Civil Rights
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.
North Carolina
American Revolution
The Halifax Resolves, April 1776: North Carolina’s 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.
American Revolution
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.
Economy & Industry
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.
Civil War
The Fall of Fort Fisher, 1865: Closing the Confederacy’s 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.
20th Century
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.
20th Century
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.
20th Century
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.
Economy & Industry
A 17-Pound Rock: The Reed Gold Mine and America’s 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.
North Carolina
Seven Years in a Crawlspace: Harriet Jacobs’s 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.