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.”
Food Lion
A regional grocery chain and subsidiary of Belgium-based Delhaize Group, Food Lion began in 1957 as a one-store operation in Salisbury, North Carolina, under the name Food Town and the direction of Ralph W. Ketner. After the introduction of the LFPINC concept in 1967, the grocery chain grew from seven stores to approximately 800 in 1991, the year in which Ketner retired. Before then in 1983, the company had changed its name to Food Town. During the early 1990s, the supermarket chain went through legal battles that curbed its exponential growth. Under the leadership of DelHaize Group executives, the company in February 2007 employed approximately 73,000 workers in almost 1,200 stores and served nearly ten million customers in eleven states.
Ralph W. Ketner (1920 – 2016)
Co-founder of Food Town (later renamed Food Lion), Ralph Ketner started working in the grocery business as a child in his father’s meat store in Salisbury, North Carolina and later as a teenager during the Depression in his brother’s Kannapolis, North Carolina store. These early experiences, combined with an innovation and lifelong desire to cut costs, helped Ralph Ketner revolutionize the grocery industry and make a one-store operation in Salisbury into a leading, national supermarket chain.
Quitrents (Colonial Period)
As early as 1665, North Carolinians disliked taxes, even if deemed necessary. They especially loathed abuse of power and mismanagement of revenue. A chief concern for colonists was the quitrent—basically a land tax. North Carolinians’ irritation with the quitrent intensified during the early 1700s, when the new provincial government tried collecting back taxes and the Assembly and royal officials debated the proper role of the government and the quitrent.
Yonaguska (1760?-1839)
Considered by many to be the last great chief of the Cherokee, Yonaguska (also known as Drowning Bear) consistently cooperated with the United States government and later in life warned against the effects of “the black drink” on the Cherokee. Yonaguska ensured that the Treaty of 1819 was observed and his people recognized as North Carolina citizens. As a result, the United States did not remove Yoganuska’s followers from their home in the North Carolina mountains.
Mother Vine
Known as the “oldest cultivated vine in America,” the Mother Vine on Roanoke Island is reportedly over 400 years old. Historians debate the exact age of the vine, and one claims that its history rests mainly on unsubstantiated yarns. But one thing is certain: no one knows of another vine in the United States older than the Mother Vine in Roanoke Island.
Uwharrie National Forest
Established in 1961, Uwharrie National Park remains the youngest and one of the smallest national forests in North Carolina. Uwharrie encompasses over 50,000 acres and many North Carolinians visit the park each year to take advantage of its natural wilderness. Morrow Mountain remains the park’s most distinct feature and attraction.
Duplin Winery
Although Tar Heels were national leaders in wine making before the Civil War and once again during the early 1900s, few modern-day Americans—and even native Tar Heels—have regarded the state as a leader in grape and wine production. North Carolina is known mainly today for championship college basketball and tourist attractions and its tobacco and pork industries. Over the past two decades, however, wineries have been started across the state. Yet Duplin Winery in Rose Hill has been the major link between the days of state and local Prohibition and the current revival in North Carolina viticulture and serves as a harbinger for the medicinal uses of the muscadine.
Fayetteville, City of
A bustling, 1800s hub of trade and political activity, home to an important arsenal and center of trade during the Civil War, and home to Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force bases during the twentieth century, Fayetteville has played an important role in North Carolina history and will continue to do so.
William Blount (1749 – 1800)
As businessman, Revolutionary War veteran, signer of the Constitution, territorial governor, and United States Senator, William Blount spent his lifetime looking for opportunities. No place in the late-eighteenth century United States offered better opportunities for a person with Blount’s disposition and connections than did the trans-Appalachian frontier. Ultimately Blount’s grasp exceeded his resources, leading Blount to devise a desperate plan that failed—and led to his expulsion from the United States Senate.
John Sevier (1745-1815)
John Sevier arrived in western North Carolina during the troubled years just prior to the American Revolution. His leadership was crucial during the Cherokee offensive of 1776 and four years later at the Battle of King’s Mountain. Sevier went on to play central roles in three separate governments west of the Appalachians. His relations with the Cherokee were marked by military success but also marred by controversy. Even so, his leadership on the frontier was unquestioned and was an essential factor in the transition from North Carolina wilderness to Tennessee statehood.
James K. Polk (1795-1849)
Two presidents dominated the landscape of mid-19th century America—Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. Sandwiched between them, however, was James K. Polk, a remarkable and highly effective president. Indeed, he was the only one of any stature to serve after Jackson and before Lincoln. Generally speaking, Polk is thought of as a war president; but he was more than merely a president who presided over war against a foreign country (Mexico). Polk emerged as the champion of “manifest destiny,” the belief that the United States enjoyed a special dispensation and even imperative to extend its boundaries westward, even all the way to the Pacific coast. To carry out such a mandate, providential or otherwise, Polk used war and diplomacy to push the borders across the continent to the southwest as well as the northwest. Convinced that such efforts would excite and unify the nation, he seemed unprepared for the divisions created by his bold territorial initiatives.
Andrew Johnson (1808-1875)
Suddenly thrust into the presidency after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, Johnson had to complete the task of ending the Civil War and also launch the effort to bind up the nation’s wounds by establishing stability and order throughout the country, particularly in the Rebel states. Given the climate of the times, every move he made was subjected to scrutiny and, quite often, criticism and attack, especially by certain Republican leaders of Congress. He vigorously defended both the Constitution, as he interpreted it, and the office of the president from incessant attacks by Congressional leaders. Yet, the legislative branch gained the upper hand early in the battle and eventually sought to oust Johnson from office.