Featured

Featured articles (below) bring to life the early years of the American Revolution.

Colonial North Carolina

Revolution-Era Articles in the North Carolina Historical Review 

1664-1775

The North Carolina Historical Review includes a rich collection of articles about the American Revolution. This list was compiled by Kathryn McKee and Jane Shaw Stroup.

Early America

The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge (1776)

1664-1775

Some revolutionary battles took place in the colonies before independence was declared on July 4, 1776. One of those was the February 27, 1776, battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge in Pender County, North Carolina.

Early America

Flora MacDonald (1722 – 1790)

1664-1775

The subject of Scottish folklore and myth, Flora MacDonald assisted Prince Charles Stuart in his escape from King George II. In 1774, she moved to North Carolina, where her Loyalist husband and son fought in the Battle of Moores Creek.

Colonial North Carolina

Royal Governor Josiah Martin (1737 – 1786)

1664-1775

Josiah Martin, the last royal governor of North Carolina, was born in Ireland in 1737. Due to his family's connection to the British crown, Martin replaced Governor Tryon in 1771 as royal governor of North Carolina. Martin assumed a difficult position because Patriot colonists in North Carolina had long resented overwhelming British taxation and the War of Regulation remained fresh in the colonists' minds.

Revolution Era

Rutherford’s Campaign

1776-1835

General Griffith Rutherford led a short but destructive march against the mountain-dwelling Cherokee in September 1776. Although casualties were relatively low on both sides, Rutherford’s army razed over thirty important Cherokee communities causing tribesmen and women to flee the mountains and start life anew elsewhere.  Some historians claim that had the Cherokee recovered and fought with the British during the Revolutionary War, the conclusion may have been different.

Commentary
Agriculture

North Carolina’s Role in the Creation of the U.S. Forest Service

1866-1915

The story is complicated. In the United States in the late 1800s, demand for wood seemed insatiable—for houses, ships, fuel, and railroad ties. Americans were logging trees all over the country.

Writers

Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967)

1866-1915

In the autumn of 1945, a steam engine train rolled into the Flat Rock Depot carrying more than twenty tons of books, manuscripts, furniture, awards, and personal belongings bound for 1928 Little River Road in Henderson County, North Carolina. Around the same time, Carl Sandburg and his wife Lilian made the journey from Michigan by...

Colonial North Carolina

Fort Johnston and the American Revolution

1664-1775

In July 1775, Patriot militiamen carried out the first military operation of the Revolutionary War in what became the Tar Heel State. There was no pitched battle. No one died. But the Patriots made their point: Reasserting British control over North Carolina would be no easy task. Three months earlier, they’d forced Josiah Martin, the...

Colonial North Carolina

Delving into American Revolution Articles in the North Carolina Historical Review

1664-1775

To academic historians and amateur (or avocational) historians: We explored the North Carolina Historical Review to find articles about the American Revolution. I hope these summaries (written by a person, not AI) will whet your appetite for the longer versions. (A link to each article on JSTOR is provided for each.) Did North Carolina’s Revolution...

Commentary

Commentary
Agriculture

North Carolina’s Role in the Creation of the U.S. Forest Service

1866-1915

The story is complicated. In the United States in the late 1800s, demand for wood seemed insatiable—for houses, ships, fuel, and railroad ties. Americans were logging trees all over the country.

Commentary
Military History

Charles Cornwallis: One General Among Several

1776-1835

There's a lot to learn about General Charles Cornwallis, starting with the fact that he was never overall British commander during the American Revolution.

Commentary
Political History

Second-to-the-Last in Freedom (for Women)

1836-1865

In 1971 the North Carolina legislature ratified an amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving equal voting rights to women. Not the Equal Rights Amendment! The Nineteenth Amendment of 1920.

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History in the News

Carolina Journal

Federalist 27: Idea of restraining legislative authority in regard to common defense considered, cont…

The hope of impunity is a strong incitement to sedition; the dread of punishment, a proportionably strong discouragement to it.

Carolina Journal

Red tape is holding back Alzheimer’s care. Carolinians deserve better.

The NC co-sponsors of the legislation — US Reps. Deborah Ross, Addison McDowell, Richard Hudson, and Alma Adams — should be applauded for prioritizing Alzheimer’s care.

Carolina Journal

The true heart of America

The true heart of America resides in the people who audaciously demand that freedom and liberty, as given to us by God, are fundamental rights to human existence.