North Carolina played a critical, often overlooked, role in our nation’s founding. We at the North Carolina History Project have put together this timeline of our state’s contributions to the American Revolution. The following timeline chronologically lays out some of the most important events in North Carolina’s revolutionary history and links out to our more...
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...
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.
Pyle’s Defeat occurred in February 1781 near the end of the Revolution. It was a savage blow to British hopes, as Lt. Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis attempted to stop the Patriots’ momentum.
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.
The Edenton Tea Party was one of the earliest organized women’s political actions in United States history. On October 25, 1774, Mrs. Penelope Barker organized, at the home of Mrs. Elizabeth King, fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina. Together they formed an alliance wholeheartedly supporting the American cause against “taxation without representation.”
Global TransPark
The North Carolina Global TransPark (GTP) was envisioned as a bold experiment in rural economic revitalization, a 2,500-acre industrial and aviation complex in Kinston, North Carolina. Conceived in the 1990s as a state-backed hub for global shipping and logistical management, the project aimed to jumpstart economic growth in eastern North Carolina. With access to an...
Anna Julia Cooper (1858 – 1964)
Anna Julia Cooper was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1858. It is believed she was the daughter of her enslaver, Fabius J. Haywood. Cooper was emancipated when she was nine years old and in 1867 enrolled in Saint Augustine’s Normal and Collegiate Institute in Raleigh with the aid of the Freedmen’s Bureau. At Saint...
Lenoir-Rhyne University
Lenoir-Rhyne University was founded in 1891 by four Lutheran pastors—Andrew L. Crouse, Robert A. Yoder, William P. Cline, and Jason C. Moser—to provide students with an education grounded in Christian faith and values. The institution began as Highland Academy, a one-room schoolhouse with twelve students during its first year. The school was located in Hickory,...
Salem College
The story of Salem College goes back to 1744, when immigrants from Moravia settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.There, Moravians fostered communitarian values, and each individual devoted labor to community needs in exchange for food and shelter, in a system known as oeconomies. They kept this enterprising spirit as they expanded into North Carolina and founded the...
The Second Great Awakening in North Carolina
Two spiritual revivals known as the First and Second Great Awakenings permanently changed the cultural and religious makeup of the fledgling United States. North Carolina experienced both revivals firsthand.
Isaac Shelby (1750 – 1826)
Isaac Shelby, one of the most celebrated leaders in early United States history, was a soldier, statesman, and pioneer renowned for his pivotal role in the Revolutionary War.
Battle of Beaufort, N.C.
Most people consider the Battle of Yorktown as marking the end of the American Revolution, but some historians have called the Battle of Beaufort, North Carolina, the last battle of the war. (Beaufort is in Carteret County on Beaufort Inlet, across from Shackleford Banks and near Cape Lookout.) In early April 1782, a wily party...
The Wilmington Coup
The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 is the only successful coup d’état in American history. The event was the first and only time in this country that a lawfully elected government was overthrown by a violent force motivated by racism. The Wilmington Insurrection, now often called the Wilmington Coup but historically called the Wilmington Race Riot,...
Royal Proclamation of 1763
Issued by the British following the conclusion of the French and Indian War, the Proclamation of 1763 was a significant factor in the cultivation of revolutionary fervor but one that has been somewhat neglected. The proclamation was an attempt by the British not only to prevent colonists from migrating westward but to stabilize relations with...
The Race to the Dan
The “Race to the Dan” is the name given to the competition between Patriot and British forces as they tried to reach the Dan River, which flows along the border of North Carolina and Virginia. This race took place in early 1781, over the months between two key battles that shaped the Southern Campaign and...
Latta University
The Rev. Morgan L. Latta was the founder and president of Latta University, located in Oberlin Village, which is now part of Raleigh, North Carolina. Born in 1853, he was enslaved on the Cameron Plantation in Durham County. Fifty years later (in 1903) Latta published his autobiography, which tells, among many things, about how he...
The Battle of the Atlantic off the Outer Banks of North Carolina
During the first six months of 1942, 86 merchant ships, primarily American and British, were sunk off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. At least 1200 men died. Many North Carolinians are still unaware of those losses.