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4th Grade Unit 1 – Student Early Statehood

As a state, North Carolina grew very slowly. The state had few good roads, large cities, or schools. Many people began calling North Carolina the “Rip Van Winkle state.” Rip Van Winkle is a character in a story who falls asleep for 20 years. After many years, North Carolina’s government began working to improve the state.

http://ncpedia.org/government

A New State Capital

At first, North Carolina’s state government met in the coastal towns of New Bern, Fayetteville, and Tarboro. However, many lawmakers wanted to move the capital – the city in which the state government meets – to the center of the state.

In 1788, leaders from each county met in Hillsborough to choose a new site for the capital. A county is a part of a state, usually larger than a city that has its own government.

Leaders chose a site in the Piedmont region for the capital. In 1792, the state government bought 1,000 acres of land in Wake County. Soon after, construction started on the capital. The town was named Raleigh, after the founder of the Roanoke Island colony.

In 1794, workers built the first state capitol in the center of Raleigh. A capitol is a building where lawmakers meet. Sometimes capitols are called

statehouses. The first capitol burned down in 1831. A larger statehouse was built in the same location in 1840. It still serves as North Carolina’s state capitol.

State Improvements

One of North Carolina’s early leaders was Archibald Murphey. As a state lawmaker, he worked to improve education and transportation. Murphey also wanted lawmakers to change the state constitution to give people in western North Carolina more representation.

In 1835, North Carolina’s leaders changed the state constitution. The 1835 constitution allowed voters to elect the governor. This gave people a greater voice in the state government.

The state government also worked to improve education. By 1846, every county had a least one public school. A public school is run by the government and paid for by taxes.

Over time, many canals, railroads, and plank roads were built in North Carolina. A plank road is made by laying boards side by side across a trail. Plank roads could be used in rainy weather, when dirt roads were too muddy to use. Travelers paid a toll, or fee, to use the plank roads. Canals, railroads, and plank roads helped people travel and move goods more easily.

Last revision 9/4/2013

4th Grade Unit 1 – Student Native Tribes

In 1829, gold was discovered on Cherokee lands in northern Georgia. Thousands of American settlers rushed to the area. They demanded that the federal government open up more Cherokee lands for farming and mining.

In 1830, the United States government passed the Indian Removal Act. This law forced the Cherokee to move west of the Mississippi River.

Image Credit: The Granger Collection, New York

Many Cherokee fought the Indian Removal Act in the United States courts. The courts decided that the Cherokee did not have to move. However, government leaders ignored the decision of the courts.

On March 27, 1838, the United States Army forced about 17,000 Cherokee in North Carolina and other nearby states to move west to what is now Oklahoma. About 4,000 Cherokee died along the 1,000 mile walk. This terrible journey became known as the Trail of Tears.

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Slavery

In the early 1800s, North Carolina and other Southern states continued to depend on slavery to grow

cash crops. Slavery is the practice of holding people and forcing them to work against their will. By 1840, there were about 250,000 enslaved African Americans in the state.

Some enslaved people tried to escape to Northern states, where slavery had already been ended.

Some people helped enslaved people escape. These people, known as abolitionists, wanted to abolish, or end, slavery.

Levi Coffin was a Quaker abolitionist from Guilford County. In the 1820s, Coffin and his wife moved to Indiana. They helped set up a system of escape routes and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Runaway slaves found shelter at safe houses. In North Carolina, safe houses were located in towns such as Greensboro and Goldsboro.

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http://www.mhschool.com/ss/ca/g2/u1/g2u1_quiz.html

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4th Grade Unit 1 – Student

Spotlight

Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Ann Jacobs (February 11, 1813 – March 7, 1897) was an American writer born in slavery in Edenton, North Carolina. In 1834, Jacobs escaped to Philadelphia and later moved to New York. She wrote a book in 1861 about her life as

an enslave person. Her book made many people aware of how badly some enslaved people were treated. Jacobs later set up a school in Virginia for African American.

The Civil War

By the 1850s, many people in the United States wanted slavery to end. However, Southern plantations still depended on it. Many Southerners believed that each state or region should make its own decision about slavery. In 1861, conflicts between Northern and Southern states led to the Civil War. In a civil war, groups of people in the same country fight each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capture_of_Fort_Fisher.jpg

North Carolina Secedes

http://www.wtvzone.com/civilwar/flags.html

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President. The South worried that he would abolish slavery. Many Southerners supported states’ rights. They believed that slavery and other issues should be decided by each state.

In December 1860, South Carolina decided to secede, or withdraw, from the United States, or Union. Other states soon followed. They formed the Confederate States of America or the Confederacy.

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http://johnsot8.webs.com/aintiaw

UNION FLAG The Union flag of the Civil War period had thirty-five stars in the field of blue with West Virginia being the thirty-fifth state.

FIRST CONFEDERATE NATIONAL FLAG

The seven stars in the blue field represented the states then in the confederacy. This flag was known as the "Stars and

http://www.wtv-zone.com/civilwar/flags.html

http://www.wtvzone.com/civilwar/flags.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capture_of_Fort_Fisher.jpg

http://johnsot8.webs.com/aintiawoman.htm

4th Grade Unit 1 – Student In April 1861, Confederate soldiers fired on the

Union army at Fort Sumter, in South Carolina. This marked the beginning of the Civil War.

President Lincoln asked Union states to send soldiers for the war. Zebulon Vance, the governor of North Carolina, refused. In May 1861, North Carolina became the last state to secede and join the Confederacy.

http://www.worldmapsonline.com/unitedstates1861.htm

Early Battles

The Civil War divided North Carolinians. More than 120,000 North Carolinians fought for the Confederacy. The nickname for North Carolinians, Tar Heels, may have come from these soldiers. They were known for standing their ground in battle.

About 15,000 North Carolinians fought for the Union army. Of these, more than 5,000 were African Americans.

Early in the war, the Union hoped to weaken the Confederacy by setting up a blockade along the

Atlantic coast. During a blockade, an area is blocked, or cut off, to keep people and supplies

from going in or out. The Confederacy fought against the blockade with a new kind of ship called an ironclad. An iron clad was a wooden ship covered with metal plates. Some ironclads were built in North Carolina.

In 1862, Union soldiers captured Roanoke Island, New Bern, and Beaufort. As a result, the Union controlled most of North Carolina’s ports.

The War Ends

More than 80 Civil War battles were fought in North Carolina. The largest took place in March 1865, at Bentonville. About 90,000 soldiers fought at Bentonville. More than 4,000 died.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-civilwar/5664

Before Bentonville, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman had led soldiers in a march through Georgia. Along the way, they destroyed crops, homes, and railroads. Once they reached Savannah, Georgia, the Union troops turned north and marched into the Carolinas.

At Bentonville, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston launch a surprise attack to try to stop Sherman. Union soldiers forced Johnston’s troops to retreat. On April 26, 1865, Johnston surrendered to Sherman at James Bennett’s farmhouse, west of Durham. A few weeks earlier, General Robert E. Lee, the Confederate leader, had surrendered to the Union arm’s leaders, General Ulysses S. Grant.


Replica of Civil War ir

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http://www.worldmapsonline.com/unitedstates1861.htm


Reconstruction

After the Civil War ended, people began to rebuild the country. The period after the civil war is called reconstruction.

During the war, in 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It freed enslaved people in the Confederate states that were still fighting against the Union. After the war, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution ended slavery in the United States. An amendment is a change to the Constitution.

In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment gave all United States citizens equal treatment under the law. In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment gave African American men the right to vote.

During Reconstruction, many former enslaved African American went to work as sharecroppers. A sharecropper rents farmland and pays the landowner with a share of the crops.

The United States government set up the Freedmen’s Bureau in the 1865 provided food, clothing, and education to all needy people in the South.



The Earliest American Explorers

European explorers came to the "New World" of North America in the 1500s. Before that time, the continent was an unknown place to them. These adventurers saw it as an entirely new land, with animals and plants to discover. They also met new people in this exciting New World—people with fascinating ways of life that the Europeans had never seen and languages they had never heard. This New World for Europeans was actually a very old world for the various people they met in North America. Today we call those people American Indians.

As the English, French, and Spanish explorers came to North America, they brought tremendous changes to American Indian tribes. Europeans carried a hidden enemy to the Indians: new diseases. Native peoples of America had no immunity to the diseases that European explorers and colonists brought with them. Diseases such as smallpox, influenza, measles, and even chicken pox proved deadly to American Indians. Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them.

Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time. The introduction of European diseases to American Indians was an accident that no one expected. Neither the colonists nor the Indians had a good understanding of why this affected the Native people so badly.

The great impact of disease on the Native population of America is an important part of the story of European exploration. Experts believe that as much as 90 percent of the American Indian population may have died from illnesses introduced to America by Europeans. This means that only one in ten Natives survived this hidden enemy. Their descendants are the 2.5 million Indians who live in the United States today.

New trade goods represented another big change that European explorers and colonists brought to American Indians. Soon after meeting their European visitors, Indians became very interested in things that the



colonists could provide. In a short time, the Indians began using these new materials and products in their everyday lives. Native hunters were eager to trade prepared deer hides and other pelts for lengths of colored cloth. Metal tools such as axes, hoes, and knives became valuable new resources. Soon American Indian men put aside their bows and arrows for European firearms, powder, and lead shot. Trade items like metal pots often were cut up and remade into new tools or weapons. The desire to get European goods changed ancient trading patterns. The tradition of simple hunting for food began to become less important than getting animal hides to trade. Soon American Indians depended on European items for daily needs. Colonial traders also brought rum, and this drink caused many problems for some tribes. New trade goods brought from across the Atlantic Ocean changed American Indian lives forever.

A third big change connected to this new trade was slavery. Europeans needed workers to help build houses and clear fields. They soon realized that they could offer trade goods like tools and weapons to certain American Indian tribes that would bring them other Indians

captured in tribal wars. These captured Indians were bought and sold as slaves. You might think that Africans brought to America were the only enslaved people. It is surprising to learn that before 1700 in the Carolinas, one-fourth of all enslaved people were American Indian men, women, and children. Before 1700 the port city of Charleston shipped out many Native slaves to work in the Caribbean or to be sold in northern cities like Boston. Slavery led to warfare among tribes and to much hardship. Many tribes had to move to escape the slave trade, which destroyed some tribes completely. In time, the practice of enslaving Native peoples ended. However, it had greatly affected American Indians of the South and the Southwest.Adapted from American Indians at European Contact – The Earliest American Explorers by John W. Kincheloe, III http://www.ncpedia.org/history/early/contact


http://www.ncpedia.org/history/early/contact

http://www.ncpedia.org/history/early/contact


Impact of Europeans on American Indians in North Carolina

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Why did England wish to establish colonies?

Conditions in England during the 16th and 17th centuries reflected great changes which were taking place in both rural and urban areas. Economic changes centered on sheep and the demand for woolen cloth. Through a series of legal actions, known as the “Enclosure Acts”, English landowners were allowed to enclose their farms and fence off large areas as grazing lands for sheep. This made available large amounts of wool which merchants sold throughout Europe. It also meant that farmers who had rented their small plots of land from large landowners were uprooted and drifted from the countryside to towns and cities looking for work. While landowners, wool manufacturers and merchants amassed great wealth, many of the migrants were reduced to begging or stealing to survive. Migrating to a new world seemed a hopeful choice for many of these people, as it did for English leaders who saw colonies as a way to solve the problems of the growing numbers of displaced and poor people.

England was looking at the settlement of colonies as a way of fulfilling its desire to sell more goods and resources to other countries than it bought. If colonies could send raw materials, such as lumber, from the abundance of natural resources available in the colonies, then England would not have to buy these from other countries. At the same time, colonies could be markets for England’s manufactured goods. England knew that establishing colonies was an expensive and risky business. The organization of business ventures by merchants, blessed by the crown, served both the economic and political interests of the country.

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Settlement of the Coastal Plain, 1650-1775

From the 1650s to the 1770s, the Coastal Plain Region of the land we now call North Carolina changed greatly. European American settlers began arriving, pushing back the Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years.

The Albemarle

The first part of North Carolina to be settled by European Americans was the Albemarle. The Albemarle extends from the border with Virginia to the north shore of the Albemarle Sound.

After the failed Roanoke colonies in the 1580s, the English focused on colonizing present-day Virginia. But in the mid-1600s, Virginians began exploring and acquiring land in the Albemarle area. Why did they begin settling there? Most hoped to find better farmland and to make money by trading with the Native Americans.

In 1663 King Charles II granted Carolina to eight prominent

Englishmen, who were called the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. Settlement was slow in the first decades of the Lords Proprietors' rule. High taxes, uncertainty about land titles, attacks by Native Americans, and inefficient government all discouraged immigration and settlement.

The difficulty of traveling into Carolina also discouraged immigration. The Outer Banks, which are barrier islands along the coast, were dangerous to ships and discouraged immigration by sea. Many ships ran aground in the shallow waters near these islands. The Great Dismal Swamp, poor roads, and rivers that were difficult to navigate also made traveling difficult.

But settlers did find ways to migrate into the area. Many from Virginia traveled by land or journeyed up the Elizabeth and Nansemond Rivers and down the Chowan River. Others may have come to Carolina by ship, sailing from other colonies along the Atlantic coast and passing through the Outer Banks at Currituck and Roanoke Inlets.



The Middle Coastal Plain

St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Built 1734Frailey, Zach. February 15, 2011. Bath, North Carolina. "St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Built 1734."

In the late 1600s some settlers began crossing the Albemarle Sound to settle in the middle Coastal Plain, which stretches from the Albemarle Sound to present-day Duplin and Onslow Counties. By 1691 they had settled along the Pamlico River in Bath County.

More settlers traveled down the coast to settle in present-day Craven County by 1703, Carteret County by 1708, and Onslow County by 1714. These settlers included people from the Albemarle, Virginia, Maryland, and New England as well as immigrants from England. Like those who settled in the Albemarle, these people hoped to profit by farming the colony's fertile land and by trading with the Native Americans.

French, German, and Swiss people also settled in the middle Coastal

Plain. Many French Huguenots had settled in Virginia. But as the population in Virginia grew, land became more scarce. As a result, some Huguenots moved to Carolina. One group settled at the head of Pamlico Sound in 1690, and another settled along the Trent River around 1707 or 1708.

Swiss people and Germans from the Palatinate also came to present-day North Carolina. The Swiss were fleeing religious persecution, and the Germans were fleeing war, cold winters, and poverty. In 1710, under the direction of Baron Christoph von Graffenried, the Swiss and Germans created and settled the town of New Bern and other areas near the joining of the Neuse and Trent Rivers.

The settlement of New Bern may have sparked the Tuscarora Indian War (1711–1714), in which the Tuscarora Indians were defeated. Immigration to the middle Coastal Plain increased afterward because the war reduced the threat of Indian attacks on settlers.



The Cape Fear

In the mid-1720s, the first permanent settlers arrived in the area around the lower Cape Fear River. Their arrival was due mainly to the efforts of South Carolina planter Maurice Moore and North Carolina governor George Burrington. Moore had come to North Carolina to help fight the Tuscarora Indians. He became interested in settling in the Cape Fear area and encouraged others in South Carolina to settle there as well. Burrington ignored South Carolina's claim to land on the west bank of the Cape Fear River. Instead, he granted this land to settlers who left South Carolina to settle in North Carolina.

The settlers from South Carolina were fleeing economic depression, high taxes, and political unrest in their colony. Other settlers came from England, Scotland, and Ireland as well as the colonies of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Some traveled on a new one-hundred-mile road between the Neuse River and the Cape Fear River.

Most settlers were attracted to this region by vast amounts of unclaimed land that were available and by commercial opportunities offered by the Cape Fear River. Since the Cape Fear River was the only deep river in the Coastal Plain that emptied into the ocean, large ships could travel it to the

ports of Brunswick and Wilmington. As a result, settlers could send their goods to market and could trade with other colonies and with Europe more easily.

In the 1730s Welsh and Scotch-Irish began settling in the Cape Fear area. Around 1730 a group of Welsh settled along the Northeast Cape Fear River. In the mid-1730s Swiss from South Carolina and Scotch-Irish also settled in the area. The Scotch-Irish were fleeing high rents, heavy taxes, and famine in Ireland. The Swiss soon departed, but the Scotch-Irish remained on land along the Northeast Cape Fear River. Lowland Scots, often merchants, also came to North Carolina. While some went north to the Albemarle, many went to Wilmington to improve their fortunes.

Highland Scots immigrated to North Carolina as well. The first group arrived in 1739. Many more came in the following years, especially in the 1760s and 1770s. Some of the Highland Scots may have been political refugees fleeing Scotland after a failed uprising against the English. Most wished to escape the high rents, unemployment, and poverty in their country.



Settlement of the Coastal Plain 1650-1775Why settle in the

Coastal Plain?Who settled in the

Coastal Plain?Challenges Economy Leaders

The Albemarle

The Middle Coastal Plain

Cape Fear



Settlement of the Piedmont, 1730-1775

North Carolina settlers from Europe or of European descent remained mostly in the Coastal Plain Region until about forty years before the American Revolution (1775– 1783). The fall line, with its waterfalls and rapids, made traveling on rivers difficult and discouraged migration into the Piedmont from the Coastal Plain. But once settlers began arriving in the Piedmont, they came in great numbers and helped make North Carolina's population grow rapidly. The colony's population more than doubled in the decade from 1765 to 1775.

The Piedmont stretches from the fall line westward to the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. This colonial backcountry differed from the low-lying Coastal Plain. Its limestone and clay soils supported forests and grasslands. Its swift-flowing, shallow streams and narrow rivers were not good for boat traffic, but they offered excellent sites for mills and farms.

Though few roads ventured into the backcountry, two were vital to settlement of the region. The Great Indian Trading Path began in Petersburg, Virginia, and traveled southwest through the Piedmont to present-day Mecklenburg County. The trading path was used for centuries by Native Americans. In the mid-1700s, settlers began using it to travel into North Carolina.

The second major road used by settlers was the Great Wagon Road, which stretched from Pennsylvania through Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and into North Carolina.

Initially the push for European settlement of the Piedmont came from English colonists living in the east. But Piedmont rivers: such as the Broad, Catawba, and Yadkin/ Pee Dee flowed south into South Carolina. That made communication and trade with the eastern part of the colony difficult and discouraged settlers from the Coastal Plain.

For this reason, only a few came inland from coastal towns, and by the 1730s Piedmont North Carolina was just starting to grow. Early Piedmont settlers were primarily Scotch- Irish and German people who were descendants of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia settlers. These settlers came down the Great Wagon Road. Many left their home colonies because suitable land in those colonies had become scarce and expensive.

*Where did most of the Piedmont’s settlers come from? How did they get there? Why was it difficult to travel to the Piedmont from the Coastal Plain?


4th Grade Unit 1 – Student The Scotch-Irish, or Ulster Scots, were descendants of Scots who had moved to Northern Ireland. They had prospered in Ireland until changes in English policies led many to migrate to America, where most settled in Pennsylvania. They began to arrive in North Carolina in the 1730s, leaving Pennsylvania after crops were harvested in the fall and arriving in the Piedmont in time to plant winter crops and seedlings that they brought with them.

On small farms these Scotch-Irish settlers grew corn for home use and wheat and tobacco for use and for export. They raised livestock and drove them in large numbers to northern markets. Settlers built stores, gristmills, sawmills, and tanneries. Blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, potters, rope makers, wagon makers, and wheelwrights established many local industries. Brewers, distillers, weavers, hatters, tailors, and others practiced their trades either in isolated homes or in shops in towns.

Germans of Lutheran faiths came to Pennsylvania and then to the Piedmont for many of the same reasons as the Scotch-Irish. Most of the Lutherans settled in the area drained by the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers. Some joined members of German Reformed congregations in settling all across the backcountry.

Moravians, also from Germany and then Pennsylvania, arrived in present-day

Forsyth County in 1753. They began building a well-planned, tightly controlled congregational community. Land was held in common, and crafts, occupations, and even marriages required approval from community boards. Salem and its outlying settlements prospered and provided neighbors with mills, tanyards, shops, crafts, medical care, fine music, and other economic and cultural amenities.

*Why did the Scotch-Irish, German Lutherans, and Moravians move to the Piedmont? What did they do when they got there?

Many of the German settlers clustered together and preserved their native language in homes, churches, and schools. German publishers prospered in Salisbury and in Salem. Gradually many of the settlers adopted English-sounding names and switched to speaking the English language.

With very different cultures and religious beliefs, the Scotch-Irish and German groups established neighboring settlements and towns but had little contact with each other. They came in such numbers that six new counties were created in the Piedmont between 1746 and 1763.

As the population of the Piedmont grew, so did its towns. While the majority of backcountry immigrants settled on farms, others settled in and established towns. Many towns were established along the two main roads in the region. The Moravian


4th Grade Unit 1 – Student villages of Bethabara (1753), Bethania (1756), and Salem (1766) were not far from the Great Wagon Road. Hillsborough (1754) and Charlotte (1766) were established on the Great Indian Trading Path. Salisbury was established in 1753 where the two roads crossed.

*Why were towns established close to the main roads?

Most of these towns had stores, taverns, craft shops, churches, and schools. Salisbury, Hillsborough, and Charlotte were places for county courts to meet. On court days, people came into towns to trade, buy supplies, and socialize with friends.

Also in towns, as well as at large farms and crossroads stores, farm and craft products were gathered together for shipping to the coast. Once there, they were traded for goods and supplies that backcountry settlers could not produce for them-selves. In a similar manner, flocks or herds of livestock were gathered to be driven to distant markets.

*How are the historic towns of the Piedmont similar to the towns we live in today? How are they different?

Because of the geography of the Piedmont, much of this trade flowed outside the colony. Few roads connected the Piedmont with the Coastal Plain. Around Hillsborough, for example, many settlers sent goods up the Great Indian Trading Path into Virginia

instead of to North Carolina ports such as Edenton. People living in the northwest Piedmont still found it easier to send goods north along the Great Wagon Road. Other goods from the Piedmont traveled on rivers that flowed into South Carolina.

Colonial and county officials were concerned about the destinations of goods from the Piedmont. They built or improved roads to courthouse towns, mills, and stores to make trade with the east easier. Their efforts proved successful, and by 1760 Piedmont settlers were sending goods overland toward the coast. A 1773 pamphlet reported that "40 or 50" wagons filled with "beef, pork, and flower [flour] in barrels, also their livestock, Indian corn, raw hydes, butter, tallow, and whatever they have for market" were arriving daily in the small town of Cross Creek (present-day Fayetteville). These and other products, including wheat, deerskins, tobacco, naval stores, and flaxseed, were then loaded onto rafts and floated down the Cape Fear River to Wilmington.

*Why do you think officials were concerned about where the goods from the Piedmont were going? What did they do about it? How did this change our state?



Settlement of the Piedmont 1730-1775 Scotch-Irish, German Lutherans, German Moravians

What brought them to the Piedmont?

Farming

Contributions to the Piedmont

Trades



Settlement of the Mountains, 1775-1838

European Migration

The most prominent Native Americans to settle in the mountains of western present-day North Carolina were the Cherokee Indians. Their first known contact with Europeans occurred in 1540, when Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his men came to the mountains in search of gold. Following this brief encounter, the Cherokee and Europeans had limited contact until the late 1600s. A thriving trade developed between the Cherokee and White settlers in the early 1700s.

As more Whites immigrated into the area just west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the late 1700s, the Cherokee who were living there moved west. As a result, White migration into present-day Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania Counties grew rapidly for a while.

The new settlers in the Mountains found it difficult to travel the steep, rough, and muddy roads back and forth to their county seats in Rutherford, Burke, and Wilkes Counties. They had to go to these county seats to pay taxes, buy or sell land, go to court, or carry on other business. The settlers began to ask the legislature to establish new counties so they would not have to travel so far to county seats. In response, the legislature established Buncombe and Ashe Counties in 1792 and 1799 respectively. Morristown, or Moriston (present-day Asheville), was founded as the county seat of Buncombe County because it

was centrally located at a major crossroad. Jefferson was named the county seat in Ashe County.

The settlers who came to the Mountains were primarily of English, Scotch-Irish, and German descent. They came to buy, settle, and farm the cheap, fertile bottomlands and hillsides in the region. Some migrated from the North Carolina Piedmont and the Coastal Plain. They came by foot, wagon, or horseback, entering the area through gaps such as Swannanoa, Hickory Nut, Gillespie, and Deep Gaps.

Other English, Scotch-Irish, and German settlers came from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. They traveled down the Great Wagon Road to the Piedmont Region of North Carolina and then traveled west to reach the mountains.

The Buncombe Turnpike and Gold!

Problems with travel and trade changed with the completion of the Buncombe Turnpike in 1827. The turnpike followed the French Broad River north of Asheville to reach Greeneville, Tennessee. South of Asheville, the turnpike continued to Greenville, South Carolina. The turnpike was a better road than previous roads in the Mountain Region, which usually had been steep, narrow paths. It connected the North Carolina Mountain Region with other, larger markets.

Drovers were now able to drive surplus hogs, geese, or turkeys to markets outside the Mountain Region. Farmers could now use their wagons to transport crops to market. Tourists could now reach the


4th Grade Unit 1 – Student mountains more easily. They could come in wagons, carriages, or stagecoaches, rather than on foot or horseback. Asheville and Warm Springs (now Hot Springs) became popular tourist destinations. Flat Rock attracted many summer residents from the Low Country of South Carolina, including Charleston.

The discovery of gold in western North Carolina brought an economic boom to the region in the 1820s and 1830s. Burke and Rutherford Counties experienced a gold rush in the mid-1820s when hundreds of miners arrived looking for gold. During this time, North Carolina became the leading gold-producing state. However, with the discovery of gold in California in the late 1840s, most of the miners left for California.

Development and Conflict

During the first three decades of the 1800s, economic and political conditions were poor. A steady stream of emigrating North Carolinians passed through the Mountain Region headed for points west.

North Carolina political conditions were affected by sectionalism, or conflict between the eastern and western sections of the state. At the time, each county, regardless of population, elected one representative to the state senate and two representatives to the North Carolina House of Commons. The east had more counties and, as a result, more representatives who could outvote representatives from the west.

By 1830 the western part of the state had more people, but the east continued to

control the government. Calls for a constitutional convention were defeated repeatedly until 1834 when western counties threatened to revolt and secede from the state if a convention was not called.

Fortunately, a convention was called in 1835. The convention reformed the state constitution and created a more democratic government. The east would continue to control the senate, whose members were now elected from districts. These districts were created according to the amount of tax paid to the state. Because the east was wealthier and paid more taxes, it had more districts. But the west would control the population-based house because it had more people. Since neither the east nor the west could now control the entire government, the two sections were forced to cooperate. These changes benefited the western part of the state.

It was also during this period, in 1838, that the federal government forced a majority of the Cherokee in the region to move to present-day Oklahoma. Thousands of Cherokee died on the journey west. Although a remnant group of Cherokee was able to stay behind, whites soon began to settle on the Cherokee land, which was fertile and cheap.

By the 1830s, transportation in the Mountains had improved and conflict between the east and west had decreased. But the Mountain Region remained relatively isolated for another fifty years until railroad lines reached the area.



Settlement of the Mountain Region 1776-1860Economic Impact Political Impact Cultural Impact



African American Settlement

Coastal Plain (From Settlement of the Coastal Plain, 1650- 1775 by Alan D. Watson

African Americans, most of whom were slaves, greatly added to the population of the colony. By the time North Carolina was settled, slavery had developed in Virginia and South Carolina. White Virginians and South Carolinians who immigrated to North Carolina often brought slaves with them. Slaves were also brought from abroad.

Available records of slaves imported from 1749 to 1775 show that 68.6 percent came from the West Indies and 15.6 percent from Africa. 11.6 percent of slaves imported during this time came from other mainland colonies. The origin of the remaining 4.2 percent is unknown.

Most slaves lived in the lower Cape Fear area, where early immigrants from South Carolina brought the plantation culture with them. Though most settlers lived on small farms, some settlers owned large tracts of land and large numbers of slaves. These plantations produced most of the colony's rice, indigo, and exportable naval stores. The fertile land in this area and the closeness of the Cape Fear River made trade with other colonies and with Europe profitable. These factors encouraged the plantation culture here.

Slaves were not as common in the Albemarle and middle Coastal Plain for a number of reasons. First, just as the Dismal Swamp and poor roads made travel and immigration by land difficult, they also made importing slaves by land difficult. Also, the dangerous Outer Banks and the absence of a deep water port discouraged importing them by sea.

Second, getting goods to market was difficult. The rivers in these areas emptied into sounds, not the ocean, and ports along the rivers were located far

inland. This meant that boats required more time to reach port, to pick up or deliver cargo, and to return to the ocean. Because getting goods to market was so difficult, most settlers could not make money by raising crops for export and did not need slaves. Though some did grow wheat and tobacco for export, many lived as subsistence farmers.

Piedmont (From Settlement of the Piedmont, 1730-1775 by Christopher E. Hendricks and J. Edwin Hendricks)

Americans of African descent came to the Piedmont in small numbers during the colonial period, usually accompanying their masters from other areas. Many groups who had not previously owned slaves acquired slaves as their wealth increased and as neighboring slaveholders made the practice appear more acceptable. Rarely did colonial slaveholders in the Piedmont own more than a dozen slaves. In 1775, only fifteen thousand of the fewer than seventy thousand slaves in North Carolina lived west of the Coastal Plain. Most of the settlers in the Piedmont were small farmers and did not own slaves.

Mountains (From "North Carolina's Final Frontier" by Ron Holland)

A small number of African American slaves were brought into the Mountain Region to work some of the larger farms. Robert Love of Haywood County, for example, owned one hundred slaves. But his case was an exception. Most farms were small and self-sufficient. Largely because traveling and getting crops to market were difficult and expensive on the rough, muddy roads, most farmers did not grow excess crops for trade and did not need slaves.



Settlement of African Americans in North Carolina Coastal Region Piedmont Region Mountain Region



French and Indian War Summary

Question Answer

When did War occur?

Why was it being fought?

What was impact on NC?

Who won?

How did the country benefit from this war?



Revolutionary War Summary

Question Answer

When did War occur?



Who won?




North Carolina 1830 - Civil War1830-1850 1850-1860 Civil War

Transportation: Transportation: Confederacy:

Slavery: Constitution: Union:

Image of NC: Slavery: Slavery:

Change: End of Antebellum: End of War:



Civil War Summary

Question Answer

When did War occur?



Who won?




North Carolina Historic Buildings WebQuest

Name ___________________________________________

Choose a region to research TWO historic buildings in North Carolina. Region _______________________________

Historic Building 1 Historic Building 2

Name of Building

Location

Who made this site famous?

Why is this building significant to NC history?

Three interesting facts about this building

1.

2.

3.

1.

2.

3.

Hours of Operation

Admission



Alamance Battleground Aycock Birthplace Historic Bath

Bennett Place Bentonville Battlefield Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson

Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum CSS Neuse

Governor Caswell Memorial

Duke Homestead

Historic Edenton Fort Dobbs Fort Fisher

Historic Halifax Horne Creek Living Historical Farm House in the Horseshoe

North Carolina Transportation Museum USS North Carolina Battleship President James K. Polk

Reed Gold Mine Roanoke Island Festival Park Somerset Place

Historic Stagville State Capitol Town Creek Indian Mound

Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace Thomas Wolfe Memorial



Planning sheet for NC State Symbol Presentation4.H.2.1 Explain why important buildings, statues, monuments, place names are associated with the state’s history.

4.H.2.2 Explain the historical significance of North Carolina’s state symbols.

Questions to consider:

KNOWLEDGE -

When was this symbol adopted?

What happens to the symbol when it is adopted by the state?

Include a photo, illustration, drawing, or video in your presentation.

Fun Facts

ANALYZE/EVALUATE -

Why is this symbol important? What is the relationship

between your symbol choice and….another symbol? Person? Time? Place?)

What can you infer from the state’s choice of this symbol?



Rubric for NC State Symbol Presentation

4 Project contains all elements from planning questions.

Student is able to integrate multiple sources and clearly communicate information showing an advanced understanding of the material including importance and meaning of state symbol as well as comparative relationship to another symbol, person, time or place (opportunity for student choice here also).

Presentation includes analysis and evaluation of symbol using supporting evidence to explain what they inferred from the state’s choice of this symbol.

Project reflects correct usage of domain specific vocabulary and grammar.Student was able to work independently to complete required research.

3 Project contains all elements from planning questions.

Student conveys explanation, with supporting evidence of thinking, of the importance and meaning of state symbol as well as comparative relationship to another symbol, person, time or place (opportunity for student choice here also).


Project reflects correct usage of domain specific vocabulary and grammar.Student was able to work independently to complete required research most of the time.

2 Project contains some of the required elements from planning questions.

Student conveys explanation of importance and meaning of state symbol as well as comparative relationship to another symbol, person, time or place (opportunity for student choice here also).


Project reflects inconsistent usage of domain specific vocabulary and grammar.Student was able to work with support to complete required research.

1 Project is incomplete.


unit overview: history and culture web vieweuropean explorers came to the "new world" of...

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