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Featured
Where the New World First Failed — and Persisted
First in Flight
North Carolina’s colonial history began with failure and mystery. The Roanoke Colony of 1585 was England’s first serious attempt at settlement in North America; it vanished without explanation, leaving only the word “Croatoan” carved on a post. The Lost Colony remains one of America’s enduring mysteries. Settlers who arrived later were harder to dislodge, and by the early 18th century a rough, independent population had taken root in the coastal plain and piedmont.
The colony developed a reputation for stubbornness toward authority that it never entirely shook. North Carolina was among the last colonies to be organized under royal charter and among the most resistant to British taxation. Its backcountry Regulators staged one of pre-Revolutionary America’s first popular uprisings in the 1760s, and the state produced guerrilla fighters whose campaigns during the Revolution — at Kings Mountain in 1780, above all — helped turn the war in the South.
The 19th century brought tobacco, slavery, secession, and reconstruction in brutal succession. North Carolina’s yeoman farmers were ambivalent about secession — the western mountain counties often harbored Unionist sentiment — but the state sent more soldiers to the Confederate cause than any other Southern state. At Bentonville in 1865, the Confederacy’s last major offensive in the east was defeated on North Carolina soil.
On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright lifted off the Kill Devil Hills sands at Kitty Hawk for twelve seconds, covering 120 feet. It was the first powered, controlled, sustained flight in history. North Carolina adopted “First in Flight” as its motto and put it on its license plates, winning a decades-long argument with Ohio. The Wright Brothers chose the Outer Banks for its steady winds and soft landing surface.
Today North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in America, with Charlotte a major banking center, the Research Triangle anchoring a technology and biomedical economy, and the Blue Ridge and Outer Banks drawing visitors from across the country. The state holds its contradictions — tobacco and tech, mountains and coast, old South and new South — with the particular grace of a place that has always been too varied to be easily categorized.
1585
Roanoke Colony
England’s first American colony is established on Roanoke Island; it disappears by 1590, leaving the mystery of the Lost Colony.
1712
Province Established
North and South Carolina are formally separated into distinct royal provinces.
1771
Battle of Alamance
Royal Governor Tryon crushes the Regulator uprising at Alamance, suppressing one of America’s first popular revolts against government corruption.
1780
Battle of Kings Mountain
Patriot militia defeat a Loyalist force at Kings Mountain, a turning point in the Southern campaign of the Revolutionary War.
1789
Statehood
North Carolina ratifies the Constitution and joins the union as the 12th state, after initially refusing over the absence of a Bill of Rights.
1861
Secession
North Carolina reluctantly secedes after Fort Sumter, ultimately contributing more Confederate soldiers than any other Southern state.
1903
First Flight
Orville Wright makes the first powered airplane flight at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk on December 17.
1959
Research Triangle
Research Triangle Park is established between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, launching North Carolina’s transformation into a technology hub.
1960
Greensboro Sit-Ins
Four Black students from A&T sit at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, igniting the sit-in movement that spreads across the South.
2012
Charlotte DNC
The Democratic National Convention nominates President Obama for re-election in Charlotte, marking the city’s arrival as a major American metropolis.
