Part 1 (1/2)

School History of North Carolina.

by John W. Moore.

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.

In the publication of a fourteenth edition it seems proper that something should be said as to changes made in this work. At a session of the North Carolina Board of Education, held November 22d, 1881, it was resolved that ”the Board expressly reserve to itself the right to require further revisions” in Moore's School History of North Carolina, the second edition of which was then adopted for use in the public schools.

Conforming to this requirement of the State Board of Education, the author has diligently sought aid and counsel in the effort to perfect this work. To Mrs. C. P. Spencer, E. J. Hale, Esq., of New York, and Hon. Montford McGehee, Commissioner of Agriculture, the work is indebted for many valuable suggestions, but still more largely to Col. W. L. Saunders, Secretary of State, who has aided a.s.siduously not only in its revision, but in its progress through the press.

The teacher of North Carolina History will be greatly aided in the work by having a wall map of North Carolina before the cla.s.s, and to this end the publishers have prepared a good and accurate school map, which will be furnished at a special low price.

HINTS TO TEACHERS.

It is well known that any subject can be more thoroughly taught when both the eye and the mind of the pupil are used as mediums for imparting the knowledge; and the teacher of ”North Carolina History” will find a valuable help in a wall map of the State hung in convenient position for reference while the history cla.s.s is reciting.

Require the pupils to go to the map and point out localities when mentioned, also places adjoining; trace the courses of the rivers which have a historical interest, and name important towns upon their banks. A good, reliable wall map of North Carolina can he procured at a moderate price from the publishers of this work.

It has been deemed proper to make the chapters short, that each may form one lesson. At the close of each chapter will be found questions upon the main points of the lesson. These will furnish thought for many other questions which will suggest themselves to the teacher. There are many small matters of local State history which can be given with interest to the cla.s.s, from time to time, as appropriate periods are reached. These minor facts could not be included in the compa.s.s of a school book, but a teacher will be helped by referring occasionally to ”Moore's Library History of North Carolina.”

Inspire your pupils with a spirit of patriotism and love for their native State. A little effort in this direction will show you how easily it can be done. In every boy and girl is a latent feeling of pride in whatever pertains to the welfare of their native State, and this feeling should be cultivated and enlarged, and thus the children make better citizens when grown.

The history of our State is filled with events which, told to the young, will fix their attention, and awaken a desire to know more of the troubles and n.o.ble deeds of the people who laid the foundation of this Commonwealth.

The Appendix contains the present ”Const.i.tution of North Carolina.”

Then follows a series of ”Questions on the Const.i.tution,” prepared expressly for this work by Hon. Kemp P. Battle, LL. D., President of the University of North Carolina. This is an entirely new and valuable feature in a school book, and contains an a.n.a.lysis of our State government. This is just the information that every citizen of North Carolina ought to possess, and teachers should require all their students of this history to read and study the Const.i.tution and endeavor to answer the questions thereon.

No State in the Union possesses a record of n.o.bler achievements than North Carolina. Her people have always loved liberty for themselves, and they offered the same priceless boon to all who came within her borders; and it was a full knowledge of this trait of our people which made Bancroft say ”North Carolina was settled by the freest of the free.”

CHAPTER I.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF NORTH CAROLINA.

The State of North Carolina is included between the parallels 34 and 362 north lat.i.tude, and between the meridians 752 and 842 west longitude. Its western boundary is the crest of the Smoky Mountains, which, with the Blue Ridge, forms a part of the great Appalachian system, extending almost from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico; its eastern is the Atlantic Ocean. Its mean breadth from north to south is about one hundred miles; its extreme breadth is one hundred and eighty-eight miles.

The extreme length of the State from east to west is five hundred miles. The area embraced within its boundaries is fifty-two thousand two hundred and eighty-six square miles.

2. The climate of North Carolina is mild and equable. This is due in part to its geographical position; midway, as it were, between the northern and southern limits of the Union. Two other causes concur to modify it; the one, the lofty Appalachian chain, which forms, to some extent, a s.h.i.+eld from the bleak winds of the northwest; the other, the softening influence of the Gulf Stream, the current of which sweeps along near its sh.o.r.es.

3. The result of these combined causes is shown in the character of the seasons. Fogs are almost unknown; frosts occur not until the middle of October; ice rarely forms of a sufficient thickness to be gathered; snows are light, seldom remaining on the ground more than two or three days. The average rainfall is about fifty- three inches, which is pretty uniformly distributed throughout the year. The climate is eminently favorable to health and longevity.

4. The State falls naturally into three divisions or sections-- the Western or Mountain section, the Middle or Piedmont section, and the Eastern or Tidewater section. The first consists of mountains, many of them rising to towering heights, the highest, indeed, east of the Rocky Mountains. It is bounded on the east by the Blue Ridge and on the west by the Smoky Mountains. The section inclosed within these limits is in shape somewhat like an ellipse. Its length is about one hundred and eighty miles; its average breadth from twenty to fifty miles. It is a high plateau, from the plane of which many lofty mountains everywhere rise, and on its border the culminating points of the Appalachian system--the Roau, the Grandfather and the Black--lift their heads to the sky. Between the mountains are fertile valleys, plentifully watered by streams, many of them remarkable for their beauty. The mountains themselves are wooded, except a few which have prairies on their summits, locally distinguished as ”balds.”

This section has long been one of the favorite resorts of the tourist and the painter.

5. The Middle section lies between the Blue Ridge and the falls where the rivers make their descent into the great plain which forms the Eastern section of the State. Its area comprises nearly one-half of the territory of the State. Throughout the greater part it presents an endless succession of hills and dales, though the surface near the mountains is of a bolder and sometimes of a rugged cast. The scenery of this section is as remarkable for quiet, picturesque beauty, as that of the Western is for sublimity and grandeur.

6. The Eastern section is a Champaign country; relieved, however, by gentle undulations. Its breadth is about one hundred miles.