The Old North State has a rich recorded history that has lasted approximately 450 years.
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The Battle of Hayes Pond took place on January 18, 1958. A clash or skirmish more than a battle, the event pitted two groups against one another—a Ku Klux Klan rally of about 50 men and a spontaneous gathering of about 500 Lumbee Indians. The place was near a pond close to Maxton, North Carolina,...
The Croatan Normal School, forerunner of UNC-Pembroke, was formed by the General Assembly on March 7, 1887, after Native Americans petitioned the legislature for a teaching school in Robeson County. In 1969 the college's name was changed to Pembroke State University. By 2921 the University of North Carolina at Pembroke had a student body of over 7,600 students.
The home of the Lumbee tribe and the Lumber River, Robeson County is the proud home of Native Americans who have resided there for centuries. Annexed in 1787 from Bladen County, Robeson’s county seat is Lumberton; it is named after the Lumber River. Angus W. McLean and Henry Berry Lowrie are two famous natives of Robeson County.
The Tuscarora, one of the most prominent tribes of eastern North Carolina at the time of European settlement, were a well-developed tribe that spoke a derivative of the Iroquoian language. The tribe established communities on the Roanoke, Tar, and Neuse Rivers, growing crops such as corn, picked berries and nuts. They also hunted big game such as deer and bears. Despite the tribe’s size and numerous warriors, the Tuscarora War (1711-1713) led to the migration of the tribe to New York and the near vanishing of the tribe from North Carolina.
What is now Carteret, Pamlico, Craven, Lenoir, Jones, Beaufort, and Pitt Counties was a terrifying place to live from 1711 to 1713. North Carolinians and the Yamasee waged war against the Tuscarora. Many colonists’ settlements were burned and the Tuscarora ax indiscriminately fell upon men, women, and children. In the end, English colonists prevailed. Captured Tuscarora were sold into slavery and those that escaped northward joined the Iroquois League.
During the Tuscarora War, the colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina formed a political and military friendship. Two years later (1715), the Yamasee, former allies of the two colonies, rebelled against the English. The Yamasee defeat, however, ensured that what is now eastern and Piedmont North and South Carolina became virtually non-Indian land.
Manteo was a Carolina Algonquian who assisted the three English expeditions to Roanoke Island during the 1580s. Governor John White declared Manteo to be Lord of Roanoke in 1587. Manteo was the first person baptized in America into the Church of England.
The Meherrin are Native Americans who resided in northeastern North Carolina near the river of the same name. As of 2011 there were approximately 900 members.
Birthplace of the inventor of the Gatling Gun, the coastal county of Hertford holds an important position in North Carolina’s history. The Meherrin called modern-day Hertford home before the arrival of early European settlers from the Virginia colony. Winton, the county seat of Hertford, was the first town destroyed by Union forces in the Civil War.
NC’s ‘Great Refusal’ to sign US Constitution led to Bill of Rights
Would we have guaranteed rights to religion, speech, the press, or assembly without NC’s Great Refusal? Likely, in some form, but they may have been harder to defend.
Federalist No. 1: General introduction
After an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America.
Do sternly worded letters win wars?
To learn more about the resulting battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge (Feb. 27, 1776), please consider attending North Carolina’s First in Freedom Festival.