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.”
Harper House
Considered by the North Carolina Department of Archives and History to possess the “finest Queen Anne interior styling in the entire state,” the Harper House of Hickory also has a restored landscape, including period gardens. The Catawba County Historical Association (CCHA) raised $2,000,000 for restorations to start the house museum to interpret not only the histories of Hickory and the families who lived in the house but also the history of the Victorian South.
Jesse Helms (1921-2008)
A reporter, television-radio executive, and U.S. Senator, Jesse Helms was born October 18, 1921, in Monroe, N.C., to Jesse Alexander and Ethel Mae Helms. The Almanac of American Politics labeled the conservative Helms a “Jeremiah” for believing in an imminent doom and warning against the encroaching dangers of big government, communism, and abortion—to name three examples.
Cameron Village (Village District)
The Cameron Village Shopping Center, now known as the Village District, opened in 1949 with three stores and one restaurant.The open-air shopping mall was not only Raleigh's first shopping center away from downtown but also is considered the first shopping center constructed between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Georgia.
Thomas H. Hall (1773-1853)
An Old Republican Congressman from Edgecombe County and a friend of Nathaniel Macon, Thomas Hall consistently opposed what he deemed unnecessary federal intervention in North Carolina. As a young man he moved to Tarboro, North Carolina, practiced medicine, and married Martha Jones Green Sitgreaves, the widow of James Green and John Sitgreaves. Hall was first elected to Congress as a Jeffersonian-Republican (1817-1825), and again served in Congress from 1827-1835.
Omar Ibn Said (1770-1864)
Since 1995 when his autobiography, the only American slave narrative known to exist in Arabic, was found, Said has gained national attention. Many scholars contend Said was a devout Muslim until his death. Said, however, made a Christian profession of faith and joined the Presbyterian Church.
Constitution of 1835
The constitutional revisions of 1835 resulted in large part from North Carolina’s acceptance of Jacksonian democracy, a political movement that emphasized participation of the common man in the political process.
New Deal
Federal programs to fight the Great Depression brought almost $440 million by 1938 to North Carolina. Conservative Democrats who had fought the reforms in the state, nonetheless, eagerly accepted the largesse from Washington, D.C. The most important New Deal program in the state was the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), which essentially paid farmers a modest amount to grow less tobacco, the state's largest crop, as well as controlling other crops.
William J. Gaston (1778 – 1844)
Many North Carolinians, and Americans from elsewhere, respected, if not adored, Gaston. John Marshall (1755-1835) once said that he would retire if he knew Gaston would replace him as U.S. Supreme Court Justice. In 1840, the state legislative leaders proposed Gaston as U.S. Senator, but he declined the honor.
John W. Ellis (1820-1861)
Born in eastern Rowan County, in what is now part of Davidson County, on November 23, 1820 to Anderson and Judith Ellis, John Willis Ellis was a North Carolina lawyer, legislator, judge, and Democratic governor during the Civil War.
Contraband Camps
Before the end of the Civil War, as Union troops occupied more and more of North Carolina during the Civil War, more and more slaves fled to Union lines to live in what were then called contraband camps. Contrabands (freedmen) were escaped slaves from the Confederate territory into Union territory.
Marion Butler (1863 – 1938)
Most remembered as the architect of political Fusion in North Carolina during the 1890s and for gaining Populist support for the 1896 presidential candidacy of William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), Marion Butler was born in Sampson County, North Carolina.
Anti-Federalism
Anti-Federal was the name given to the men and the movement opposing the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Ironically, Anti-Federals wanted a more federal government than the Federals; the term resulted from a Federal political strategy to present Anti-Federals as opponents of limited government. Before they ratified (approved) the Constitution, Anti-Federals wanted a Bill of Rights to be included.