In the 1700s, thousands of immigrants poured into North Carolina. Some people came to North Carolina from American colonies to the north and south. Many of them brought enslaved Africans with them. However, most people who settled in North Carolina in the mid-1700s came from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. Each set of newcomers followed a different dream - adventure, cheap land, religious or political freedom, economic opportunity, and more. These dreams led people to fill up lands from the Coastal Plain to the foot of the Appalachian Mountains. A few hardy pioneers even pushed across the Appalachians, seeking new frontiers to cross. By 1776, North Carolina ranked fourth among the colonies in population.

Moving into Cape Fear. Turmoil in the British Isles drove the Scottish Highlanders from Scotland to North Carolina. England ruled the independent-minded Scots with a tight fist. Gabriel Johnston, a Scot, became royal governor of North Carolina in 1734. He promoted settlement of the colony and made sure that the call for settlers reached his homeland of Scotland at an early date.

In 1740, the first large group of Scottish Highlanders landed at Brunswick near Wilmington. Numbering about 360, the Highlanders were welcomed by Johnston. He convinced the colonial Assembly to pass a law that excused Protestants from other countries from paying taxes for ten years. The Scots were one of the groups to benefit from this law. Johnston also made it possible for the Highlanders to obtain large land grants in what is now the Upper Cape Fear region of North Carolina.

The Highlanders found a haven in North Carolina just in time. In 1746, Highlanders in Scotland rebelled against England. In the defeat that followed, the English government seized huge chunks of Scottish farmland and gave it to English army officers as grazing land for sheep. Many Highlanders faced near starvation. Inspired by letters from their friends in North Carolina, they moved to Upper Cape Fear by the thousands. The region became so heavily populated that the North Carolina assembly created a new county in the region called Cumberland.

When revolution swept through the 13 colonies, the once rebellious Highlanders remained loyal to England. Perhaps they feared that losing the Revolution would result in the same harsh treatment they received from the English at home. Or perhaps the Highlanders did not want to risk losing a profitable trade in naval stores-tar, pitch, and turpentine. Whatever the reason, when rebellion came in 1776, the Highlanders refused to turn their guns against England.

Settlers against their will. People of African descent played a role in North Carolina history from the very start. Records show that Sir Francis Drake may have left enslaved Africans at Roanoke Island in 1586. If so, their fate is just as mysterious as that of the 1587 Lost Colony. Also, the original Proprietors of Carolina wrote slavery into their first plan of government.

Slavery never took as firm a root in North Carolina as in South Carolina. Of all the southern colonies, North Carolina had the smallest population of enslaved Africans. Hampered by a lack of good ports, North Carolina failed to develop an active slave trade. Moreover, the small farmers of the Piedmont had little need for slaves, and the plantations of coastal North Carolina never reached the same scale as those of South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.

The outspoken Quakers who lived in large settlements in the central part of North Carolina further limited the effects of slavery. They urged slaveowners to treat Africans well and to allow them to attend church. In 1770, North Carolina Quakers described the African slave trade as "an iniquitous [sinful] practice" and called for an immediate end to it. Few slaveowners heeded this call. Nonetheless, North Carolina slaves faced less brutality than those who labored on the rice plantations farther south.

Education

In early days of settlement, most children received their education from their parents. Schooling consisted of little more than reading, writing, and "figuring," as arithmetic was sometimes called. Slowly, however, parents pooled their money and built log schools. Teachers, paid by the commuity, taught students of all ages in what amounted to one-room cabins.

By the mid-1700s, academies had been established to prepare students for higher learning. One of the most famous of these was the Reverend David Caldwell's "seminary of learning," built in 1767 at present-day Greensboro. Caldwell's school prepared hundreds of boys and girls for fuller lives.

Students desiring a university education still had to head off to colleges in England, to the College of William and Mary established in Virginia in 1693, or to colleges in the Middle Colonies of New England. This situation changed in 1795 when the University of North Carolina opened its doors.

Chores

Children who were not from wealthy families had to complete daily chores that were necessary for their family's survival. This included chopping wood, feeding farm animals, hunting, gathering vegetables, and making sure the kitchen fire did not go out. For a young boy, learning how to shoot a musket was important because it kept predators out of the fields and put meat on the table.

Children had little time to play because of the daily chores they had to complete. Children from a small family had less time for play, while families with more children could distribute the work more evenly. When children had completed their chores they were free to play. Typically, boys played with kites, checkers, and marbles. Girls played with dolls, jumped rope, and bobbed for apples.

Life in the colonial period was much harder than our life today. Children had a lot of responsibility at an early age. The family's survival depended on everyone to help with the work.

Back to Moores Creek National Battlefield Expanded Home Page

Web Manager: Timothy Boyd
Last Updated: Wednesday, 22-Dec-2004 09:42:15 Eastern Standard Time
http://www.nps.gov /archive/mocr/guide/background.htm