A Brief History of North Carolina

The history of the territory as we know today as North Carolina dates back to before 200 AD. Earthwork mounds document that they used these mounds for cooking purposes and ceremonial and religious reasons. The Native Americans, 500 to 700 years before any European immigration, had complex cities and extensive regional trading networks. There were more than a dozen different tribes that populated the territory. To name a few that would include the Algonquian, Roanoke, Iroquoian, Cherokee and Siouan tribes.

In the 1560s the Spanish attempted to settle in the territory with several forts. The Indians destroyed the forts and killed most of those within. 20 years later the English colonists focused on just settling on the coastal areas, starting in 1584 with Sir Walter Raleigh. By 1640 the area was continuing to grow with colonists migrating from Virginia. In 1663 the king granted a charter for the colony and named it Carolina in honor of his father Charles I.

A system of locally controlled government with representation in Parliament was developed in the early 1700s. In 1756 the North Carolina colonists resented the taxation without representation and were the first to vote for independence from the British crown. The America Revolution followed in 1765 in which Carolina was a Patriot base.

North Carolina became a state on November 21, 1789 as one of the original 13 colonies. It remained a rural state with no cities, some villages, and mostly whites operating farms. With the invention of the cotton gin the cotton crops became abundant and slave labor was needed for cotton production.

The largest cities in North Carolina; Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem and Fayetteville, all having a population of more than 100,000 residents today, barely existed in 1800. By size at that time Fayetteville had less than a 1,000 residents, Charlotte had 276 residents and the other four were simple villages. By 1820 Raleigh has shot up to a population of 2, 674 and Fayetteville at 3,532. Wilmington was at 2,633 and by 1850 it had grown to 7,264 to be the largest city in the state.

In 1861 North Carolina became the first of 11 states to secede from the United States beginning the American Civil War. Despite the fact that no major battles were fought in the state North Carolina did recruit and send more soldiers to fight for the Confederacy than any other rebel state.

The first capital of the state was Bath, the oldest town in North Carolina, from 1705 to 1722. Then the capital was shifted to Edenton then shifted again to New Bern in 1743. After a debate at a state convention in 1788 the capital was shifted to Raleigh to be near a geographic center to the state and it became the capital in 1792. Raleigh remains the capital today. The largest cities today in the state are Charlotte with a population of over 731,000 residents, Raleigh with 403,000, Greensboro with 269,000, Durham with 228,000, Winston-Salem with 229,000 and Fayetteville with 200,000 residents.

Directions from State Capital Building to Wake Dental Care

Just by chance if you're new to the Cary, NC area and are looking for a new dentist for you and/or your family, consider calling and setting up an appointment at Wake Dental Care.

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