: North Carolina Image:Flag of North Carolina.
North Carolina is a state located in the Southeastern United States along its Atlantic Seaboard. It was one of the original Thirteen Colonies, and the home of the first English colony in the Americas. It was also the location of the first successful powered heavier-than-air flight by the Wright brothers at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk in 1903. Today, it is a fast-growing state with an increasingly diverse economy and population. As of 2005, the population estimate is 8,683,242 - a 7.9% increase since April 1, 2000.
Due to its wide range of elevation, from sea level on the coast to over 6,000 feet in the mountains, North Carolina has the most variation in climate of all the Southeastern states. Its climate can be considered warm or mild in certain places. While the coastal plains, especially the tidewater areas, are strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, the western, mountainous part of the state is more than 300 miles from the coast, and there is considerably less maritime influence there. As such, the climate of the state ranges from a warm, humid subtropical climate near the coast to one which is humid climate in the mountains. Most of the state falls in the humid subtropical zone.
Geography
North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south; Georgia on the southwest; Tennessee on the west; Virginia on the north; and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. The United States Census Bureau classifies North Carolina as a Southern state in the subcategory of being one of the South Atlantic States.
North Carolina consists of three main geographic sections: the coastal plain, which occupies the eastern 45% of the state; the Piedmont region, which contains the middle 35%; and the Appalachian Mountains and foothills, which take up the remaining 20% of the state in the west.
The coastal plain begins in the east as a chain of narrow, sandy barrier islands known as the "Outer Banks". The Outer Banks encompass two sounds — Albemarle Sound in the north and Pamlico Sound in the south; they are the two largest landlocked sounds in the United States. Inland the coastal plain is relatively flat, with rich soils which grow tobacco, soybeans, and cotton. The major rivers of this section, the Neuse River, Tar River, Pamlico River, Cape Fear River, and Roanoke River, tend to be slow-moving and wide.
The coastal plain turns into the Piedmont region along the "fall line," a line which marks the elevation at which waterfalls first appear on streams and rivers. The Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the state's most urbanized and densely-populated section - all five of the state's largest cities are located in the Piedmont. It consists of gently rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low isolated mountain ridges. Many small, deeply eroded mountain ranges and peaks are located in the Piedmont, including the Saura Mountains, Pilot Mountain, the Uwharrie Mountains, Crowder's Mountain, King's Pinnacle, the Brushy Mountains, and the South Mountains. The Piedmont ranges from about 300–400 feet (90–120 m) elevation in the east to over 1,000 feet (300 m) in the west. The major rivers of the Piedmont, such as the Yadkin and Catawba, tend to be fast-flowing, shallow, and narrow.
The western section of the state is part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Among the subranges of the Appalachians located in the state are the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, Balsams, Pisgahs, and the Black Mountains. The Black Mountains are the highest mountains in the Eastern United States, and culminate in Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet (2,037 m)[. It is the highest point east of the Mississippi River. Due to the higher altitude in the mountains, the climate often differs starkly from the rest of the state. Winters in western North Carolina typically feature significant snowfall and subfreezing temperatures more akin to a northern state than a southern one.
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Climate
The three geographical divisions of North Carolina are also useful when discussing the climate of the state. The coastal plain, as mentioned above, is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, and it helps keep the temperatures down in the summer and up in the winter. Daytime high temperatures on the coast average less than 90oF during the summer. In the winter, the coast has the mildest temperatures in the state. The coast typically has around one or two winter storms (snow/ice) every year and receives around 1 inch of snow annually. The Piedmont has hotter summers with daytime highs averaging over 90oF in many locations. While it is not common for temperatures to reach over 100oF in North Carolina, when it happens, the highest temperatures are to be found in the lower areas of the Piedmont, especially around the city of Fayetteville. In the winter, the Piedmont is much less mild than the coast, with temperatures which can reach 20oF or below, and around 8–10 inches of annual snowfall. Annual precipitation and humidity is lower in the Piedmont than either the mountains or the coast, but even at its lowest, the precipitation is a generous 40 inches a year. The Appalachian Mountains are the coolest area of the state, with temperatures frequently falling into the teens or lower in the winter, and relatively cool summers which rarely rise above 80 F. Snowfall in the mountains is usually 14–20 inches per year, but can be much higher in the higher elevations.
Severe weather is not a rare event in North Carolina. On average the state receives a direct hit from a hurricane once a decade, although in some years several hurricanes or tropical storms can either directly hit the state, or brush across its coastal areas. On average, North Carolina has 50 days of thunderstorm activity per year, with some storms becoming severe enough to produce hail and strong, damaging winds. North Carolina averages less than 20 tornadoes per year, and some of these are produced by hurricanes or tropical storms along the coast. Nonetheless, tornadoes from thunderstorms are a risk, especially in the Piedmont region of central North Carolina. [ [1] NOAA National Climatic Data Center. Retrieved on October 24, 2006. ]
History
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Native Americans and Lost Colony
North Carolina was originally inhabited by many different native peoples, including the Cherokee, Tuscarora, Cheraw, Pamlico, Meherrin, Coree, Machapunga, Cape Fear Indians, Waxhaw, Saponi, Tutelo, Waccamaw, Coharie, and Catawba. North Carolina was the second American territory the British attempted to colonize. Sir Walter Raleigh, for whom the state capital is named, chartered two colonies on the North Carolina (then Virginia) coast in the late 1580s, both ending in failure. The demise of one, the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island, remains one of the great mysteries of American history. Virginia Dare, the first English child to be born in North America, was born in North Carolina. Dare County is named for her.
Colonial period and Revolutionary War
The first permanent European settlers of North Carolina were British colonists who migrated south from Virginia, following a rapid growth of the colony and the subsequent shortage of available farmland. Nathaniel Batts was documented as one of the first of these Virginian immigrants. He settled south of the Chowan River and east of the Great Dismal Swamp in 1655.[Fenn and Wood, Natives and Newcomers, pp. 24-25] By 1663, this northeastern area of the Province of Carolina, known as the Albemarle Settlements, was experiencing full-scale British settlement.[Powell, North Carolina Through Four Centuries, p. 105]
During the same period, the English monarch Charles II gave the province to the Lords Proprietors, a group of noblemen who had helped restore Charles to the throne in 1670. The new province of "Carolina" was named in honor and memory of King Charles I (Latin: Carolus). In 1712, North Carolina became a separate colony. With the exception of the Earl Granville's holdings, it became a royal colony seventeen years later.[Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Farlex, Inc. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.] On May 20, 1775 Mecklenburg County became the first North Carolina county to publicly declare its independence from Great Britain. It did so by issuing the Mecklenburg Declaration. (Because of its similarity to the more well-known United States Declaration of Independence, which would appear 18 months later, the document is thought by some to be spurious.) [The Great Seal of North Carolina. NETSTATE. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.] The road to Yorktown and America's independence from England led through North Carolina. As the British army moved north from victories in Charleston and Camden, South Carolina, the Southern Division of the Continental Army and local militia prepared to meet them. Following General Daniel Morgan's victory over the British Cavalry Commander Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, Southern Commander Nathanael Greene led British Lord Charles Cornwallis across the heartland of North Carolina, and away from Cornwallis's base of supply in Charleston, South Carolina. This campaign is known as "The Race to the Dan" or "The Race for the River Crossings."
Generals Greene and Cornwallis finally met at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in present-day Greensboro on March 15, 1781. Although the British troops held the field at the end of the battle, their casualties at the hands of the numerically superior American Army were crippling. Following this "victory", Cornwallis chose to move to the Virginia coastline to get reinforcements, and to allow the British Navy to protect his battered army. This decision would result in Cornwallis's eventual defeat at Yorktown, Virginia later in 1781, a victory which guaranteed American independence.
On November 21, 1789, North Carolina ratified the Constitution to become the twelfth state in the Union. The North Carolina delegation's reluctance to sign the Constitution was instrumental in creating the United States Bill of Rights. The state refused to ratify the constitution until some sort of declaration of the people's rights was added. The North Carolina Government received a letter from Continental Army General George Washington stating that this was a wonderful idea. Thus, the Bill of Rights was added to the United States Constitution. North Carolina worked to establish its state and local governments. In 1840, it completed the state capitol building in Raleigh, still standing today. In mid-century, the state's rural and commercial areas were connected by construction of a 129 mile (208 km) wooden plank road, known as a "farmer's railroad," from Fayetteville in the east to Bethania (northwest of Winston-Salem).
Civil War
In 1860, North Carolina was a slave state. However, it refused to join the Confederacy until President Abraham Lincoln called on it to invade its sister-state, South Carolina. The state was the site of few battles, but in the Civil War it provided at least 125,000 troops to the Confederacy— more than any other Confederate state. Approximately 40,000 of those troops never returned home, dead of battlefield wounds, disease and privation. Governor Zebulon Baird Vance, elected in 1862, tried to maintain state autonomy against Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond. Even after secession, some North Carolinians refused to support the Confederacy; this was particularly true of non-slaveowning farmers in the state's mountains and western Piedmont region. Some of these farmers remained neutral during the war, while others covertly supported the Union cause during the conflict. Even so, Confederate troops from North Carolina served in virtually all the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Confederacy's largest and most famous army. The largest battle fought in North Carolina was at Bentonville, which was a futile attempt by Confederate General Joseph Johnston to slow Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's advance through the Carolinas in the spring of 1865. In March 1865, Sherman was able to capture his chief North Carolina objective when he took Goldsboro; at the time it was the main railroad junction in North Carolina. Johnston surrendered one of the largest Confederate armies at Bennett Place, a farm house in what is now Durham, in late April 1865, weeks after General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. A small, integrated guerrilla force of white and Cherokee Confederates under William Holland Thomas continued fighting in the mountains until May 10. This unit, called the "Thomas Legion," was North Carolina's sole legion and was never actually defeated by Union troops. On May 6, 1865, Thomas' Legion fired "The Last Shot" of the Civil War east of the Mississippi River in White Sulphur Springs, North Carolina. It had the distinction of capturing a city (Waynesville) then voluntarily ceasing from hostilities. North Carolina's port city of Wilmington was the last Confederate port to fall to the Union. It fell in the spring of 1865 after the nearby Second Battle of Fort Fisher. The first Confederate soldier to be killed in the Civil War was a North Carolinian, Private Henry Wyatt, at the Battle of Big Bethel in 1861. At the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, the 26th North Carolina Regiment participated in Pickett/Pettigrew's Charge and advanced the farthest into the Northern lines of any Confederate regiment. At Appomattox Court House in Virginia in April 1865, the 75th North Carolina Regiment, a cavalry unit, fired the last shots of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the Civil War. For many years, North Carolinians proudly boasted that they had been "First at Bethel, Farthest at Gettysburg, and Last at Appomattox."
Demographics
| Historical populations
|
| Census | Pop. | %±
|
| | 1790 | 393,751 | -
| | 1800 | 478,103 | 21.4%
| | 1810 | 556,526 | 16.4%
| | 1820 | 638,829 | 14.8%
| | 1830 | 737,987 | 15.5%
| | 1840 | 753,419 | 2.1%
| | 1850 | 869,039 | 15.3%
| | 1860 | 992,622 | 14.2%
| | 1870 | 1,071,361 | 7.9%
| | 1880 | 1,399,750 | 30.7%
| | 1890 | 1,617,949 | 15.6%
| | 1900 | 1,893,810 | 17.1%
| | 1910 | 2,206,287 | 16.5%
| | 1920 | 2,559,123 | 16.0%
| | 1930 | 3,170,276 | 23.9%
| | 1940 | 3,571,623 | 12.7%
| | 1950 | 4,061,929 | 13.7%
| | 1960 | 4,556,155 | 12.2%
| | 1970 | 5,082,059 | 11.5%
| | 1980 | 5,881,766 | 15.7%
| | 1990 | 6,628,637 | 12.7%
| | 2000 | 8,049,313 | 21.4%
| | 2005 (est.) | 8,683,242 |
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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2005, North Carolina has an estimated population of 8,683,242, which is an increase of 142,774, or 1.7%, from the prior year and an increase of 636,751, or 7.9%, since the year 2000. This exceeds the rate of growth for the United States as a whole. The growth comprises a natural increase since the last census of 248,097 people (that is 627,309 births minus 379,212 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 390,672 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 158,224 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 232,448 people. North Carolina has historically been a rural state, with most of the population living on farms and in small towns. However, over the last 25 years the state has undergone rapid urbanization, and today the residents of North Carolina live primarily in urban areas, as is the case in most of the United States. In particular, the cities of Charlotte and Raleigh have become major urban centers, with a large, diverse, and rapidly-growing population. Most of this growth in diversity has been fueled by immigrants from Latin America, especially Mexico. The state has also witnessed a large increase in the number of immigrants from Asia, especially India and countries in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam.
The center of population of North Carolina is located in Randolph County, in the town of Seagrove [2].
6.7% of North Carolina's population were reported as under 5 years old, 24.4% under 18, and 12.0% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51% of the population.
| Demographics of North Carolina (csv)
|
| By race
| White
| Black
| AIAN
| Asian
| NHPI
|
| AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native - NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
|
| 2000 (total population)
| 75.27%
| 22.20%
| 1.65%
| 1.70%
| 0.11%
|
| 2000 (Hispanic only)
| 4.28%
| 0.33%
| 0.10%
| 0.05%
| 0.03%
|
| 2005 (total population)
| 74.95%
| 22.29%
| 1.65%
| 2.06%
| 0.12%
|
| 2005 (Hispanic only)
| 5.89%
| 0.37%
| 0.12%
| 0.05%
| 0.03%
|
| Growth 2000-2005 (total population)
| 7.41%
| 8.31%
| 7.51%
| 30.62%
| 17.92%
|
| Growth 2000-2005 (non-Hispanic only)
| 4.93%
| 8.13%
| 6.31%
| 30.71%
| 16.84%
|
| Growth 2000-2005 (Hispanic only)
| 48.62%
| 20.36%
| 25.79%
| 27.15%
| 21.63%
|
North Carolina has 3 Metropolitan Combined Statistical Areas with a population over 1 million:
- The Metrolina: Charlotte/Gastonia/Rock Hill, NC-SC - population 2,124,013
- The Triangle: Raleigh/Durham/Cary (official - known colloquially as Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) - population of 1,509,560
- The Piedmont Triad: Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point - population of 1,490,886
 North Carolina Population Density Map The five largest ancestry groups in North Carolina are: African American (21.6%), Scots & Scots-Irish (13.9%), English (9.5%), German (9.5%), Irish (7.4%). North Carolina has one of the largest Native American populations in the United States. North Carolina has the second largest Laotian American population in the country.
African Americans
African Americans are concentrated in the state's eastern Coastal Plain and in parts of the Piedmont Plateau where plantation agriculture was most dominant. Until the mid 1860s, North Carolina had more small farms and fewer plantations than adjacent South Carolina and Virginia. These "yeoman" farmers were non-slave holding, private land owners of tracts of approximately 500 acres (2 km²).
European Americans
North Carolinians of Scots-Irish, Scottish and English ancestry are concentrated in the western mountains, coastal areas, and rural areas of the central Piedmont. Descendants of German ancestry, often of subsequent migration from Pennsylvania, can also be found in smaller numbers throughout the Piedmont. In the Winston-Salem area, there is a substantial population of Czech ancestry from the migration of Moravians during the 18th century. Also, in Charlotte, there is a large group of Croatians, led by the Radovanic clan and James Michael Ivey.
Native Americans
Estimated population figures for Native American in North Carolina as of 2004 is 110,198, or 1.3% of the total North Carolina population. Only five states (California, Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas) have a larger Native American population than North Carolina.[citation needed] The total Native American and Alaska Native population in the United States is 2,824,751, or 0.95% of total U.S. population.
To date, North Carolina recognizes eight Native American tribal nations within its state borders:
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![[1]](http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/tornado/small/avgt5304.gif){kind=link}