NORTH CAROLINA






One of the South Atlantic states of the U.S., bordered on the N by Virginia, on the E by the Atlantic Ocean, on the S by South Carolina and Georgia, and on the W by Tennessee.

North Carolina entered the Union on Nov. 21, 1789, as the 12th of the 13 original states. It was principally a farming state until the 1920s, when such manufactures as textiles, furniture, and tobacco products began to dominate the economy. Manufacturing and services (including tourism) remained pivotal to the economy in the early 1990s, and agriculture and forestry were also important. Two U.S. presidents, James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson, were born here, and another, Andrew Jackson, was born in the border area between North and South Carolina. North Carolina, named for Charles I and Charles II of England, is known as the Tar Heel State and the Old North State.

North Carolina has some of the most striking contrasts in physical geography of any state in the E half of the U.S. It has an area of 139,397 sq km (53,821 sq mi), making it the 28th largest of the U.S. states; 7.1% of its land area is owned by the federal government. North Carolina is roughly rectangular in shape, and its extreme dimensions are about 815 km (about 505 mi) from E to W and about 305 km (about 190 mi) from N to S. Elevations range from sea level, along the Atlantic Ocean, to 2037 m (6684 ft), atop Mt. Mitchell in the W part of the state. The approximate mean elevation is 213 m (700 ft). North Carolina has a coastline of 484 km (301 mi).Physical Geography. About two-fifths of North Carolina is part of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, a region formed mainly by the gradual uplifting of the ancient sea floor next to the continent. The plain is underlain by soft, unconsolidated sedimentary beds such as sand and clay. Within about 80 km (about 50 mi) of the coast the surface of the plain is especially flat. Swamps and marshes are widespread; the Great Dismal Swamp, which extends into Virginia, is in the NE. Broad, shallow sounds such as Albemarle Sound and Pamlico Sound lie between the coast and a line of offshore sandy islands called the Outer Banks. Other islands are closer to the shore. On the islands are Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, and Cape Fear. Inland the elevation of the plain rises gradually to about 90 m (about 300 ft). Sand hills extend along part of the inner plain boundary.

Bordering the Coastal Plain on the W is a section of the Piedmont Plateau region, which also covers about two-fifths of North Carolina. These two regions are separated by the fall line, where rivers descend over rapids as they flow from the more elevated Piedmont onto the Coastal Plain. Consolidated rocks underlie the Piedmont. Inland from the fall line is a narrow band of reddish sandstones and shales, followed by a broader belt composed mainly of slate and then by a still broader belt of hard crystalline rocks such as granite and gneiss. Elevations increase steadily inland from about 90 m (about 300 ft) to about 460 m (about 1500 ft) at the inner margin of the Piedmont.

The westernmost region of North Carolina, the Blue Ridge, includes more than 40 peaks rising above 1829 m (above 6000 ft). The region's rocks, such as gneiss and quartzite, are very hard. Mountains are mostly rounded in shape, but steep-sided gorges also occur. The Great Smoky Mts. are the best-known part of this region. Several basins are in the Blue Ridge region. The city of Asheville is in the largest of these basins.

Most of the large rivers of North Carolina flow SE across the Piedmont Plateau and the Coastal Plain to the Atlantic. These include the Roanoke, which rises in Virginia; the Tar; the Neuse; and the Cape Fear. Some rivers, such as the Catawba and the Yadkin (Pee Dee), flow into South Carolina before continuing toward the Atlantic. In the Blue Ridge region most rivers flow toward the W or N. Some other rivers, such as the French Broad, flow into the Tennessee R. system beyond North Carolina, and the New R. flows N toward the Ohio R.

North Carolina's natural lakes are small. Most, including the largest, Mattamuskeet, are in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Several large artificial lakes have been formed by dams on rivers. These include Lake Gaston, on the Roanoke R.; High Rock Lake and Lake Tillery, on the Yadkin R.; Lake Norman, on the Catawba R.; and Fontana Lake, on the Little Tennessee R. A number of picturesque waterfalls are located in the Blue Ridge region.

Important climatic differences exist within North Carolina. The Coastal Plain and Piedmont Plateau regions are just within the N limit of the humid subtropical climate area. In the Blue Ridge the climate is humid continental. The state's climates are affected by distance from the Atlantic and by elevation. As a result, winters are cold and summers cool in the Blue Ridge and at other higher elevations. The Piedmont Plateau and Coastal Plain have mild winters because they are relatively low in elevation, are close to the Atlantic, and are protected by high mountains from the cold winter air of the interior of North America. Rainfall in North Carolina comes at all times of the year, but in greater amounts in late winter and in summer. Precipitation is higher in the Blue Ridge than in the other regions. The SW corner of the state has some of the greatest yearly precipitation totals of the eastern U.S. Snowfall is at times heavy in the Blue Ridge, but the rest of the state receives little snow. Northward-moving hurricanes occasionally strike the coast, particularly between Cape Hatteras and Cape Fear. The recorded temperature in North Carolina has ranged from -36.7° C (-34° F), in 1985 on Mt. Mitchell in the W, to 43.3° C (110° F), in 1983 at Fayetteville in the SE.

The Atlantic Coastal Plain has forests of shortleaf, longleaf, loblolly, and Virginia pine. They are part of the much larger Southeastern Pine Forest of the U.S. Hardwood trees such as cypress grow in the wet areas, including the Great Dismal Swamp. In the Piedmont Plateau region the forest is a mixture of pines and hard-woods, mainly varieties of oak. Lower Blue Ridge slopes are covered with oak, hickory, tulip, poplar, and other hardwood trees. On somewhat higher slopes these give way to birch, beech, maple, and hemlock; above about 1770 m (about 5800 ft) are spruce and balsam-fir forests. The mountain forests have a rich under-story of rhododendron and azalea. Other flowering plants of North Carolina include camellia, dogwood, and orchid.

Virginia deer, opossum, raccoon, squirrel, and fox are widespread in North Carolina. Black bear still survive in Coastal Plain forests and are common in parts of the Blue Ridge, especially Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Ducks, geese, and other waterfowl migrate along the Atlantic flyway in the coastal section of the state. Common freshwater fish of North Carolina's rivers and lakes include bass, catfish, crappie, perch, shad, and trout. Among the marine life found in North Carolina's coastal waters are bluefish, flounder, herring, mackerel, menhaden, oysters, shrimp, and scallops.

North Carolina has deposits of a variety of minerals. Among the more important are limestone, phosphate rock, sand and gravel, clay, granite, feldspar, talc, lithium, mica, olivine, asbestos, and various gemstones.

According to the 1990 census, North Carolina had 6,628,637 inhabitants, an increase of 12.7% over 1980. In 1990 the average population density was 48 people per sq km (123 per sq mi). Whites made up 75.6% of the population and blacks 22%; additional population groups included some 79,825 American Indians, 9847 persons of Asian Indian background, 8859 persons of Chinese extraction, 7267 persons of Korean descent, and 5332 persons of Filipino ancestry. North Carolina had the largest American Indian population of any state E of the Mississippi R.; the Cherokee and Lumbee are the state's principal Indian groups. Approximately 76,700 persons in North Carolina were of Hispanic background. Baptists form the state's largest religious group (47.1%), followed by Methodists (12.7%), and Roman Catholics (5.9%). North Carolina is one of the least urbanized states in the nation; in 1990 about 50% of all North Carolinians lived in areas defined as urban and the rest lived in rural areas. The state's largest cities were Charlotte; Raleigh, the capital; Greensboro; Winston-Salem; and Durham.

North Carolina has notable educational and cultural institutions and a number of interesting historical sites. Of special interest are the handicrafts, music, and pageantry of the people of the mountainous W part of the state.

The first school in North Carolina was set up in the early 18th century, but the first steps toward establishing a public school system were not taken until 1839. In 1795 the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill became the first state university in the U.S. to hold classes.

In the late 1980s, North Carolina had 1952 public elementary and secondary schools. About 769,800 elementary pupils and 310,900 secondary students were enrolled in these schools each year. About 55,400 of the state's schoolchildren attended private schools.

In the same period, North Carolina had 126 institutions of higher education, which had a combined annual enrollment of about 345,400. Besides the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with divisions in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, and Wilmington, notable schools included North Carolina State University at Raleigh (1887); Appalachian State University (1899), at Boone; East Carolina University (1907), at Greenville; Western Carolina University (1889), at Cullowhee; Bennett College (1873) and Guilford College (1837), at Greensboro; Davidson College (1837), at Davidson; Duke University, at Durham; Lenoir-Rhyne College (1891), at Hickory; Shaw University (1865), at Raleigh; and Wake Forest University (1834), at Winston-Salem.

North Carolina has a number of notable cultural institutions. One of the leading museums is the North Carolina Museum of Art, at Raleigh, with a large collection of European and American art. The University of North Carolina maintains art museums at Chapel Hill (the Ackland Art Museum) and at Greensboro (Weatherspoon Art Gallery). Exhibits on North Carolina history can be found in the Greensboro Historical Museum and in the North Carolina Museum of History at Raleigh. Other museums in the state include the Country Doctor Museum, at Bailey; the Charlotte Nature Museum; the High Point Historical Society Museum; and the Catawba Museum of Anthropology, at Salisbury.

The first public library was founded in the state about 1700. Today the main research libraries are at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Large public libraries are in Charlotte and Greenville. The state library is in Raleigh.

The North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, based in Raleigh, has a national reputation. Other musical institutions include the National Opera Company, in Raleigh; the Charlotte Opera Association; and the Transylvania Music Camp (a summer school for musicians), at Brevard. The American Dance Festival, based in Durham, is a noted summer festival of modern dance. Historical dramas are presented outdoors each summer on Roanoke Island, at Boone, and at Cherokee. The Playmakers Repertory Company is a noted theatrical group that makes its home in Chapel Hill.

Historical landmarks include Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, on Roanoke Island, encompassing the first English settlement (1585) in North America; Moores Creek National Battlefield, near Currie, the site in 1776 of an important patriot victory in the American Revolution; Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, near Greensboro, where American forces defeated the British in 1781; and Bentonville Battleground State Historic Site, near Smithfield, including the location of a Union victory in 1865 during the American Civil War. Also of note are Wright Brothers National Memorial, near Kitty Hawk, where Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903 made the first sustained flight in a heavier-than-air machine; Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, at Flat Rock, including the farm home of the poet and biographer; and the childhood home of the writer Thomas Wolfe, in Asheville.

Offshore and freshwater fishing, swimming, hiking, and hunting are popular outdoor activities in North Carolina, which also is noted for its many fine golf courses. Major automobile racetracks are at Charlotte and at Rockingham. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a favorite recreation area. North Carolina is also the home of the Charlotte Hornets, a professional basketball team.

In the early 1990s North Carolina had 226 AM and 148 FM radio stations and 49 television stations. In the same period it had 53 daily newspapers, with a total daily circulation of nearly 1.5 million. The first radio broadcaster to go on the air in the state was WBT, at Charlotte, in 1922; the first television stations, WBTV in Charlotte and WFMY in Greensboro, began operations in 1949. The first newspaper, the North Carolina Gazette, was initially published in New Bern in 1751. Influential newspapers in the early 1990s included the Charlotte Observer, the News & Record of Greensboro, the Winston-Salem Journal, and the News & Observer, issued in Raleigh.

North Carolina is governed under a constitution adopted in 1970; previous constitutions had been adopted in 1776 and 1868. Amendments to the constitution may be proposed by the state legislature or by a constitutional convention. To become effective, an amendment must be approved by a majority of persons voting on the issue in an election.

The chief executive of North Carolina is a governor, who is elected to a 4-year term and may serve a maximum of two terms. The lieutenant governor, also elected for four years, succeeds the governor on the latter's death, removal from office, or incapacity to serve. Other major state officials, all elected to 4-year terms, are the attorney general, treasurer, auditor, secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction, and commissioners of agriculture, labor, and insurance.

North Carolina's legislature, called the General Assembly, consists of a 50-member senate and a 120-member house of representatives. All legislators are elected to 2-year terms. The lieutenant governor presides over the senate, and the house elects a speaker as its presiding officer.

The court of last resort in North Carolina is the supreme court, made up of a chief justice and six associate justices, all of whom are popularly elected to 8-year terms. The intermediate appellate court of the state is the court of appeals, with 12 judges, and the major trial court is the superior court, with 77 judges. The state also has 179 district court judges. The appellate justices and most superior court judges are popularly elected to 8-year terms, and district judges are elected to 4-year terms.

North Carolina's 100 counties are governed by popularly elected boards of commissioners. Other elected county officials include the sheriff, treasurer, accountant, and attorney. The state has about 520 municipalities; most larger cities use the council-manager form of government.

North Carolina elects 2 senators and 12 representatives to the U.S. Congress. The state has 14 electoral votes in presidential elections.

From the 1870s until the 1960s the Democratic party dominated all levels of North Carolina politics. The Republican party gained strength in the state during the 1960s, and although Democrats continue to win most local elections, the two parties are fiercely competitive in statewide contests. Jesse A. Helms (1921- ), first elected to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina in 1972, has been an influential conservative voice within the Republican party on foreign policy, agriculture, and a variety of other political, social, and economic issues.

The economy of North Carolina was dominated by farming until the 1920s, when such manufacturing industries as those producing textiles, furniture, and tobacco products began to provide the bulk of the state's annual income. In the early 1990s manufacturing remained a leading economic activity, but government, commercial and financial services, farming, and tourism also were of major importance. In addition, a large number of research and development concerns have been established in North Carolina, notably in facilities such as Research Triangle Park, near Raleigh. Handicrafts, such as baskets and pottery, are important products of the Blue Ridge region in the W part of the state.

Farming is an important segment of the economy of North Carolina. Annual farm income in the late 1980s was about $4.9 billion; about 45% derived from crop sales, and the remainder came from sales of livestock and livestock products. North Carolina has some 60,000 farms, which have an average size of 65 ha (160 acres). Overall, the leading agricultural commodities are tobacco, broiler chickens, hogs, turkeys, corn, soybeans, peanuts, and dairy products. North Carolina typically leads the nation in annual tobacco and sweet-potato production, and it ranks third in peanut production; these commodities are mostly grown in the Atlantic Coastal Plain region. North Carolina's yearly broiler chicken output usually ranks fourth in the U.S.; a large proportion is raised in the Piedmont Plateau region. Among the state's other major crops are wheat, beans, tomatoes, hay, apples, and peaches; additional livestock and livestock products include beef cattle and chicken eggs.

North Carolina's extensive forests are the source of a large annual harvest of timber, which usually is fairly evenly divided between hard-woods and softwoods. The annual value of forest products exceeds $650 million. The primary uses of the timber are for paper and furniture production and in housing construction. The annual catch of North Carolina's fishing industry totals about 74,000 metric tons and has a value of approximately $71 million. The most important types of fish, in order of weight of catch, are industrial fish (especially menhaden), edible shellfish (especially shrimp), and edible finfish (especially flounder). Shrimp is the single most important part of the catch.

The yearly value of North Carolina's relatively small mineral output was about $582 million in the late 1980s. The principal minerals are stone, sand and gravel, feldspar, lithium, and phosphate rock. The state usually leads the U.S. in the production of feldspar, lithium, mica, olivine, and pyrophyllite. Additional minerals produced include asbestos, kaolin and other clays, talc, and gemstones.

In the late 1980s North Carolina manufacturing industries together employed some 868,000 workers and accounted for 30% of the annual gross state product. The leading categories of manufactures include apparel and textiles, industrial machinery, electronic equipment, furniture and fixtures, chemicals, and processed foods. North Carolina is the leading textile-producing state in the U.S. Output of such textile items as cotton yarn, nylon and polyester fiber, and denim fabric is concentrated in the Piedmont Pleateau region, especially in Gaston, Cabarrus, Guilford, and Mecklenburg counties. The state also leads the nation in manufacturing tobacco products and furniture. Cigarette production is concentrated in Durham, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem, and furniture making is centered in such Piedmont Plateau communities as High Point, Hickory, and Thomasville. Other major manufactures of North Carolina include pharmaceuticals, fabricated metal products, rubber and plastic materials, and paper and paper products.

North Carolina's natural environment, which includes ocean beaches as well as forested mountains, attracts large numbers of tourists each year. Travel expenditures in the state exceed $7 billion annually, and tourism-related activities employ nearly 150,000 persons. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, located partly in Tennessee, is one of the most popular national parks in the U.S. The scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, also a unit of the National Park Service, is an automobile route built along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mts. Attractions in the coastal area of North Carolina include two national seashores, Cape Hatteras, in the Outer Banks, and Cape Lookout, on the mainland. A major privately owned tourist attraction in the state is Carowinds, a large amusement park located at the border with South Carolina, near Charlotte. Many visitors are lured by North Carolina's splendid golf courses, such as those at Pinehurst and Southern Pines, and by the state's historical sites. North Carolina maintains 36 state parks and recreation areas.

North Carolina's comprehensive transportation system includes some 152,390 km (some 94,690 mi) of roads; there are 1337 km (831 mi) of inter-state highways. The state also has about 4255 km (2645 mi) of Class I railroad track, with Greensboro and Raleigh as major rail hubs. A section of the Atlantic Intra-coastal Waterway, an important shipping route, is along the coast of North Carolina; the state's main seaports are Morehead City, Southport, and Wilmington. The busiest of North Carolina's 274 airports and 54 heliports serve Charlotte, the Greensboro-High Point and Raleigh-Durham areas, and Winston-Salem.

In the early 1990s North Carolina's installed electricity generating capacity was 20.2 million kw, and its yearly electricity production totaled 79.8 billion kwh. About 59% of the electricity was generated from fossil fuels; nuclear facilities accounted for 32% and hydroelectric installations for 9%.

On July 4, 1584, two English explorers, commissioned by Sir Walter Raleigh, dropped anchor off the coast of the region comprising present-day North Carolina. Although the region was inhabited by Indians, the explorers reported favorably on it, and as a result a colonizing expedition set out from Plymouth the following year. On Aug. 17, 1585, a colony was established on Roanoke Island, but it was abandoned a year later. On July 22, 1587, another group commissioned by Raleigh landed on the island. The 121 settlers were led by John White (c. 1550-93), whose granddaughter, Virginia Dare, born on Aug. 18, 1587, was the first child of English parents born in America. White went back to England for supplies and returned in 1590 to find that the colony had completely vanished.

In 1629 the land south of Virginia, which was called Carolina, was granted to Sir Robert Heath (1575-1649) by Charles I, king of England, but Heath failed to make use of the land, and in 1663 Charles II granted the Carolina territory to eight proprietors. The proprietors divided the grant into North and South Carolina and established a Fundamental Constitution, a system of government drawn up by the English philosopher John Locke. The constitution provided for four houses of parliament and three orders of nobility; it was never put fully in operation and was finally abandoned in 1693.

The proprietary period of the colony, which lasted from 1663 to 1729, was turbulent because of the independence of the settlers, who occasionally drove out a governor whom they regarded as obnoxious. Indian troubles also beset the colony, but in 1713 the Tuscarora, after having massacred many settlers, were defeated and expelled from the Carolinas. The Carolinas did not prove a financial success to most of the proprietors, and in 1728 seven of them sold their grants to the Crown. In 1744 the eighth proprietor exchanged his grant for a smaller strip of land in North Carolina. The colonists continued to rebel against the authorities, who were now royal governors, and from 1765 to 1771 the Regulators , a group of colonists who refused to pay taxes, were in a state of rebellion against royal authority.

The first provincial congress met in 1774 and sent delegates to the First Continental Congress. According to tradition, in May 1775 the so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of the citizens of Mecklenburg Co. was enacted, declaring that the royal commissions of the colonies were null and void and advocating the establishment of an independent government. Few historians, however, believe that the Mecklenburg Declaration is authentic. On April 12, 1776, North Carolina became the first colony to instruct its delegates in Congress to vote for independence. The first constitution of the state was adopted on Dec. 18, 1776. North Carolina soldiers took part in many of the important battles of the American Revolution, and in 1776 and 1781 the state was invaded by the British. Delegates were sent to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but they refused to ratify the instrument in 1788 on the grounds that the central government was too strong. The state did not vote in the first presidential election. After the adoption of the Bill of Rights, North Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution on Nov. 19, 1789.

The period between the ratification of the Constitution and the American Civil War was marked by internal dissension over representation in the state government between the eastern and western counties and by the migration of many North Carolina settlers to western territories. In February 1861 the state opposed secession from the Union; but when Abraham Lincoln issued a call for troops in order to coerce the seceding states, sentiment in North Carolina changed, and on May 20, 1861, the state passed an ordinance of secession. During the Civil War, North Carolina provided the Confederacy with more than 120,000 troops and lost more soldiers than any other Southern state; in the last year of the war, the state furnished the Confederate army with food. In 1867, during the period of Reconstruction, the civil authority was superseded by the military. The constitution of 1868 established black suffrage, and in the same year the Ku Klux Klan began functioning in the state. The federal government withdrew its military forces from the state in 1868.

During the first half of the century, North Carolina's economy centered on its traditional tobacco and textile industries. World War II produced a shift to more diversified industrial development that accelerated in the postwar years. Today, although the state remains the nation's leading tobacco producer, the industry faces an uncertain future, while imports have inflicted losses on textile mills. About half the population lives and works in urban areas, and demands for expanded public and social services have increased. Strict conservation laws protect the state's unique coastal regions from industrial encroachment.