North Carolina

(-kar-o-li'nah,) an E. central and maritime State of the American Union, bet. N. Lat. 33° 53′-36° 33′, W. Lon. 75° 25′-84° 30′, b. N. by Virginia, E. and S.E. by the Atlantic Ocean, S. by S. Carolina, S.W.by Georgia, and W. by Tenne ee, from which State it is separated by the line of the Alleghanies. Length, E. to W., 420 m.; greatest breadth, 180 m. Area, 50,704 sq. m., or 32,450,500 acres. The surface of the country, from the coast-line to within some 80 m. inland, is generally flat and marshy, abounding in swamps and lagoons, and with a soil poor and sandy. The Great Dismal Swamp, lying N. of Albemarle Sound, covers an area of 150,000 acres, and cro es the State line into Virginia; the Little Dismal, or Alligator Swamp, of nearly equal extent, is situate bet. Albe-North umber land, marle and Pamlico Sounds, and has, in many parts, been sufficiently drained to yield rice and other crops. Altogether, the quantity of mora lands interspersed over the State is estimated at 3,000,000 acres. Farther inland, the surface becomes diversified by parallel North umber land, ridges and valleys, and this section is known as the Pitch Pine Region, po e ing an excellent tillable soil adapted to the cereals. Still farther W. the State becomes mountainous: the Blue Ridge intersecting it from N.E. to S.W., while beyond this again lies the frontier-line of the Alleghanies. The seaboard of N. C. is deeply indented by the large inlets of Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds, and the estuaries of the Neuse and Pamlico rivers. Besides the last-named, the pp. streams that drain the State are the Chowan, Roanoke, Tar, Cape Fear, Yadkin, and Catawba. Geologically, the State presents the recent and tertiary systems of rocks, with the cretaceous, new red sandstone, igneous, permian, and metamorphic series. The minerals comprise iron and coal in extensive quantities, besides gold, silver, copper, graphite, porphyry, and steatite. In 1870, the total number of acres of land in farms was 19,835,410; cash value of same under cultivation, $78,211,083, besides $4,082,111 worth of implements and machinery; total value of farm produce, $57,847,980; of orchard-and garden-stuffs, $143,248; of lumber, $1,089,115. Value of home manu fs., $1,603,913; of livestock on farms, $21,993,967. Total number of farms throughout the State 93,565, being an increase of 18,362 over the previous decennial return. The distillation of tar and turpentine forms a staple industry of N. C.; the product of the latter article is estim. at 800,000 barrels annually. The State is politically divided into 90 cos. Chief cities and towns: Raleigh (cap.), Wilmington, Newbern, Edenton, Beaufort, Charlotte, and Elizabeth. The constitution of N. C., established in 1776, and modified in the years 1835 and 1857, and remodelled in 1868, received the ratification to the 15th Amendment to the Federal Constitution in 1869. The governor of the State, the senators and the representatives are elected biennially. N. C. sends two senators and eight representatives to the Federal Congre . In 1870 the total public State debt amounted to $32,474,036; and the total taxation to $2,382,809. The scholastic system provides for abt. 1,250 schools, which are attended by abt. 45,000 children, of whom nearly one-fourth are colored. The revenue from all sources for the support of public education, for the year ending Sept. 30, 1870, was $152,281. Besides the State University at Chapel Hill, near Raleigh, there are colleges at Forestville, and in Meck len burgh co., and numerous flourishing private academies.-N. C. received its initiatory colonization by a body of English men dispatched by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585. In 1663, a permanent settlement was established by grant of King Charles II., for which John Locke (q. v.) drew up a code of govt., which obtained for a quarter of a century. From 1711-13, a war prevailed between the Indians and the colonists, in which the latter triumphed. In 1769, the colony made its protest against the taxation measures adopted by the Eng. govt., sent representatives to the first Continental Congre in 1774, and two years later gave in its adhesion to the Declaration of Independence. This led to a partisan war between the revolutionists and the loyalists, and in 1781 Gen. Greene's command of4,500 men was defeated at Guilford CourtHouse by Lord Cornwall is at the head of 2,000 British troops. N. C. bore her share in the brunt of the war waged by the Southern Confederacy, and has, since its [s. 651]