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.”
William Linkhaw
In 1873, the North Carolina Supreme Court applied the principle of the separation of church and state in a unique case involving William Linkhaw of Lumberton.
Henry Toole Clark
Henry Toole Clark was governor of North Carolina during the Civil War from 1861-1862. He was a Democratic leader in the state senate in the critical decade of the 1850s and for a brief time during Reconstruction.
North Carolina Equal Suffrage Association
In 1894, the first suffragette organization was founded in North Carolina. It remained almost inactive until the World War I era, when it became a political influence in the Tar Heel State. The association had minimal success in convincing the state legislature to grant women suffrage.
John Merrick (1859 – 1919)
As the first president of the largest African American insurance company in the United States, John Merrick created more than personal wealth and economic opportunities for other blacks in Durham. He worked to bring better healthcare and educational opportunities to his community.
Anne Atkins
Despite being widowed at a young age and paying increased property taxes, Anne Atkins improved her family’s financial situation during the late 1800s.
Pine Tree
The state contains a variety of pines, including the loblolly, eastern white, and the table mountain pine, but the state’s most known pine tree might be the long leaf pine.
Bishop Vincent S. Waters (1904-1974)
Bishop of the Raleigh Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church from 1945 to 1974, Vincent S. Waters is known mostly for denouncing segregation and ordering the desegregation of North Carolina Catholic churches and schools in 1953—a year before the Brown v. Board of Education case.
The History of the Dividing Line
The particular never escaped the observant eye of the landed Virginian, William Byrd II. While traveling through North Carolina, the colony’s natural and man-made environments amazed the Virginia gentleman.
“To the Inhabitants of Great Britain”
In “To the Inhabitants of Great Britain” (1774), North Carolinian and future Supreme Court Justice James Iredell challenged William Blackstone's legal interpretations and opposed what he described as Parliament’s attempt “to exercise a supreme authority” over the colonies.
Oberlin Village
After the Civil War, parcels of southern land were subdivided and sold to former slaves. Historic Oberlin Village was comprised of such parcels and became one of Raleigh’s first freedmen communities.
Oberlin Cemetery
Located on Oberlin Road and nestled in between office buildings and condominiums, the 142-year-old cemetery is the burial ground for generations of Oberlin Village’s earliest residents.
John H. Baker (1935-2007)
John H. Baker served as North Carolina’s first African American sheriff. He served in this office for twenty-four year and proposed one of Wake County's first charter schools.