and a pardon, the notorious pirate, Blackbeard (Edward Teach) was killed in an ambush by British soldiers.[23]

North Carolina became one of the English Thirteen Colonies and with the territory of South Carolina was originally known as the Province of Carolina. The northern and southern parts of the original province separated in 1729. Originally settled by small farmers, sometimes having a few slaves, who were oriented toward subsistence agriculture, the colony lacked cities or towns. Pirates menaced the coastal settlements, but by 1718 the pirates had been captured and killed. Growth was strong in the middle of the 18th century, as the economy attracted Scots-Irish, Quaker, English and German immigrants. The colonists generally supported the American Revolution, as the number of Loyalists was smaller than in some other colonies.

During colonial times, Edenton served as the state capital beginning in 1722, and New Bern was selected as the capital in 1766. Construction of Tryon Palace, which served as the residence and offices of the provincial governor William Tryon, began in 1767 and was completed in 1771. In 1788 Raleigh was chosen as the site of the new capital, as its central location protected it from attacks from the coast. Officially established in 1792 as both county seat and state capital, the city was named after Sir Walter Raleigh, sponsor of Roanoke, the "lost colony" on Roanoke Island.[24]

North Carolina made the smallest per-capita contribution to the war of any state, as only 7,800 men joined the Continental Army under General George Washington; an additional 10,000 served in local militia units under such leaders as General Nathanael Greene.[25] There was some military action, especially in 1780–81. Many Carolinian frontiersmen had moved west over the mountains, into the Washington District (later known as Tennessee), but in 1789, following the Revolution, the state was persuaded to relinquish its claim to the western lands. It ceded them to the national government so that the Northwest Territory could be organized and managed nationally.

After 1800, cotton and tobacco became important export crops. The eastern half of the state, especially the Tidewater region, developed a slave society based on a plantation system and slave labor. Many free people of color migrated to the frontier along with their European-American neighbors, where the social system was looser. By 1810, nearly 3 percent of the free population consisted of free people of color, who numbered slightly more than 10,000. The western areas were dominated by white families, especially Scots-Irish, who operated small subsistence farms. In the early national period, the state became a center of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy, with a strong Whig presence, especially in the West. After Nat Turner's slave uprising in 1831, North Carolina and other southern states reduced the rights of free blacks. In 1835 the legislature withdrew their right to vote.

On May 20, 1861, North Carolina was the last of the Confederate states to declare secession from the Union, 13 days after the Tennessee legislature voted for secession. Some 125,000 North Carolinians served in the military; 20,000 were killed in battle, the most of any state in the Confederacy, and 21,000 died of disease. The state government was reluctant to support the demands of the national government in Richmond, and the state was the scene of only small battles.

With the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, the Reconstruction Era began. The United States abolished slavery without compensation to slaveholders or reparations to freedmen. A Republican Party coalition of black freedmen, northern carpetbaggers and local scalawags controlled state government for three years. The white conservative Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1870, in part by Ku Klux Klan violence and terrorism at the polls, to suppress black voting. Republicans were elected to the governorship until 1876, when the Red Shirts, a paramilitary organization that arose in 1874 and was allied with the Democratic Party, helped suppress black voting. More than 150 black Americans were murdered in electoral violence in 1876.

Democrats were elected to the legislature and governor's office, but the Populists attracted voters displeased with them. In 1896 a biracial, Populist-Republican Fusionist coalition gained the governor's office. The Democrats regained control of the legislature in 1896 and passed laws to impose Jim Crow and racial segregation of public facilities. Voters of North Carolina's 2nd congressional district elected a total of four African-American congressmen through these years of the late 19th century.

Political tensions ran so high that a small group of white Democrats in 1898 planned to take over the Wilmington government if their candidates were not elected. In the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, more than 1,500 white men attacked the black newspaper and neighborhood, killed numerous men, and ran off the white Republican mayor and aldermen. They installed their own people and elected Alfred M. Waddell as mayor, in the only coup d'état in United States history.[26]

In 1899 the state legislature passed a new constitution, with requirements for poll taxes and literacy tests for voter registration which disfranchised most black Americans in the state.[27] Exclusion from voting had wide effects: it meant that black Americans could not serve on juries or in any local office. After a decade of white supremacy, many people forgot that North Carolina had ever had thriving middle-class black Americans.[28] Black citizens had no political voice in the state until after the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed to enforce their constitutional rights. It was not until 1992 that another African American was elected as a US Representative from North Carolina.

As in the rest of the former Confederacy, North Carolina had become a one-party state, dominated by the Democratic Party. Impoverished by the Civil War, the state continued with an economy based on tobacco, cotton and agriculture. Towns and cities remained few in the east. A major industrial base emerged in the late 19th century in the western counties of the Piedmont, based on cotton mills established at the fall line. Railroads were built to connect the new industrializing cities. The state was the site of the first successful controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air flight, by the Wright brothers, near Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903. In the first half of the 20th century, many African Americans left the state to go North for better opportunities, in the Great Migration. Their departure changed the demographic characteristics of many areas.

North Carolina was hard hit by the Great Depression, but the New Deal programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt for cotton and tobacco significantly helped the farmers. After World War II, the state's economy grew rapidly, highlighted by the growth of such cities as Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham in the Piedmont. Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill form the Research Triangle, a major area of universities and advanced scientific and technical research. In the 1990s, Charlotte became a major regional and national banking center. Tourism has also been a boon for the North Carolina economy as people flock to the Outer Banks coastal area and the Appalachian Mountains anchored by Asheville.

By the 1970s, spurred in part by the increasingly leftward tilt of national Democrats and rightward tilt of national Republicans, conservative whites began to vote for Republican national candidates and gradually for more Republicans locally although Democrats have held the governors office in all but three elections since 1901. The Greensboro Sit-ins played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement to bring full and equal equality to American blacks. Since the 1965 Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act under President Lyndon Johnson in which no Senators or Congressmen from North Carolina voted in favor for, black Americans have affiliated with and consistently elected officials of the Democratic Party.[29]
Native Americans, lost colonies, and permanent settlement
See also: Native Americans in the United States, Joara and Roanoke Island
Map of the coast of Virginia and North Carolina, drawn 1585–1586 by Theodor de Bry, based on map by John White of the Roanoke Colony

North Carolina was inhabited for thousands of years by succeeding cultures of prehistoric indigenous cultures. Before 200 AD, they were building earthwork mounds, which were used for ceremonial and religious purposes. Succeeding peoples, including those of the ancient Mississippian culture established by 1000 AD in the Piedmont, continued to build or add on to such mounds. In the 500–700 years preceding European contact, the Mississippian culture built large, complex cities and maintained far-flung regional trading networks. Its largest city was Cahokia, located in present-day Illinois near the Mississippi River.

Historically documented tribes in the North Carolina region include the Carolina Algonquian-speaking tribes of the coastal areas, such as the Chowanoke, Roanoke, Pamlico, Machapunga, Coree, and Cape Fear Indians, who were the first encountered by the English; the Iroquoian-speaking Meherrin, Cherokee, and Tuscarora of the interior; and Southeastern Siouan tribes, such as the Cheraw, Waxhaw, Saponi, Waccamaw, and Catawba.

Spanish explorers traveling inland in the 16th century met Mississippian culture people at Joara, a regional chiefdom near present-day Morganton. Records of Hernando de Soto attested to his meeting with them in 1540. In 1567 Captain Juan Pardo led an expedition to claim the area for the Spanish colony and to establish another route to protect silver mines in Mexico. Pardo made a winter base at Joara, which he renamed Cuenca. His expedition built Fort San Juan and left a contingent of 30 men there, while Pardo traveled further, and built and garrisoned five other forts. He returned by a different route to Santa Elena on Parris Island, South Carolina, then a center of Spanish Florida. In the spring of 1568, natives killed all but one of the soldiers and burned the six forts in the interior, including the one at Fort San Juan. Although the Spanish never returned to the interior, this effort marked the first European attempt at colonization of the interior 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.[30][31]
John White returns to find the colony abandoned.

In 1584, Elizabeth I granted a charter to Sir Walter Raleigh, for whom the state capital is named, for land in present-day North Carolina (then part of the territory of Virginia).[32] It was the second American territory which the English attempted to colonize. Raleigh established two colonies on the coast in the late 1580s, but both failed. The fate of the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island remains one of the most widely debated mysteries of American history. Virginia Dare, the first English child to be born in North America, was born on Roanoke Island on August 18, 1587; Dare County is named for her.

As early as 1650, settlers from the Virginia colony moved into the area of Albemarle Sound. By 1663, King Charles II of England granted a charter to start a new colony on the North American continent; it generally established North Carolina's borders. He named it Carolina in honor of his father Charles I.[33] By 1665, a second charter was issued to attempt to resolve territorial questions. In 1710, owing to disputes over governance, the Carolina colony began to split into North Carolina and South Carolina. The latter became a crown colony in 1729.

In the 1700s, a series of smallpox epidemics swept the South, causing high fatalities among the Native Americans, who had no immunity to the new disease (it had become endemic in Europe).[34] According to the historian Russell Thornton, "The 1738 epidemic was said to have killed one-half of the Cherokee, with other tribes of the area suffering equally."[35]
Colonial period and Revolutionary War
See also: Province of Carolina, Province of North Carolina and American Revolutionary War
Reconstructed royal governor's mansion Tryon Palace in New Bern

After the Spanish in the 16th century, the first permanent European settlers of North Carolina were English colonists who migrated south from Virginia. The latter had grown rapidly and land was less available. Nathaniel Batts was documented as one of the first of these Virginian migrants. He settled south of the Chowan River and east of the Great Dismal Swamp in 1655.[36] By 1663, this northeastern area of the Province of Carolina, known as the Albemarle Settlements, was undergoing full-scale English settlement.[37] During the same period, the English monarch Charles II gave the province to the Lords Proprietors, a group of noblemen who had helped restore Charles to the throne in 1660. The new province of "Carolina" was named in honor and memory of King Charles I (Latin: Carolus). In 1712, North Carolina became a separate colony. Except for the Earl Granville holdings, it became a royal colony seventeen years later.[38]

Differences in the settlement patterns of eastern and western North Carolina, or the Low Country and uplands, affected the political, economic, and social life of the state from the 18th until the 20th century. The Tidewater in eastern North Carolina was settled chiefly by immigrants from rural England and the Scottish Highlands. The upcountry of western North Carolina was settled chiefly by Scots-Irish, English, and German Protestants, the so-called "cohee". Arriving during the mid- to late 18th century, the Scots-Irish from what is today Northern Ireland were the largest non-English immigrant group before the Revolution; English indentured servants were overwhelmingly the largest immigrant group prior to the Revolution.[39][40][41][40][41][42] During the American Revolutionary War, the English and Highland Scots of eastern North Carolina tended to remain loyal to the British Crown, because of longstanding business and personal connections with Great Britain. The English, Welsh, Scots-Irish, and German settlers of western North Carolina tended to favor American independence from Britain.

Most of the English colonists had arrived as indentured servants, hiring themselves out as laborers for a fixed period to pay for their passage. In the early years the line between indentured servants and African slaves or laborers was fluid. Some Africans were allowed to earn their freedom before slavery became a lifelong status. Most of the free colored families formed in North Carolina before the Revolution were descended from unions or marriages between free white women and enslaved or free African or African-American men. Because the mothers were free, their children were born free. Many had migrated or were descendants of migrants from colonial Virginia.[43] As the flow of indentured laborers to the colony decreased with improving economic conditions in Great Britain, planters imported more slaves, and the state's legal delineations between free and slave status tightened, effectively hardening the latter into a racial caste. The economy's growth and prosperity was based on slave labor, devoted first to the production of tobacco.

On April 12, 1776, the colony became the first to instruct its delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence from the British Crown, through the Halifax Resolves passed by the North Carolina Provincial Congress. The dates of both of these events are memorialized on the state flag and state seal.[44] Throughout the Revolutionary War, fierce guerrilla warfare erupted between bands of pro-independence and pro-British colonists. In some cases the war was also an excuse to settle private grudges and rivalries. A major American victory in the war took place at King's Mountain along the North Carolina–South Carolina border; on October 7, 1780, a force of 1000 mountain men from western North Carolina (including what is today the state of Tennessee) overwhelmed a force of some 1000 British troops led by Major Patrick Ferguson. Most of the soldiers fighting for the British side in this battle were Carolinians who had remained loyal to the Crown (they were called "Tories" or Loyalists). The American victory at Kings Mountain gave the advantage to colonists who favored American independence, and it prevented the British Army from recruiting new soldiers from the Tories.
1st Maryland Regiment holding the line at the Battle of Guilford

The road to Yorktown and America's independence from Great Britain led through North Carolina. As the British Army moved north from victories in Charleston and Camden, South Carolina, the Southern Division of the Continental Army and local militia prepared to meet them. Following General Daniel Morgan's victory over the British Cavalry Commander Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, southern commander Nathanael Greene led British Lord Charles Cornwallis across the heartland of North Carolina, and away from the latter's base of supply in Charleston, South Carolina. This campaign is known as "The Race to the Dan" or "The Race for the River."[38]

In the Battle of Cowan's Ford, Cornwallis met resistance along the banks of the Catawba River at Cowan's Ford on February 1, 1781, in an attempt to engage General Morgan's forces during a tactical withdrawal.[45] Morgan had moved to the northern part of the state to combine with General Greene's newly recruited forces. Generals Greene and Cornwallis finally met at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in present-day Greensboro on March 15, 1781. Although the British troops held the field at the end of the battle, their casualties at the hands of the numerically superior Continental Army were crippling. Following this "Pyrrhic victory", Cornwallis chose to move to the Virginia coastline to get reinforcements, and to allow the Royal Navy to protect his battered army. This decision would result in Cornwallis' eventual defeat at Yorktown, Virginia, later in 1781. The Patriots' victory there guaranteed American independence.
Antebellum period

On November 21, 1789, North Carolina became the twelfth state to ratify the Constitution. In 1840, it completed the state capitol building in Raleigh, still standing today. Most of North Carolina's slave owners and large plantations were located in the eastern portion of the state. Although North Carolina's plantation system was smaller and less cohesive than that of Virginia, Georgia, or South Carolina, significant numbers of planters were concentrated in the counties around the port cities of Wilmington and Edenton, as well as suburban planters around the cities of Raleigh, Charlotte, and Durham in the Piedmont. Planters owning large estates wielded significant political and socio-economic power in antebellum North Carolina, which was a slave society. They placed their interests above those of the generally non-slave-holding "yeoman" farmers of western North Carolina. In mid-century, the state's rural and commercial areas were connected by the construction of a 129-mile (208 km) wooden plank road, known as a "farmer's railroad", from Fayetteville in the east to Bethania (northwest of Winston-Salem).[38]
Map of the roads and railroads of North Carolina, 1854

Besides slaves, there were a number of free people of color in the state. Most were descended from free African Americans who had migrated along with neighbors from Virginia during the 18th century. The majority were the descendants of unions in the working classes between white women, indentured servants or free, and African men, indentured, slave or free.[46] After the Revolution, Quakers and Mennonites worked to persuade slaveholders to free their slaves. Some were inspired by their efforts and the language of the Revolution to arrange for manumission of their slaves. The number of free people of color rose markedly in the first couple of decades after the Revolution.[47]

On October 25, 1836, construction began on the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad[48] to connect the port city of Wilmington with the state capital of Raleigh. In 1849 the North Carolina Railroad was created by act of the legislature to extend that railroad west to Greensboro, High Point, and Charlotte. During the Civil War, the Wilmington-to-Raleigh stretch of the railroad would be vital to the Confederate war effort; supplies shipped into Wilmington would be moved by rail through Raleigh to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

During the antebellum period, North Carolina was an overwhelmingly rural state, even by Southern standards. In 1860 only one North Carolina town, the port city of Wilmington, had a population of more than 10,000. Raleigh, the state capital, had barely more than 5,000 residents.

While slaveholding was slightly less concentrated than in some Southern states, according to the 1860 census, more than 330,000 people, or 33% of the population of 992,622, were enslaved African Americans.[49] They lived and worked chiefly on plantations in the eastern Tidewater. In addition, 30,463 free people of color lived in the state.[49] They were also concentrated in the eastern coastal plain, especially at port cities such as Wilmington and New Bern, where a variety of jobs were available. Free African Americans were allowed to vote until 1835, when the state revoked their suffrage in restrictions following the slave rebellion of 1831 led by Nat Turner. Southern slave codes criminalized willful killing of a slave in most cases.[50]
American Civil War
Main article: North Carolina in the American Civil War
Further information: American Civil War
Union captures Fort Fisher, 1865.

In 1860, North Carolina was a slave state, in which about one-third of the population was enslaved. This was a smaller proportion than in many Southern states. The state did not vote to join the Confederacy until President Abraham Lincoln called on it to invade its sister state, South Carolina, becoming the last or second-to-last state to officially join the Confederacy. The title of "last to join the Confederacy" has been disputed; although Tennessee's informal secession on May 7, 1861, preceded North Carolina's official secession on May 20,[51][52] the Tennessee legislature did not formally vote to secede until June 8, 1861.[53]

North Carolina was the site of few battles, but it provided the Confederacy with at least 125,000 troops, which is far more than any other state did. Approximately 40,000 of those troops died: more than half of disease, the remainder from battlefield wounds and from starvation. North Carolina also supplied about 15,000 Union troops.[54] Elected in 1862, Governor Zebulon Baird Vance tried to maintain state autonomy against Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond.
Confederate soldier Silent Sam, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by John Wilson

After secession, some North Carolinians refused to support the Confederacy. Some of the yeoman farmers in the state's mountains and western Piedmont region remained neutral during the Civil War, while some covertly supported the Union cause during the conflict. Approximately 2,000 North Carolinians from western North Carolina enlisted in the Union Army and fought for the North in the war. Two additional Union Army regiments were raised in the coastal areas of the state, which were occupied by Union forces in 1862 and 1863. Numerous slaves escaped to Union lines, where they became essentially free.

Confederate troops from all parts of North Carolina served in virtually all the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Confederacy's most famous army. The largest battle fought in North Carolina was at Bentonville, which was a futile attempt by Confederate General Joseph Johnston to slow Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's advance through the Carolinas in the spring of 1865.[38] In April 1865, after losing the Battle of Morrisville, Johnston surrendered to Sherman at Bennett Place, in what is today Durham. North Carolina's port city of Wilmington was the last Confederate port to fall to the Union, in February 1865, after the Union won the nearby Second Battle of Fort Fisher, its major defense downriver.
Bennett Place historic site in Durham

The first Confederate soldier to be killed in the Civil War was Private Henry Wyatt from North Carolina, in the Battle of Big Bethel in June 1861. At the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, the 26th North Carolina Regiment participated in Pickett/Pettigrew's Charge and advanced the farthest into the Northern lines of any Confederate regiment. During the Battle of Chickamauga, the 58th North Carolina Regiment advanced farther than any other regiment on Snodgrass Hill to push back the remaining Union forces from the battlefield. At Appomattox Court House in Virginia in April 1865, the 75th North Carolina Regiment, a cavalry unit, fired the last shots of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the Civil War. For many years, North Carolinians proudly boasted that they had been "First at Bethel, Farthest at Gettysburg and Chickamauga, and Last at Appomattox."
Demographics
Historical population
Census Pop. %±
1790 393,751 —
1800 478,103 21.4%
1810 556,526 16.4%
1820 638,829 14.8%
1830 737,987 15.5%
1840 753,419 2.1%
1850 869,039 15.3%
1860 992,622 14.2%
1870 1,071,361 7.9%
1880 1,399,750 30.7%
1890 1,617,949 15.6%
1900 1,893,810 17.1%
1910 2,206,287 16.5%
1920 2,559,123 16.0%
1930 3,170,276 23.9%
1940 3,571,623 12.7%
1950 4,061,929 13.7%
1960 4,556,155 12.2%
1970 5,082,059 11.5%
1980 5,881,766 15.7%
1990 6,628,637 12.7%
2000 8,049,313 21.4%
2010 9,535,471 18.5%
Est. 2014 9,943,964 4.3%
Source: 1910–2010[55]
2014 estimate[3]
Main article: Demographics of North Carolina

The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of North Carolina was 9,943,964 on July 1, 2014, a 4.28% increase since the 2010 United States Census.[3] Of the people residing in North Carolina, 58.5% were born in North Carolina, 33.1% were born in another US state, 1.0% were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parent(s), and 7.4% were born in another country.[56] As of 2011, 49.8% of North Carolina's population younger than age 1 were minorities.[57]
Race and ethnicity

Demographics of North Carolina covers the varieties of ethnic groups that reside in North Carolina, along with the relevant trends.
The state's racial composition in the 2010 Census:[58]

White: 68.5% (65.3% non-Hispanic white, 3.2% White Hispanic)
Black or African American: 21.5%
Asian American: 2.2%
Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander: 0.1%
Some other race: 4.3%
Multiracial American: 2.2%
Latino and Hispanic American of any race: 8.4%

North Carolina Racial Breakdown of Population [hide]Racial composition 1990[59] 2000[60] 2010[61]
White 75.6% 72.1% 68.5%
Black 22.0% 21.6% 21.5%
Asian 0.8% 1.4% 2.2%
Native 1.2% 1.2% 1.3%
Native Hawaiian and
other Pacific Islander - 0.1% 0.1%
Other race 0.5% 2.3% 4.3%
Two or more races - 1.3% 2.2%
Languages

As of 2010, 89.66% (7,750,904) of North Carolina residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 6.93% (598,756) spoke Spanish, 0.32% (27,310) French, 0.27% (23,204) German, and Chinese (which includes Mandarin) was spoken as a main language by 0.27% (23,072) of the population over the age of five. In total, 10.34% (893,735) of North Carolina's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.[62]
Top 15 Non-English Languages Spoken in North Carolina Language Percentage of population
(as of 2010)[62]
Spanish 6.93%
French 0.32%
German 0.27%
Chinese (including Mandarin) 0.27%
Vietnamese 0.24%
Arabic 0.17%
Korean 0.16%
Tagalog 0.13%
Hindi 0.12%
Gujarati, Russian, and Hmong (tied) 0.11%
Italian and Japanese (tied) 0.08%
Cherokee 0.01%[63]
Religion
Religious affiliation
Christian 84%
Evangelical Protestant 41%
Mainline Protestant 21%
Black Protestant 13%
Roman Catholic 9%
Buddhist 1%
Other religions 2%
Irreligious 12%
Don't know/refuse 1%
Data as of 2008[64][65]

North Carolina residents, like those of other Southern states, since the colonial era have historically been overwhelmingly Protestant, first Anglican, then Baptist and Methodist. By the late 19th century, the largest Protestant denomination was the Baptist. After the Civil War, black Baptists left white churches to set up their own independent congregations, and developed their own state and national associations, to be free of white supervision.

While the Baptists in total (counting both blacks and whites) have maintained the majority in this part of the country (known as the Bible Belt), the population in North Carolina practices a wide variety of faiths, including Judaism, Islam, Baha'i, Buddhism, and Hinduism. As of 2010 the Southern Baptist Church was the biggest denomination, with 4,241 churches and 1,513,000 members; the second largest was the United Methodist Church, with 660,000 members and 1,923 churches. The third was the Roman Catholic Church, with 428,000 members in 190 congregations. The fourth greatest was the Presbyterian Church (USA), with 186,000 members and 710 congregations; this denomination was brought by Scots-Irish immigrants who settled the backcountry in the colonial era.[66]

The state also has a special history with the Moravian Church, as settlers of this faith (largely of German origin) found a home in the Winston-Salem area in the 18th and 19th centuries. Presbyterians, historically Scots-Irish, have had a strong presence in Charlotte and in Scotland County.

Currently, the rapid influx of northerners and immigrants from Latin America is steadily increasing ethnic and religious diversity: the number of Roman Catholics and Jews in the state has increased, as well as general religious diversity. The second-largest Protestant denomination in North Carolina after Baptist traditions is Methodism, which is strong in the northern Piedmont, especially in populous Guilford County. There are also a substantial number of Quakers in Guilford County and northeastern North Carolina. Many universities and colleges in the state have been founded on religious traditions, and some currently maintain that affiliation, including:[67]

Belmont Abbey College (Catholic)
Bennett College for Women (United Methodist Church)
Campbell University (Baptist)
Catawba College (United Church of Christ)
Chowan University (Baptist)
Davidson College (Presbyterian)
Duke University (Historically Methodist)
Elon University (United Church of Christ)
Gardner-Webb University (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship)
Greensboro College (Methodist)
Guilford College (Religious Society of Friends [Quakers])
High Point College (United Methodist Church)
Lees-McRae College (Presbyterian)
Lenoir-Rhyne College (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
Livingstone College (African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church)
Louisburg College (United Methodist Church)

Mars Hill University (Christian)
Methodist University (United Methodist Church)
Montreat College (Christian)
University of Mount Olive (Baptist)
North Carolina Wesleyan College (United Methodist Church)
William Peace University (Presbyterian)
Pfeiffer University (Methodist)
Queens University of Charlotte (Presbyterian)
St. Andrews Presbyterian College (Presbyterian)
Saint Augustine's College (Episcopal)
Salem College (Historically Moravian [Protestant])
Shaw University (Baptist)
Wake Forest University (Historically Baptist)
Warren Wilson College (Historically Presbyterian)
Wingate University (Historically Baptist)

The state also has several major seminaries, including the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, and the Hood Theological Seminary (AME Zion) in Salisbury.
Major cities

In 2014, the US Census Bureau released 2013 population estimate counts for North Carolina's cities with populations above 70,000. Charlotte has the largest population, while Raleigh has the highest population density of North Carolina's largest cities.[68]

v t e

Largest cities or towns in North Carolina
Source:[69]
Rank Name County Pop.
Charlotte
Charlotte
Raleigh
Raleigh 1 Charlotte Mecklenburg 809,958 Greensboro
Greensboro
Durham
Durham
2 Raleigh Wake 439,896
3 Greensboro Guilford 282,586
4 Durham Durham 251,893
5 Winston-Salem Forsyth 239,269
6 Fayetteville Cumberland 203,948
7 Cary Wake 155,227
8 Wilmington New Hanover 113,657
9 High Point Guilford 108,629
10 Greenville Pitt 89,852
Largest combined statistical areas
Charlotte skyline

North Carolina has three major Combined Statistical Areas with populations of more than 1.6 million (U.S. Census Bureau 2012 estimates):[70]

Metrolina: Charlotte–Gastonia–Salisbury, North Carolina-South Carolina – population 2,452,619[70]
The Triangle: Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill, North Carolina – population 2,037,430[70]
The Triad: Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, North Carolina – population 1,611,243[70]

Economy
Main article: Economy of North Carolina
See also: North Carolina locations by per capita income

According to a Forbes article written in 2013 Employment in the "Old North State" has gained many different industry sectors. See the following article summary: science, technology, energy and math, or STEM, industries in the area surrounding North Carolina's capital have grown 17.9 percent since 2001, placing Raleigh-Cary at No. 5 among the 51 largest metro areas in the country where technology is booming. In 2010 North Carolina's total gross state product was $424.9 billion,[71] while the state debt in November 2012, according to one source, totalled US$2.4bn,[72] while according to another, was in 2012 US$57.8bn.[73] In 2011 the civilian labor force was at around 4.5 million with employment near 4.1 million. The working population is employed across the major employment sectors. The economy of North Carolina covers 15 metropolitan areas.[74] In 2010, North Carolina was chosen as the third-best state for business by Forbes Magazine, and the second-best state by Chief Executive Officer Magazine.[75]
Transportation
Main article: Transportation in North Carolina
A North Carolina license plate.

Transportation systems in North Carolina consist of air, water, road, rail, and public transportation including intercity rail via Amtrak and light rail in Charlotte. North Carolina has the second-largest state highway system in the country as well as the largest ferry system on the east coast.[76]

North Carolina's airports serve destinations throughout the United States and international destinations in Canada, Europe, Central America, and the Caribbean. In 2013 Charlotte Douglas International Airport ranked as the 23rd busiest airport in the world.[77]

North Carolina has a growing passenger rail system with Amtrak serving most major cities. Charlotte is also home to North Carolina's only light rail system known as the Lynx.
Government and politics
Main articles: Government of North Carolina and Politics of North Carolina
North Carolina statewide election results Year Office Republican Democratic Other
2014 Senate[78] 48.8% 1,423,259 47.3% 1,377,651 3.9% 114,371
2012 Governor[79] 54.6% 2,440,707 43.2% 1,931.580 2.2% 96,008
President[80] 50.4% 2,270,395 48.4% 2,178,391 1.3% 56,586
2010 Senate[81] 54.8% 1,458,046 43.1% 1,145,074 2.1% 56,959
2008 Governor[82] 46.9% 2,001,168 50.3% 2,146,189 2.9% 121,584
President[83] 49.4% 2,128,474 49.7% 2,142,651 0.9% 39,664
Senate[84] 44.2% 1,887,510 52.7% 2,249,311 3.2% 135,149
2004 Governor[85] 42.9% 1,495,021 55.6% 1,939,154 1.5% 52,513
President[86] 56.0% 1,961,166 43.6% 1,525,849 0.4% 13,992
Senate[87] 51.6% 1,791,450 47.0% 1,632,527 1.4% 48,105
2002 Senate[88] 53.6% 1,248,664 45.0% 1,047,983 1.5% 34,534
2000 Governor[89] 46.3% 1,360,960 52.0% 1,530,324 1.7% 50,778
President[90] 56.0% 1,631,163 43.2% 1,257,692 0.8% 22,407
1998 Senate[91] 47.0% 945,943 51.2% 1,029,237 1.8% 36,963
1996 Governor[92] 42.8% 1,097,053 56.0% 1,436,638 1.3% 32,494
President[93] 48.7% 1,225,938 44.0% 1,107,849 7.2% 182,020
Senate[94] 52.6% 1,345,833 45.9% 1,173,875 1.4% 36,748
1992 Governor[95] 43.2% 1,121,955 52.7% 1,368,246 4.1% 104,983
President[96] 43.4% 1,134,661 42.7% 1,114,042 13.9% 363,147
Senate[97] 50.4% 1,297,892 46.3% 1,194,015 3.3% 85,984
North Carolina State Legislative Building

The government of North Carolina is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. These consist of the Council of State (led by the Governor), the bicameral legislature (called the General Assembly), and the state court system (headed by the North Carolina Supreme Court). The state constitution delineates the structure and function of the state government. North Carolina has 13 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and two seats in the U.S. Senate.

North Carolina's party loyalties have undergone a series of important shifts in the last few years: While the 2010 midterms saw Tar Heel voters elect a bicameral Republican majority legislature for the first time in over a century, North Carolina has also become a Southern swing state in presidential races. Since Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter's comfortable victory in the state in 1976, the state had consistently leaned Republican in presidential elections until Democrat Barack Obama narrowly won the state in 2008. In the 1990s, Democrat Bill Clinton came within a point of winning the state in 1992 and also only narrowly lost the state in 1996. In the early 2000s, Republican George W. Bush easily won the state by over 12 points, but by 2008, demographic shifts, population growth, and increased liberalization in heavily populated areas such as the Research Triangle, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, and Asheville, propelled Barack Obama to victory in North Carolina, the first Democratic win in the state since 1976. In 2012, North Carolina was again considered a competitive swing state, with the Democrats even holding their 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. However, Republican Mitt Romney ultimately eked out a 2-point win in North Carolina, the only 2012 swing state that Obama lost, and one of only two states (along with Indiana) to flip from Obama in 2008 to the GOP in 2012.

In 2012, the state also elected a Republican Governor (Pat McCrory) and Lieutenant Governor (Dan Forest) for the first time in more than two decades, while also giving the Republicans veto-proof majorities in both the State House of Representatives and the State Senate. Several U.S. House of Representatives seats also flipped control, with the Republicans holding nine seats to the Democrats' four.
Education
Primary and secondary education
See also: List of school districts in North Carolina and List of high schools in North Carolina
A lesson at Kituwah Academy on the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina. The language immersion school, operated by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, teaches the same curriculum as other state primary schools, but the Native American Cherokee language is the medium of instruction from pre-school on up and students learn it as a first language. Such schools have proven instrumental in the preservation and perpetuation of the Cherokee language.

Elementary and secondary public schools are overseen by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction is the secretary of the North Carolina State Board of Education, but the board, rather than the superintendent, holds most of the legal authority for making public education policy. In 2009, the board's chairman also became the "chief executive officer" for the state's school system.[98][99] North Carolina has 115 public school systems,[100] each of which is overseen by a local school board. A county may have one or more systems within it. The largest school systems in North Carolina are the Wake County Public School System, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Guilford County Schools, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, and Cumberland County Schools.[101] In total there are 2,425 public schools in the state, including 99 charter schools.[100] North Carolina Schools were segregated until the Brown v. Board of Education trial and the release of the Pearsall Plan.
Colleges and universities
Further information: List of colleges and universities in North Carolina and List of universities in North Carolina by enrollment

In 1795, North Carolina opened the first public university in the United States—the University of North Carolina (now named the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). More than 200 years later, the University of North Carolina system encompasses 17 public universities including North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, East Carolina University, Western Carolina University, Winston-Salem State University, the University of North Carolina at Asheville, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, Elizabeth City State University, and Fayetteville State University, UNC School of the Arts, and Appalachian State University.[102] Along with its public universities, North Carolina has 58 public community colleges in its community college system.The largest university in North Carolina is currently North Carolina State University, with more than 34,000 students.[103] North Carolina is home to many excellent universities as well as dozens of community colleges and private universities.
Duke Chapel at Duke University
Old Well at UNC-Chapel Hill
Memorial Bell Tower at NC State
Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University
The Joyner Library clock tower at East Carolina University
The New Quad at UNC Charlotte
The Fountain at University of North Carolina at Greensboro

North Carolina is also home to many well-known private colleges and universities, including Duke University, Wake Forest University, Pfeiffer University, Lees-McRae College, Davidson College, Barton College, North Carolina Wesleyan College, Elon University, Guilford College, Livingstone College, Salem College, Shaw University (the first historically black college or university in the South), Laurel University, Meredith College, Methodist University, Belmont Abbey College (the only Catholic college in the Carolinas), Campbell University, University of Mount Olive, Montreat College, High Point University, Lenoir-Rhyne University (the only Lutheran university in North Carolina) and Wingate University.
Sports
Main article: Sports in North Carolina

North Carolina is home to three major league sports franchises: the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League and the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association are based in Charlotte, while the Raleigh-based Carolina Hurricanes play in the National Hockey League. The Hurricanes are the only major professional team from North Carolina to have won a league championship, having captured the Stanley Cup in 2006. Also included but not Majorly known would be the Charlotte Hounds of the Major League Lacrosse

While North Carolina has no Major League Baseball team, it does have numerous minor league baseball teams, with the highest level of play coming from the AAA-affiliated Charlotte Knights and Durham Bulls. Additionally, North Carolina has minor league teams in other team sports including soccer and ice hockey, most notably the Carolina RailHawks and Charlotte Checkers, both of which play in the second tier of their respective sport.

In addition to professional team sports, North Carolina has a strong affiliation with NASCAR and stock-car racing, with Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord hosting two Sprint Cup Series races every year. Charlotte also hosts the NASCAR Hall of Fame, while Concord is the home of several top-flight racing teams, including Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Stewart-Haas Racing, and Chip Ganassi Racing. Numerous other tracks around North Carolina host races from low-tier NASCAR circuits as well.

Golf is a popular summertime leisure activity, and North Carolina has hosted several important professional golf tournaments. Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst has hosted a PGA Championship, Ryder Cup, and two U.S. Open tournaments. The Wells Fargo Championship is a regular stop on the PGA Tour and is held at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, while the Wyndham Championship is played annually in Greensboro.

College sports are also popular in North Carolina, with 18 schools competing at the Division I level. The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is headquartered in Greensboro, and both the ACC Football Championship Game (Charlotte) and the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament (Greensboro) were most recently held in North Carolina. College basketball in particular is very popular, buoyed by the Tobacco Road rivalries between Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest. The Belk Bowl is a post-season college football game held annually in Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium, featuring teams from the ACC and the Southeastern Conference. Additionally, the state has hosted the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four on two occasions, in Greensboro in 1974 and in Charlotte in 1994.
Tourism
The Biltmore Estate, Asheville

Every year the Appalachian Mountains attract several million tourists to the Western part of the state, including the historic Biltmore Estate. The scenic Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountains National Park are the two most visited national park and unit in the United States with over 25 million visitors in 2013.[104] The City of Asheville is consistently voted as one of the top places to visit and live in the United States, known for its rich art deco architecture, mountain scenery and outdoor activities, and liberal and happy residents.[105][106]

In Raleigh many tourists visit the Capital, African American Cultural Complex, Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh, Gregg Museum of Art & Design at NCSU, Haywood Hall House & Gardens, Marbles Kids Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, North Carolina Museum of History, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, Raleigh City Museum, J. C. Raulston Arboretum, Joel Lane House, Mordecai House, Montfort Hall, and the Pope House Museum. The Carolina Hurricanes NHL hockey team is also located in the city.

In the Charlotte area, amenities include the Carolina Panthers NFL football team and Charlotte Hornets basketball team, Carowinds amusement park, Charlotte Motor Speedway, U.S. National Whitewater Center, and the Discovery Place. Nearby Concord has the Great Wolf Lodge and Sea Life Aquarium.

In the Conover – Hickory area, Hickory Motor Speedway, RockBarn Golf and Spa, home of the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn; Catawba County Firefighters Museum, and SALT Block attract many tourists to Conover. Hickory which has Valley Hills Mall.

The Piedmont Triad, or center of the state, is home to Krispy Kreme, Mayberry, Texas Pete, the Lexington Barbecue Festival, and Moravian cookies. The internationally acclaimed North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro attracts visitors to its animals, plants, and a 57-piece art collection along five miles of shaded pathways in the world's largest-land-area natural-habitat park. Seagrove, in the central portion of the state, attracts many tourists along Pottery Highway (NC Hwy 705). MerleFest in Wilkesboro attracts more than 80,000 people to its four-day music festival; and Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe water park in Greensboro is another attraction.

The Outer Banks and surrounding beaches attract millions of people to the Atlantic beaches every year.
Recreation
The Blue Ridge Mountains of the Shining Rock Wilderness Area
A lone swimmer at Carolina Beach (2012)
Cape Hatteras National Seashore near Avon, NC

North Carolina provides a large range of recreational activities, from swimming at the beach[107] to skiing in the mountains. North Carolina offers fall colors, freshwater and saltwater fishing, hunting, birdwatching, agritourism, ATV trails, ballooning, rock climbing, biking, hiking, skiing, boating and sailing, camping, canoeing, caving (spelunking), gardens, and arboretums. North Carolina has theme parks, aquariums, museums, historic sites, lighthouses, elegant theaters, concert halls, and fine dining.[108]

North Carolinians enjoy outdoor recreation utilizing numerous local bike paths, 34 state parks, and 14 national parks. National Park Service units include the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cape Lookout National Seashore, Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site at Flat Rock, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site at Manteo, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in Greensboro, Moores Creek National Battlefield near Currie in Pender County, the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, Old Salem National Historic Site in Winston-Salem, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, and Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. National Forests include Uwharrie National Forest in central North Carolina, Croatan National Forest in Eastern North Carolina, Pisgah National Forest in the northern mountains, and Nantahala National Forest in the southwestern part of the state.
Arts and culture
Main article: Culture of North Carolina

North Carolina has rich traditions in art, music, and cuisine. The nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $1.2 billion in direct economic activity in North Carolina, supporting more than 43,600 full-time equivalent jobs and generating $119 million in revenue for local governments and the state of North Carolina.[109] North Carolina established the North Carolina Museum of Art as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding[110] and continues to bring millions into the NC economy.[111] Also see this list of museums in North Carolina.

One of the more famous arts communities in the state is Seagrove, the handmade-pottery capital of the U.S., where artisans create handcrafted pottery inspired by the same traditions that began in this community more than 200 years ago. With nearly 100 shops and galleries scattered throughout the area, visitors can find everything from traditional tableware to folk and collectible art pieces and historical reproductions.
Music
Main article: Music of North Carolina

North Carolina boasts a large number of noteworthy jazz musicians, some among the most important in the history of the genre. These include: John Coltrane, (Hamlet, High Point); Thelonious Monk (Rocky Mount); Billy Taylor (Greenville); Woody Shaw (Laurinburg); Lou Donaldson (Durham); Max Roach (Newland); Tal Farlow (Greensboro); Albert, Jimmy and Percy Heath (Wilmington); Nina Simone (Tryon); and Billy Strayhorn (Hillsborough).
Fiddlin' Bill Hensley, mountain fiddler, Asheville, 1937

North Carolina is also famous for its tradition of old-time music, and many recordings were made in the early 20th century by folk-song collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Musicians such as the North Carolina Ramblers helped solidify the sound of country music in the late 1920s, while the influential bluegrass musician Doc Watson also hailed from North Carolina. Both North and South Carolina are hotbeds for traditional rural blues, especially the style known as the Piedmont blues.

Ben Folds Five originated in Winston-Salem, and Ben Folds still records and resides in Chapel Hill.

The British band Pink Floyd is named, in part, after Chapel Hill bluesman Floyd Council.

The Research Triangle area has long been a well-known center for folk, rock, metal, jazz and punk.[112] James Taylor grew up around Chapel Hill, and his 1968 song "Carolina in My Mind" has been called an unofficial anthem for the state.[113][114][115] Other famous musicians from North Carolina include J. Cole, Shirley Caesar, Roberta Flack, Clyde McPhatter, Nnenna Freelon, Jimmy Herring, Michael Houser, Eric Church, Future Islands, Randy Travis, Ryan Adams, Ronnie Milsap, Anthony Hamilton, and The Avett Brothers.

Metal and punk acts such as Corrosion of Conformity, Between the Buried and Me, and Nightmare Sonata are native to North Carolina.

EDM producer Porter Robinson hails from Chapel Hill.

North Carolina is the home of more American Idol finalists than any other state: Clay Aiken (season two), Fantasia Barrino (season three), Kellie Pickler (season five), Bucky Covington (season five), Chris Daughtry (season five), Anoop Desai (season eight), Scotty McCreery (season ten), and Caleb Johnson (season thirteen).

In the mountains, the Brevard Music Center hosts choral, orchestral, and solo performances during its annual summer schedule.

Also, see the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
Shopping

North Carolina has a variety of shopping choices. SouthPark Mall in Charlotte is currently the largest in the Carolinas, with almost 2.0 million square feet. Other major malls in Charlotte include Northlake Mall and Carolina Place Mall in nearby suburb Pineville. Other major malls throughout the state include Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem; Crabtree Valley Mall, North Hills Mall, and Triangle Town Center in Raleigh; Friendly Center and Four Seasons Town Centre in Greensboro; Oak Hollow Mall in High Point; Concord Mills in Concord; Valley Hills Mall in Hickory; and The Streets at Southpoint and Northgate Mall in Durham and Independence Mall in Wilmington, NC.
Cuisine and agriculture
2008 Lexington Barbecue Festival

A culinary staple of North Carolina is pork barbecue. There are strong regional differences and rivalries over the sauces and methods used in making the barbecue. The common trend across Western North Carolina is the use of premium grade Boston butt. Western North Carolina pork barbecue uses a tomato-based sauce, and only the pork shoulder (dark meat) is used. Western North Carolina barbecue is commonly referred to as Lexington barbecue after the Piedmont Triad town of Lexington, home of the Lexington Barbecue Festival, which attracts over 100,000 visitors each October.[116][117] Eastern North Carolina pork barbecue uses a vinegar-and-red-pepper-based sauce and the "whole hog" is cooked, thus integrating both white and dark meat.

Krispy Kreme, an international chain of doughnut stores, was started in North Carolina; the company's headquarters are in Winston-Salem. Pepsi-Cola was first produced in 1898 in New Bern. A regional soft drink, Cheerwine, was created and is still based in the city of Salisbury. Despite its name, the hot sauce Texas Pete was created in North Carolina; its headquarters are also in Winston-Salem. The Hardee's fast-food chain was started in Rocky Mount. Another fast-food chain, Bojangles', was started in Charlotte, and has its corporate headquarters there. A popular North Carolina restaurant chain is Golden Corral. Started in 1973, the chain was founded in Fayetteville, with headquarters located in Raleigh. Popular pickle brand Mount Olive Pickle Company was founded in Mount Olive in 1926. Fast casual burger chain Hwy 55 Burgers, Shakes & Fries also makes its home in Mount Olive. Cook Out, a popular fast-food chain featuring burgers, hot dogs, and milkshakes in a wide variety of flavors, was founded in Greensboro in 1989 and has begun expanding outside of North Carolina.

Over the last decade, North Carolina has become a cultural epicenter and haven for internationally prize-winning wine (Noni Bacca Winery), internationally prized cheeses (Ashe County), "L'institut International aux Arts Gastronomiques: Conquerront Les Yanks les Truffes, January 15, 2010" international hub for truffles (Garland Truffles), and beer making, as tobacco land has been converted to grape orchards while state laws regulating alcohol content in beer allowed a jump in ABV from 6% to 15%. The Yadkin Valley in particular has become a strengthening market for grape production, while Asheville recently won the recognition of being named 'Beer City USA.' Asheville boasts the largest breweries per capita of any city in the United States. Recognized and marketed brands of beer in North Carolina include Highland Brewing, Duck Rabbit Brewery, Mother Earth Brewery, Weeping Radish Brewery, Big Boss Brewing, Foothills Brewing, Carolina Brewing Company, Lonerider Brewing, and White Rabbit Brewing Company.

Tobacco was one of the first major industries to develop after the Civil War. Many farmers grew some tobacco, and the invention of the cigarette made the product especially popular. Winston-Salem is the birthplace of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR), founded by R. J. Reynolds in 1874 as one of 16 tobacco companies in the town. By 1914 it was selling 425 million packs of Camels a year. Today it is the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S. (behind Altria Group). RJR is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., which in turn is 42% owned by British American Tobacco.[118]
Ships named for the state
USS North Carolina on permanent display in Wilmington
Further information: USS North Carolina

Several ships have been named after the state. Most famous is the USS North Carolina, a World War II battleship. The ship served in several battles against the forces of Imperial Japan in the Pacific theater during the war. Now decommissioned, it is part of the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial in Wilmington. Another USS North Carolina, a nuclear attack submarine, was commissioned in Wilmington, NC, on May 3, 2008.[119]
State parks
Main article: List of North Carolina state parks

The state maintains a group of protected areas known as the North Carolina State Park System, which is managed by the North Carolina Division of Parks & Recreation (NCDPR), an agency of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR).
State symbols
[show]North Carolina state symbols
Cardinal, North Carolina state bird
Dogwood, North Carolina state flower
Main article: List of North Carolina state symbols

State motto: Esse quam videri ("To be, rather than to seem") (1893)
State song: "The Old North State" (1927)
State flower: Dogwood (1941)
State bird: Cardinal (1943)
State colors: The red and blue of the N.C. and U.S. flags (1945)
State toast: "The Tar Heel Toast" (1957)
State tree: Pine (1963)[120]
State shell: Scotch bonnet (1965)
State mammal: Eastern gray squirrel (1969)
State salt water fish: Red drum (also known as the channel bass) (1971)
State insect: European honey bee (1973)
State gemstone: Emerald (1973)
State reptile: Eastern box turtle (1979)
State rock: Granite (1979)
State beverage: Milk (1987)
State historical boat: Shad boat (1987)
State language: English (1987)
State dog: Plott Hound (1989)
State military academy: Oak Ridge Military Academy (1991)
State tartan: Carolina Tartan (1991)[121]
State vegetable: Sweet potato (1995)
State red berry: Strawberry (2001)
State blue berry: Blueberry (2001)
State fruit: Scuppernong grape (2001)
State wildflower: Carolina lily (2003)
State Christmas tree: Fraser fir (2005)
State carnivorous plant: Venus flytrap (2005)
State folk dance: Clogging (2005)
State popular dance: Carolina shag (2005)
State birthplace of traditional pottery: The Seagrove area (2005)
State sport: NASCAR (2011)[122]

Armed forces installations
Troopers of the 82nd Airborne Division training on Fort Bragg, March 2011

Fort Bragg, near Fayetteville and Southern Pines, is a large and comprehensive military base and is the headquarters of the XVIII Airborne Corps, 82nd Airborne Division, and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Serving as the air wing for Fort Bragg is Pope Field, also located near Fayetteville.

Located in Jacksonville, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, combined with nearby bases Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point, MCAS New River, Camp Geiger, Camp Johnson, Stone Bay and Courthouse Bay, makes up the largest concentration of Marines and sailors in the world. MCAS Cherry Point is home of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. Located in Goldsboro, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is home of the 4th Fighter Wing and 916th Air Refueling Wing. One of the busiest air stations in the United States Coast Guard is located at the Coast Guard Air Station in Elizabeth City. Also stationed in North Carolina is the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point in Southport.
See also
Portal icon North Carolina portal

Index of North Carolina-related articles
Outline of North Carolina – organized list of topics about North Carolina

References

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Morris, Thomas D. (1999). Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860. University of North Carolina Press. p. 172. ISBN 0807864307.
"Center for Civic Education – Lincoln Bicentennial with Supplemental Lesson: Timeline". Civiced.org. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
"Highlights: Secession". Docsouth.unc.edu. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
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Primary sources

Lefler, Hugh (numerous editions since 1934). North Carolina History Told by Contemporaries . University of North Carolina Press.
Jones, H. G. (1984). North Carolina Illustrated, 1524–1984. University of North Carolina Press.
North Carolina Manual. Published biennially by the Department of the Secretary of State since 1941.
The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection. A grant-funded project to provide digital access to publications of and about religious bodies in North Carolina. Partner institutions at Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest University contributed the largest portion of the items in this collection, but the collection is enriched by unique materials from libraries and archives throughout North Carolina. The materials in this collection include local church histories, periodicals, clergy biographies, cookbooks, event programs, directories, and much more.

Further reading

James, Clay; Orr, Douglas, eds. (1971). North Carolina Atlas: Portrait of a Changing Southern State.
Christensen, Rob (2008). The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Cooper, Christopher A.; Knotts, H. Gibbs, eds. (2008). The New Politics of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Crow; Jeffrey J.; Tise, Larry E. (1979). Writing North Carolina History. Online.
Eamon, Tom (2014). The Making of a Southern Democracy: North Carolina Politics from Kerr Scott to Pat McCrory. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Fleer, Jack D. (1994). North Carolina Government & Politics. Online political science textbook.
Hawks, Francis L. (1857). History of North Carolina, Volumes I and II.
Kersey, Marianne M.; Coble, Ran, eds. (1989). North Carolina Focus: An Anthology on State Government, Politics, and Policy. 2d ed. Raleigh: North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research.
Lefler, Hugh Talmage (1963). A Guide to the Study and Reading of North Carolina History. Online.
Lefler, Hugh Talmage; Newsome, Albert Ray (1954, 1963, 1973). North Carolina: The History of a Southern State. Standard textbook.
Link, William A. (2009). North Carolina: Change and Tradition in a Southern State. History by leading scholar.
Luebke, Paul (1990). Tar Heel Politics: Myths and Realities.
Powell, William S. (1979–88). Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Vol. 1, A-C; vol. 2, D-G; vol. 3, H-K.
Powell, William S. (1958). North Carolina Fiction, 1734–1957: An Annotated Bibliography.
Powell, William S. (1989). North Carolina through Four Centuries. Standard textbook.
Powell, William S.; Mazzocchi, Jay, eds. (2006). Encyclopedia of North Carolina.
Ready, Milton. (2005). The Tar Heel State: A History of North Carolina.
Thuesen, Sarah Caroline. (2013). Greater Than Equal: African American Struggles for Schools and Citizenship in North Carolina, 1919-1965. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
WPA Federal Writers' Project (1939). North Carolina: A Guide to the Old North State. Famous WPA guide to every town.

External links

General

Wineries, Restaurants and Tourism in the state
North Carolina at DMOZ

History

North Carolina State Guide, from the Library of Congress
The Guardian: "US nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina – secret document"

Government and education

North Carolina state government
North Carolina state library
Energy & Environmental Data for North Carolina
USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of North Carolina
North Carolina facts from US Department of Agriculture ERS
North Carolina Court System official site
North Carolina facts from US Census Bureau
NC ECHO – North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online
North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Green 'N' Growing: The History of Home Demonstration and 4-H Youth Development in North Carolina – hosted by NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center
NC Office of Archives and History
Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina
Driving Through Time: The Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina
The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection

Other

Geographic data related to North Carolina at OpenStreetMap