North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources / Office of Archives and History
Home page: http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/
Part of the Department of Cultural Resources, the North Carolina Office of Archives and History serves to preserve the state’s historic resources and cultural identity by collecting archival materials, publishing works on North Carolina history, protecting historic and archaeological sites, and creating exhibits to educate the public about the state’s past.
The Office of Archives and History has provided a wide variety of materials related to North Carolina history, including digital maps, documents, illustrations, historical diaries, and articles. Many of these resources are integrated into LEARN NC’s digital textbook project for North Carolina history.
Resources provided by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources / Office of Archives and History
Records 1–20 of 26 displayed: go to page 1, 2
- Archibald Murphey
- In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 4.4
- Archibald Debow Murphey (1777–1832) was a North Carolina state senator and later a Superior Court judge who fought for a comprehensive system of public education, construction of canals and roads, and other progressive reforms.
- Format: biography
- The Battle of Guilford Courthouse
- In Revolutionary North Carolina, page 5.9
- In North Carolina History: A Sampler, page 7.2
- During the American Revolution, on March 15, 1781, American and British armies met at Guilford Courthouse, in present-day Greensboro, North Carolina. Although the British won the battle, they lost so many troops that the battle ultimately helped the American cause. Includes a slideshow of photographs from a 2008 reenactment.
- Format: article
- The Battle of New Bern
- In North Carolina in the Civil War and Reconstruction, page 3.5
- The Battle of New Bern on March 14, 1862, won by Union General Burnside's forces, was the second of three major engagements on the North Carolina coast in the second year of the Civil War.
- Format: article
- The Bonsack machine and labor unrest
- In North Carolina in the New South, page 3.7
- When the Duke tobacco company adopted the Bonsack machine for rolling cigarettes, workers who had rolled cigarettes by hand were thrown out of work, and their replacements made less money.
- Format: article
- The Burnside Expedition
- In North Carolina in the Civil War and Reconstruction, page 3.1
- Union General Ambrose Burnside led an assault on Roanoke Island in February 1862. Burnside's forces would take and hold much of the coast of North Carolina for the remainder of the war.
- Format: article
- The capture of Plymouth
- In North Carolina in the Civil War and Reconstruction, page 4.11
- At 4 P.M. on April 17, 1864, an advanced Union patrol on the Washington Road was captured by Confederate cavalry. A company of the 12th N. Y. Cavalry attacked the Confederates, but was repulsed. Soon a large force of Confederate infantry appeared on the Washington...
- Format: article
- Cherokee leaders speak
- In Revolutionary North Carolina, page 4.5
- Exceprts of speeches of Cherokee leaders protesting white encroachment on their lands during the American Revolution.
- Format: speech/primary source
- David Fanning and the Tory War of 1781
- In Revolutionary North Carolina, page 5.10
- During the American Revolution, Patriots and Loyalists fought in the North Carolina backcountry. In 1781, David Fanning, commanding the Loyalist forces of five counties, terrorized residents of the Piedmont.
- Format: article
- Eugenics in North Carolina
- In The Great Depression and World War II, page 2.9
- Between 1933 and 1974, the state of North Carolina's Eugenics Board had the power to order sterilization of mentally ill, feeble-minded, or epileptic persons.
- Format: article
- Map of Rutherford's Trace, 1776
- Format: image/map
- Nathaniel Macon
- In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 1.4
- Biography of Nathaniel Macon (1758–1837), North Carolina political leader from Warren County.
- Format: biography
- The North Carolina Railroad
- In Antebellum North Carolina, page 5.2
- The North Carolina Railroad, built in the 1850s, connected Charlotte, Greensboro, and Goldsboro.
- Format: article
- Opposition to the Knights of Labor
- In North Carolina in the New South, page 3.11
- Editorial in a Durham newspaper, 1887, expressing concern about the Knights of Labor. Includes historical commentary.
- Format: newspaper/primary source
- Reconstruction in North Carolina
- In North Carolina in the Civil War and Reconstruction, page 9.3
- Brief history of events in North Carolina following the Civil War, 1866–1876.
- Format: article
- The Reed Gold Mine
- In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 6.2
- A brief history of Cabarrus County farmer John Reed and his gold mine, from the first discovery of gold in 1799 to the establishment of a valuable and productive mine.
- Format: book
- The Regulators
- In Revolutionary North Carolina, page 1.1
- In the 1760s residents of the North Carolina Piedmont protested high taxes, illegal fees, and corrupt officials. These protesters, who came to be known as the Regulators, began with civil disobedience and ended in violence at the Battle of Alamance in 1771.
- Format: article
- The Rutherford Expedition
- In Revolutionary North Carolina, page 4.3
- The Cherokee, hoping to protect their lands from white settlement, sided with Britain in the American Revolution. In 1776, responding to Cherokee attacks, General Griffith Rutherford led an expedition against the Cherokee, taking slaves, burning villages, and destroying crops and food stores.
- Format: article
- Sharecropping and tenant farming
- In North Carolina in the New South, page 1.3
- After the Civil War, former slaves and white farmers forced off the land by hard times rented land as tenants or worked for a share of the crop they produced, often living in continual debt.
- Format: article
- Sherman's march through North Carolina
- In North Carolina in the Civil War and Reconstruction, page 7.7
- After capturing Atlanta in September 1864, Union General William Sherman led his troops on a "March to the Sea" across Georgia, destroying crops, livestock, supplies, and civilian infrastructure that might possibly support the Confederate war effort. He then turned north into the Carolinas, entering North Carolina in March 1865. This "Carolinas Campaign" ended with the surrender of Confederate General Joseph Johnston to Sherman at Bennett Place on April 26.
- Format: article
- The struggles of a tenant farmer
- In North Carolina in the New South, page 1.6
- Copy of a mortgage and accounts of a tenant farmer in late nineteenth-century North Carolina, showing his struggles in paying off his debts. Includes historical background and activity questions.
- Format: activity/primary source
