before and after the split into north and
south King
Charles II granted the Charter of Carolina in 1663 for land south of the British
Colony of Virginia and north of
Spanish Florida. He granted the land to eight
lords proprietor, namely
Edward, Earl of Clarendon;
George, Duke of Albemarle;
William, Lord Craven;
John, Lord Berkeley;
Anthony, Lord Ashley;
Sir George Carteret;
Sir William Berkeley; and
Sir John Colleton. In October of that year the North Carolina Assembly awarded Davis the contract to carry the mail between
Wilmington, North Carolina and
Suffolk, Virginia. By the late eighteenth century, the tide of immigration to North Carolina from Virginia and the
Province of Pennsylvania began to swell. The
Scots-Irish (
Ulster Protestants) from present-day
Northern Ireland were the largest immigrant group from the
British Isles to the colonies before the
American Revolution.
Indentured servants, who arrived mostly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, comprised the majority of English settlers prior to the Revolution. On the eve of the Revolution, North Carolina was the fastest-growing British colony in North America. Differences in the settlement patterns of eastern and
western North Carolina, or the low country and uplands, affected the political, economic, and social life of the state from the eighteenth until the twentieth century. The small family farms of the
Piedmont contrasted sharply with the
plantation economy of the coastal region, where
wealthy planters grew
tobacco and
rice with
slave labor. The
Tidewater in eastern North Carolina was settled chiefly by immigrants from rural England and the
Scottish Highlands. The upcountry of western North Carolina was settled chiefly by Scots-Irish, English and German
Protestants, and the so-called
coheepoor, non-Anglican, independent farmers. During the Revolution, the English and Highland Scots of eastern North Carolina tended to remain loyal to the
King because of longstanding business and personal connections with Great Britain. The English,
Welsh, Scots-Irish, and German settlers of western North Carolina tended to favor American independence. With no cities and very few towns or villages, the province was rural and thinly populated. Local
taverns provided multiple services ranging from strong drink and beds for travelers to meeting rooms for politicians and businessmen. In a world sharply divided along lines of ethnicity, gender, race, and class, the tavern keepers' rum proved a solvent that mixed together all sorts of locals and travelers. The increasing variety of drinks on offer and the emergence of private clubs meeting in the taverns showed that genteel culture was spreading from London to the periphery of the English world. The courthouse was usually the most imposing building in a county. Jails were often an important part of the courthouse but were sometimes built separately. Some county governments built tobacco warehouses to provide a common service for their most important export crop. Expansion westward began early in the eighteenth century from the provincial seats of power on the coast, particularly after the conclusion of the
Tuscarora and
Yamasee wars, in which the largest barrier was removed to provincial settlement farther inland. Settlement in large numbers became more feasible over the
Appalachian Mountains after the
French and Indian War and the accompanying
Anglo-Cherokee War, in which the
Cherokee and
Catawba were effectively neutralized. King
George III issued the
Proclamation of 1763 in order to stifle potential conflict with
Indians in that region, including the
Overhill Cherokee. This barred any settlement near the headwaters of any rivers or streams that flowed westward towards the
Mississippi River. It included several North Carolina rivers, such as the
French Broad and
Watauga. This proclamation was not strictly obeyed and was widely detested in North Carolina, but it somewhat delayed migration westward until after the Revolution. Settlers continued to flow westwards in smaller numbers, despite the prohibition, and several trans-Appalachian settlements were formed. Most prominent was the
Watauga Association, formed in 1772 as an independent territory within the bounds of North Carolina which adopted its own written
constitution. Notable frontiersmen such as
Daniel Boone traveled back and forth across the invisible proclamation line as market hunters, seeking valuable pelts to sell in eastern settlements, and many served as leaders and guides for groups who settled in the
Tennessee River valley and the
Kentucke County. == Geography ==