North Carolina

Article Outline

Introduction; Physical Geography; Economic Activities; The People of North Carolina; Education and Cultural Institutions; Recreation and Places to Visit; Government; History

Early Inhabitants

The first humans in North Carolina were Native Americans, the so-called Paleo-Indians of 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. They were nomads who pursued buffalo and other large game animals, some of which are now extinct. Their likely descendants were the Archaic people of about 3,000 to 10,000 years ago, who did not yet have agriculture. Agriculture, along with pottery, was introduced in the Woodland stage of culture, lasting from about 3,000 years ago into the historical period. After ad 800, the Mississippian culture, or Mound Builders, was represented in the south and west. They built large towns centered around ceremonial mounds. North Carolina’s Native American population in the 1600s is estimated at about 30,000, organized into about 30 peoples, of which the most important were the Hatteras, Tuscarora, Chowanoc, Catawba, and Cherokee.

Contact between Native Americans and whites resulted occasionally in friendship but often in hostility. In either event it ultimately led to the death or displacement of most of the Native Americans. Even in the friendliest of contacts, the Europeans unwittingly spread diseases to which the Native Americans had no resistance. Deaths from measles, smallpox, and colds decimated their populations and disrupted their societies.

In the present day, North Carolina has some 70,000 Native Americans, organized into nine or more governments or corporations. The state’s largest reservation is that of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, who descend largely from 1,000 Cherokee who fled into the Great Smokies in 1838 when the Cherokee nation was forcibly moved to Oklahoma. The reservation occupies 22,660 hectares (56,000 acres) near Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and park-related tourism provides employment for many of the band’s approximately 5,750 members.

Another strong present-day Native American community is the Lumbee of Robeson County, with a population of about 34,500. The Lumbee are socially and politically well organized although they are unrecognized by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. They have had a number of strong leaders, notably Adolph Dial, a former university professor and member of the North Carolina state legislature (1991-1993).

The 16th Century

European Exploration

Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine navigator, led a French expedition that in 1524 explored the coast near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. The coast was visited as far north as Cape Hatteras by Spanish explorer Angel de Villafane in 1561. Parts of the mountain area were explored by Spaniards Hernando de Soto in 1540 and Juan Pardo in 1566 and 1567.

In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh of England obtained permission from Queen Elizabeth I to explore the Western Hemisphere and claim any land not already claimed by Christians or inhabited by them. Raleigh sent out an expedition that same year to choose a site for a colony; its members returned with an enthusiastic description of the Roanoke Island area. Two Native Americans, Wanchese and Manteo, returned with the expedition to England.

First Roanoke Island Colony

Raleigh’s vaguely defined land was named Virginia in honor of Elizabeth I, the virgin queen. In his first attempt at settlement, Raleigh sent 108 men, including Wanchese and Manteo as interpreters, to Roanoke Island.

Leaving England in April 1585, the group reached Roanoke Island in August. However, unable to cope successfully with the new and difficult problems of colonization, in June 1586 the men boarded ship with the English privateer Sir Francis Drake, who had put in at Roanoke Island on his way back to England after a raid on the Spanish West Indies. Eighteen men were left behind to hold England’s claim to the land.

Second Roanoke Island Colony

One member of Raleigh’s first colony was John White, who began at Roanoke Island his famous series of paintings of Native American life. Chosen to serve as governor of the second colony, White sailed from England in May 1587 with a group of more than 100 settlers, including 17 women and 9 children. The group reached Roanoke Island in July. Of the 18 men left there in 1586, only some skeletons were found. Manteo, who had returned as Raleigh’s personal representative, was designated Lord of Roanoke and Dasamonguepeuk—the first title of nobility granted to a Native American.

On August 18, White’s granddaughter, Virginia Dare, was born. She was the first child of English parents born in America. Nine days later, White returned to England for supplies. For three years the fleet of Spain, which was at war with England, kept him from sailing out of English ports. When he managed to return to Roanoke Island in 1590, the colonists had disappeared.

The mystery of the “lost colony,” as it is now called, has never been solved. The letters “CRO” were carved into a tree on the beach and the single word, “Croatoan,” was found on a post. These inscriptions may have indicated that the colonists had gone to live with the friendly Croatan or Croatoan Indians on Croatan Island or north to Chesapeake Bay. However, storms kept White’s ship from reaching Croatan, and later explorations found no trace of the settlers. The present-day, 1,725-member Coharie tribe of Sampson County claims to be descended from the Croatan tribe and the vanished colonists. Others believe the colonists may have been the victims of a hurricane, an attack by Native Americans, or disease. A recent theory, based on the analysis of growth rings in nearby trees, suggests that the colonists disappeared during one of the area’s worst droughts in 800 years and may have left the island or perished because of starvation.

The 17th Century

Although Raleigh failed to plant a permanent colony, he gave impetus to ventures that succeeded elsewhere, some of them on land that had been part of his grant. In 1606 King James I of England granted patents to two commercial companies, the Plymouth Company of Virginia and the London Company of Virginia, to colonize Virginia. The London Company dispatched three ships, the Susan Constant, the Goodspeed, and the Discovery, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport. In May 1607 the voyagers landed on a swampy peninsula and erected James Fort, the nucleus of Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America.