The Probert Encyclopaedia of Places of the World

NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina is a state in the USA. North Carolina was one of the original thirteen colonies. It is bordered to the north by Virginia, east by the Atlantic Ocean, south by South Carolina and Georgia, and west by Tennessee. The principal rivers are the Roanoke and Chowan, Neuse, Pamlico or Tar, and Cape Pear and Yadkin. The coast is generally difficult ro access, being fringed by a line of narrow sandy islands, between which and the mainland the passages are mostly shallow and dangerous. There are three noted capes on the coast: Cape Hatteras, Cape Look-out, and Cape Fear, all dangerous to seamen. North Carolina is generally a dead level for 40 to 60 miles inland, this part largely consisting of cypress swamps; next comes a fine undulating country largely under cultivation or clothed with deciduous trees; lastly comes the region of the Appalachians, with Mount Mitchell the highest of all. The mineral resources are highly valuable, including coal and iron in abundance, silver, lead, zinc, emery, etc.

The first attempts to make a settlement were made by Sir Walter Raleigh. His failures caused a prejudice against the region. Soon after the settlement of Virginia in 1607, the territory was explored and small settlements made by hunters and adventurers from Virginia. Charles I gave the territory to his attorney-general, Sir Robert Heath, in 1639.

In 1653, Roger Greene with Virginian dissenters founded the first permanent settlement in North Carolina, at Albemarle. A party of New Englanders made a settlement on the Cape Fear River in 1660, but soon left the country in disgust and were followed by a company from Barbados who, in 1665, established the colony of Clarendon, on the Cape Fear River.

In 1663, Charles II gave both Carolinas to eight of his favorites. The territory extended to the parallel 36 degrees 30 minutes on the north, to 29 degrees on the south, and west to the South Sea. The king gave a charter to the proprietors in 1665, and in 1669 the colonial Legislature attempted to
attract immigrants by a law which prevented the collection of all debts incurred by settlers before moving to the Carolinas. In the same year Locke's Fundamental Constitutions attempted to institute the feudal system, but without success, and in 1693 the attempt was abandoned.

In 1700 the two colonies were separated, and in 1739 North Carolina became a royal colony. In May, 1775, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is said to have been issued by the inhabitants of Mecklenburg County. The first State Constitution was made in 1776. The population of the State was large but ill-organized at the time of the American War of Independence. The State refused to ratify the national Constitution until 1789, and was thus next to the last of the thirteen States to accept that document.

In 1860-61, the sentiment was at first decidedly opposed to secession on the ground that it would be impolitic; but upon Abraham Lincoln's call for troops, the Legislature in special session called a State Convention, which on May the 20th, 1861, passed a secession ordinance. North Carolina was dissatisfied with the Confederate Government, and it was even proposed to secede from the Confederacy.

North Carolina was restored to her place in the Union on July 11, 1868. In 1869 the Ku Klux Klan appeared in Alamance and Caswell Counties, and Federal aid was solicited by Governor Holden.
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