But contained in that land area are a wide variety of landscapes From the Appalachian Mountains in the west to the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the rolling hilly land called the Piedmont in between North Carolina has it all American Indians were the first people to live in what is now North Carolina The first tribes settled the area at least 10,000 years ago Eventually more than 30 tribes made their homes there They included the Cherokee Croatan Pamlico and many others Explorers from Europe first arrived in the 1500s European settlers built a village at Roanoke Island in 1585 More settlers came in the 1600s They pushed many native tribes off their land often through violence In 1663 the settlers established the British colony of Carolina The northern and southern 6
Lighthouses dot the North Carolina coast The one at Cape Hatteras is the tallest at 198 feet 60 m parts of the colony developed different industries and cultures The colony officially separated into North and South Carolina in 1712 In time North Carolina became famous for its production of barrels of tar pitch and turpentine 7
These sticky substances came from longleaf pine trees Boat builders coated their boats with these materials to guard against leaks and worm damage The tar often got stuck to people’s feet At first the tar heel state nickname was used to make fun of the people who did these jobs But over time people began to take pride in the name And like the tar the nickname stuck After the American Revolutionary War 1775 1783 the United States was officially an independent country North Carolina became the nation’s 12th state in 1789 Two of the state’s major industries at that time were cotton and tobacco farming Both were harvested primarily through the use of enslaved African people In 1729 North Carolina had 6,000 slaves By 1800 there were more than 130,000 The state’s first cotton mill 8
North Carolina’s cotton production doubled to 145,000 bales from 1850 to 1860 opened in 1813 These mills operated on the cotton picked by enslaved people who suffered through terrible lives to do so By 1840 the state had more than 25 textile mills During the US Civil War 1861 1865 North Carolina sided with the Confederacy which supported slavery But North Carolinians were divided on the issue In fact approximately 8,000 of them chose to fight for the North More than 130,000 soldiers fought for the Confederacy 9
