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.

Commentary
Education

Reflections from North Carolina’s Covid Generation 

1990-present

I was in middle school and forced to go to “virtual school” for nearly two years after the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in the spring of 2020.

African American

The Episcopal Church of St. John in the Wilderness

1776-1835

St. John in the Wilderness is historically recognized as the first Episcopal parish established in Western North Carolina. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Commentary
Political History

What Is the Liberty Pole?

1776-1835

What does Julius Caesar have to do with North Carolina’s state seal and the Halifax Resolves? On April 12, 2026, The Halifax State Historic Site celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Halifax Resolves. Representatives from the site had put up a “Liberty Pole” as part of their festivities in celebration of the...

Commentary

Commentary
Education

Reflections from North Carolina’s Covid Generation 

1990-present

I was in middle school and forced to go to “virtual school” for nearly two years after the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in the spring of 2020.

Commentary
Political History

What Is the Liberty Pole?

1776-1835

What does Julius Caesar have to do with North Carolina’s state seal and the Halifax Resolves? On April 12, 2026, The Halifax State Historic Site celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Halifax Resolves. Representatives from the site had put up a “Liberty Pole” as part of their festivities in celebration of the...

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.

Discover our Educational Resources

Our Resources

History in the News

Carolina Journal

Mamdani’s cheap grocery scheme won’t help poor families

Long food lines and food ration cards, however, are the hallmarks of a failing Soviet Union and have no place in a free society.

Carolina Journal

Federalist 31: Concerning the general power of taxation, cont…

It should not be forgotten that a disposition in the State governments to encroach upon the rights of the Union is quite as probable as a disposition in the Union to encroach upon the rights of the State governments.

Carolina Journal

How to not win wars

Setting public deadlines, exit strategies, and casualty limits is a time-honored way to lose wars.