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.”
The Test
On the eve of the American Revolution, the Vestry of St. Paul's Church in Edenton wrote "The Test," which helped fan the flames of independence within the colony of North Carolina.
Halifax Resolves
The Halifax Resolves is the name later given to a resolution adopted by the Fourth Provincial Congress of the Province of North Carolina on April 12, 1776. The resolution was a forerunner of the United States Declaration of Independence.
Richard Caswell (1729 – 1789)
Richard Caswell was not only one of the first of delegates chosen to represent North Carolina at the first Continental Congress but he was also the first and fifth governor of the Tar Heel State.
Barker House
The Barker House was built in 1782 in Edenton, North Carolina, for Thomas and Penelope Barker. Penelope Barker presided over the notorious Edenton Tea Party on October 25, 1774.
Campbell University
On January 5, 1887, James Archibald Campbell founded Buies Creek Academy, which would later become Campbell University, in a one-room school with twenty-one students.
Queen Anne’s Revenge
During the early 1700s, the Pirate Blackbeard terrorized the seas off the coast of North Carolina and became a notorious villain. His vessel, The Queen Anne’s Revenge, was as equally infamous.
Mount Olive Pickle Company
Located at the corner of Cucumber and Vine Street, in Mount Olive, North Carolina, the Mt. Olive Pickle Company has grown to be the largest independent pickle company in the United States.
Wallace Wade Stadium
The Wallace Wade Stadium, which was originally named the Duke Stadium, is the home of Duke’s football team, the Blue Devils. The stadium also owns a special niche in college football history; it is the only facility outside Pasadena, California, to host the Rose Bowl. In 1967, in honor of its legendary football coach, the stadium’s name was changed to Wallace Wade Stadium.
Daniel Earl
Rev. Daniel Earle from Edenton publicly stood against Britain and their infractions of the rights of free peoples.
Blackbeard the Pirate
With its shallow inlets, North Carolina’s Outer Banks became a haven for many pirates during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The most notable was the Pirate Blackbeard.
Port Act
The Port Act was the tipping point that ignited revolutionary passions and talk concerning independence among North Carolinians.
Forest City Lynching
The end of slavery in North Carolina did little to ease racial tensions. The struggle between slaves and plantation owners was replaced by the conflict between black sharecroppers and wealthy white farmers. Occasionally this struggle erupted into open violence, as in the 1900 lynching of Avery Mills in Rutherford, North Carolina.