# North Carolina Backstory


## Posts

- [November 10, 1775: Congress Creates the Continental Marines](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/november-10-1775-congress-creates-the-continental-marines/): On November 10, 1775, Congress voted to raise two battalions of marines for a navy that barely existed. Congress authorized two full battalions, but no formal battalions were ever established; provisional units were formed as needed.
- [Charlotte Hawkins Brown and the Palmer Memorial Institute: Building a School for Black Students in Sedalia](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/charlotte-hawkins-brown-and-the-palmer-memorial-institute-building-a-school-for-black-students-in-sedalia/): At 18, a Massachusetts-raised teacher stayed in rural Guilford County after her school closed. She built Palmer Memorial Institute into a nationally known school.
- [The Mecklenburg Declaration Controversy: Charlotte's Disputed Claim to Independence in May 1775](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-mecklenburg-declaration-controversy-charlottes-disputed-claim-to-independence-in-may-1775/): Summary: A date on North Carolina's flag says Charlotte declared independence on May 20, 1775. Jefferson called the document spurious. The documents tell a more complicated tale.
- [The Battle of Elizabeth City and Roanoke Island, February 1862: The Union Seizes North Carolina's Sounds](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-battle-of-elizabeth-city-and-roanoke-island-february-1862-the-union-seizes-north-carolinas-sounds/): Within four days in February 1862, a Union amphibious force took Roanoke Island, wrecked the Confederate "Mosquito Fleet" and opened North Carolina's coast.
- [The Dismal Swamp Canal: George Washington's Dream and the Enslaved Laborers Who Dug It](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-dismal-swamp-canal-george-washingtons-dream-and-the-enslaved-laborers-who-dug-it/): Dug by hand through a Virginia–North Carolina swamp, the Dismal Swamp Canal opened in 1805. Enslaved workers built it, and fugitives hid in the swamp around it.
- [The Greensboro Sit-ins of 1960 and the Woolworth Lunch Counter](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-greensboro-sit-ins-of-1960-and-the-woolworth-lunch-counter/): Four college freshmen sat down at a Greensboro lunch counter and refused to leave. Within weeks, the protest had spread across the South.
- [Research Triangle Park: How North Carolina Turned Pine Forest into a Research Hub](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/research-triangle-park-how-north-carolina-turned-pine-forest-into-a-research-hub/): In the 1950s, a Greensboro contractor, a governor and three universities bet that thousands of acres of pine woods could keep North Carolina's graduates at home.
- [Hurricane Hazel, October 15, 1954: The Storm That Reshaped the Carolina Coast](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/hurricane-hazel-october-15-1954-the-storm-that-reshaped-the-carolina-coast/): Hazel hit the Carolina border at high tide on October 15, 1954, destroying or severely damaging most of Brunswick County's coastal dwellings and then racing inland with startling force.
- [Battleship North Carolina: From the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the Cape Fear River](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/battleship-north-carolina-from-the-brooklyn-navy-yard-to-the-cape-fear-river/): A battleship built in Brooklyn survived a torpedo hit and the Pacific war, then escaped the scrapyard thanks to a state that refused to let her go.
- [December 17, 1903: The Wright Brothers' First Flights at Kill Devil Hills](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/december-17-1903-the-wright-brothers-first-flights-at-kill-devil-hills/): On a freezing morning in 1903, two Ohio bicycle makers flew four times on the Outer Banks. Here is how they got there and how a lifesaver took the photo.
- [Ella Baker and the Founding of SNCC at Shaw University, April 1960](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/ella-baker-and-the-founding-of-sncc-at-shaw-university-april-1960/): Weeks after Greensboro, Ella Baker gathered sit-in students in Raleigh and urged them to stay independent. Her idea of leadership shaped SNCC from the start.
- [Biltmore: George Vanderbilt's Mountain Estate and the Birth of American Forestry](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/biltmore-george-vanderbilts-mountain-estate-and-the-birth-of-american-forestry/): George Vanderbilt's Asheville château opened on Christmas Eve 1895. Its woodlands became a testing ground for American forestry and its first forestry school.
- [Look Homeward, Angel: Thomas Wolfe, Asheville and the Novel the Town Never Forgave](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/look-homeward-angel-thomas-wolfe-asheville-and-the-novel-the-town-never-forgave/): Thomas Wolfe's 1929 novel turned his Asheville boyhood into 'Altamont,' and the town recognized itself at once. It took years for the anger to cool.
- [Bentonville, March 1865: Johnston's Last Gamble Against Sherman](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/bentonville-march-1865-johnstons-last-gamble-against-sherman/): In March 1865, a battered Confederate army struck Sherman's column in the North Carolina pines. It nearly broke the Union left, then lost the war's last big offensive.
- [Tryon Palace: The Royal Governor's Mansion and the Birth of a Colonial Capital](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/tryon-palace-the-royal-governors-mansion-and-the-birth-of-a-colonial-capital/): Governor William Tryon's brick mansion in New Bern was among the grandest buildings in colonial America. Its price angered taxpayers, and it burned in 1798.
- [Bethabara, 1753: The Moravians Who Built a Wilderness Town in the Carolina Backcountry](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/bethabara-1753-the-moravians-who-built-a-wilderness-town-in-the-carolina-backcountry/): In November 1753, a small party of Moravian men reached the North Carolina Piedmont. They built a planned, craft-based community among the backcountry farms.
- [The Cherokee Removal and Tsali: How a Remnant Stayed in the North Carolina Mountains](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-cherokee-removal-and-tsali-how-a-remnant-stayed-in-the-north-carolina-mountains/): In 1838 soldiers swept the Cherokee from their homes. In the mountains of western North Carolina, a few hundred escaped, and the story of Tsali still divides memory from history.
- [The Wilmington Coup of 1898: When a Multiracial Government Was Overthrown](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-wilmington-coup-of-1898-when-a-multiracial-government-was-overthrown/): In November 1898, armed white men in Wilmington, North Carolina, burned a Black newspaper, killed residents and forced out the elected city government.
- [The Halifax Resolves, April 1776: North Carolina's Early Call for Independence](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-halifax-resolves-april-1776-north-carolinas-early-call-for-independence/): In April 1776, delegates in a small Roanoke River town told North Carolina's men in Philadelphia they could vote for independence. The wording was careful.
- [Moores Creek Bridge, 1776: The Short Battle That Crushed Loyalist North Carolina](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/moores-creek-bridge-1776-the-short-battle-that-crushed-loyalist-north-carolina/): In a few minutes before dawn on February 27, 1776, a Loyalist army met musket fire at a stripped bridge near Wilmington. North Carolina's royal government never recovered.
- [Research Triangle Park: How a Tobacco-and-Textile State Bet on Science](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/research-triangle-park-how-a-tobacco-and-textile-state-bet-on-science/): In the 1950s, North Carolina's leaders tried to turn pine woods between three universities into a research park. For years it looked like a long shot.
- [The Fall of Fort Fisher, 1865: Closing the Confederacy's Last Major Port](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-fall-of-fort-fisher-1865-closing-the-confederacys-last-major-port/): A powder ship that fizzled, a general who turned back, and a brutal night fight: how the Union took the sandy fortress guarding Wilmington, North Carolina.
- [The Battle of Hayes Pond, 1958: How the Lumbee Broke Up a Klan Rally](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-battle-of-hayes-pond-1958-how-the-lumbee-broke-up-a-klan-rally/): In January 1958, a Klan leader promised a rally against the Lumbee of Robeson County. Hundreds of Lumbee showed up first, and the night ended in a rout.
- [Black Mountain College: The Experimental School That Changed American Art](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/black-mountain-college-the-experimental-school-that-changed-american-art/): In a small North Carolina valley, a tiny college put the arts at the center of education and drew artists who reshaped American culture.
- [The Loray Mill Strike of 1929 and the Death of Ella May Wiggins](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-loray-mill-strike-of-1929-and-the-death-of-ella-may-wiggins/): A strike at the South's largest textile mill ended in a police chief's death, a mistrial, and the roadside killing of a young balladeer and mother.
- [Brad's Drink Becomes Pepsi-Cola: Caleb Bradham and New Bern's Soda Fountain](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/brads-drink-becomes-pepsi-cola-caleb-bradham-and-new-berns-soda-fountain/): In 1898 a New Bern pharmacist renamed his fountain drink Pepsi-Cola. It grew into a national franchise business, then collapsed in bankruptcy 25 years later.
- [A 17-Pound Rock: The Reed Gold Mine and America's First Gold Rush](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/a-17-pound-rock-the-reed-gold-mine-and-americas-first-gold-rush/): A boy found a yellow rock in a North Carolina creek, and his family used it as a doorstop for years. It was gold, and it started the country's first gold rush.
- [The Wreck of the USS Monitor Off Cape Hatteras, December 31, 1862](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-wreck-of-the-uss-monitor-off-cape-hatteras-december-31-1862/): Nine months after it stopped the CSS Virginia, the USS Monitor went down in a gale off Cape Hatteras. Its wreck was found in 1973, and its turret was raised in 2002.
- [Tsali and the Cherokees Who Stayed: Removal in the North Carolina Mountains, 1838](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/tsali-and-the-cherokees-who-stayed-removal-in-the-north-carolina-mountains-1838/): In 1838 soldiers drove Cherokee families west. In the Smokies, Tsali's fate and a hard bargain helped one community stay in its homeland.
- [Seven Years in a Crawlspace: Harriet Jacobs's Escape from Edenton](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/seven-years-in-a-crawlspace-harriet-jacobss-escape-from-edenton/): To stay near her children and flee the man who claimed to own her, Harriet Jacobs hid in a space too low to stand in. She stayed nearly seven years.
- [The Overmountain Men and the Victory at Kings Mountain, 1780](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-overmountain-men-and-the-victory-at-kings-mountain-1780/): In the autumn of 1780, a thousand frontier riflemen crossed the Blue Ridge and destroyed a Loyalist army in about an hour, upending British plans in the South.
- [Guilford Courthouse, 1781: The Pyrrhic Victory That Led to Yorktown](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/guilford-courthouse-1781-the-pyrrhic-victory-that-led-to-yorktown/): Lord Cornwallis won the field at Guilford Courthouse and lost a quarter of his army. Seven months later he surrendered at Yorktown. Here is how one led to the other.
- [The Halifax Resolves, April 12, 1776: North Carolina's Early Vote for Independence](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-halifax-resolves-april-12-1776-north-carolinas-early-vote-for-independence/): Three months before the Declaration, delegates in a small Roanoke River town told North Carolina's men in Philadelphia they could vote to break with Britain.
- [The Tuscarora War, 1711–1713: The Conflict That Reshaped Colonial Carolina](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-tuscarora-war-1711-1713-the-conflict-that-reshaped-colonial-carolina/): In September 1711, Tuscarora and allied warriors struck settlements across North Carolina at once. The war that followed ended with a fallen fort and a nation's exile.
- [Moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, 1999: Sliding America's Tallest Brick Lighthouse Inland](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/moving-the-cape-hatteras-lighthouse-1999-sliding-americas-tallest-brick-lighthouse-inland/): In 1999 engineers jacked up a 4,800-ton brick tower on North Carolina's Outer Banks and pushed it 2,900 feet inland, a few feet at a time, to save it from the sea.
- [Torpedo Junction: German U-boats off the North Carolina Coast, 1942](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/torpedo-junction-german-u-boats-off-the-north-carolina-coast-1942/): In early 1942, U-boats hunted tankers against the glow of American towns off Cape Hatteras. The toll was heavy before convoys and a British trawler's loss changed the war.
- [Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 1971: The Supreme Court Case That Brought Busing to America](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/swann-v-charlotte-mecklenburg-1971-the-supreme-court-case-that-brought-busing-to-america/): A Black family's request to send their first grader to a nearby school grew into the unanimous 1971 ruling that let federal judges order busing to desegregate schools.
- [The Regulators and the Battle of Alamance, 1771](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-regulators-and-the-battle-of-alamance-1771/): In May 1771, farmers who wanted honest fees and fair taxes met Governor Tryon's militia on a North Carolina creek. The fight lasted about two hours.
- [Newfound Gap, 1940: Roosevelt Dedicates the Great Smoky Mountains National Park](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/newfound-gap-1940-roosevelt-dedicates-the-great-smoky-mountains-national-park/): On September 2, 1940, Franklin Roosevelt stood on the state line at Newfound Gap and dedicated a park assembled from thousands of tracts and many lost homes.
- [Black Mountain College: The Tiny North Carolina School That Remade American Art](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/black-mountain-college-the-tiny-north-carolina-school-that-remade-american-art/): For 24 years a small, broke college in the Blue Ridge hosted the Alberses, Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Fuller, and changed American art.
- [The Bonsack Machine and the Dukes of Durham: How Cigarettes Became an Industry](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-bonsack-machine-and-the-dukes-of-durham-how-cigarettes-became-an-industry/): A Virginia inventor's machine, a North Carolina farm family and a gift for advertising created the American cigarette business, until the Supreme Court broke it up.
- [Blackbeard's Last Stand at Ocracoke Inlet, 1718](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/blackbeards-last-stand-at-ocracoke-inlet-1718/): In November 1718 a Virginia-funded force cornered Blackbeard in Ocracoke Inlet. The fight ended his career and exposed a feud between two colonies.
- [Caleb Bradham and the Birth of Pepsi-Cola in New Bern](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/caleb-bradham-and-the-birth-of-pepsi-cola-in-new-bern/): A New Bern pharmacist renamed his soda-fountain drink Pepsi-Cola in 1898 and built a national business. Then a bet on sugar brought it down in 1923.
- [Bennett Place, April 1865: The Largest Surrender of the Civil War](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/bennett-place-april-1865-the-largest-surrender-of-the-civil-war/): In a small North Carolina farmhouse, Sherman and Johnston settled the largest surrender of the Civil War, but only after Washington threw out their first deal.
- [The Sinking of the USS Monitor off Cape Hatteras, December 31, 1862](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-sinking-of-the-uss-monitor-off-cape-hatteras-december-31-1862/): Nine months after its duel with the CSS Virginia, the Union ironclad Monitor went down in a gale off Cape Hatteras. Its wreck was found in 1973.
- [Harriet Jacobs of Edenton: Seven Years in an Attic and the Making of a Freedom Narrative](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/harriet-jacobs-of-edenton-seven-years-in-an-attic-and-the-making-of-a-freedom-narrative/): Harriet Jacobs hid for nearly seven years in a space above a shed in Edenton, N.C., then wrote one of the most important slave narratives by a woman.
- [Kings Mountain, 1780: The Overmountain Men Who Turned the Southern War](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/kings-mountain-1780-the-overmountain-men-who-turned-the-southern-war/): After a threat from a British major, frontier riflemen crossed the Blue Ridge and wiped out his Loyalist force in about an hour, reviving the Patriot cause in the Carolinas.
- [The Lost Colony of Roanoke: What We Know About the 1587 Settlers](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-lost-colony-of-roanoke-what-we-know-about-the-1587-settlers/): In 1590 John White came back to Roanoke Island and found empty houses and a single word carved on a post. Here is what is documented, and what is not.
- [The Tuscarora War, 1711: Attack on the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico Settlements](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/the-tuscarora-war-1711-attack-on-the-neuse-and-tar-pamlico-settlements/): On September 22, 1711, Tuscarora warriors hit settlements in eastern Carolina. The two-year war that followed pushed a nation north to join the Iroquois.

## Pages

- [This Day in History](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/this-day-in-history/): What happened on this day in North Carolina and American history, with every dated story on the site in calendar order.
- [Timeline](https://northcarolinabackstory.com/timeline/): North Carolina’s history, era by era, with every story on the site in order.
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