The Influence of Geography Upon Early North Carolina

CHAPTER I

Physical Features of the State

How North Carolina was Settled

North Carolina lies between 34° and 36° 30' north latitude, thus being located within the warmer part of the north temperate zone. The state is bounded on the north by Virginia, on the west by Tennessee, on the South by South Carolina and Georgia, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. The extreme length of the state is over 500 miles and the greatest width is 188 miles.

The topography may be described as one vast slope extending from the mountains of the west, with altitudes of more than 6,000 feet, to the level of the Atlantic Ocean. The state is divided into three rather clear-cut physiographic regions: the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau and the Mountain Region. Each region has distinct physical features. The Coastal Plain with its subregions, making up almost half the state’s area, extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the “fall line” of the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers. This region varies from 100 to 150 miles in width and ranges in elevation from sea level to approximately 400 feet. This extensive region is naturally divided into two subregions, the Tidewater and the western Coastal Plain. The Tidewater is low and relatively swampy. It includes many natural lakes, the largest of which is Lake Mattamuskeet. Most of the soil of the Coastal Plain is fertile and easy to cultivate. At its western edge is a rather large, hilly and sandy area known as the Sandhills. The soil in this area was not considered good for farming and not many people settled there in early days. Later, it was found that the winters were milder in this region than in many other parts of the country. This led eventually to the development of such resort towns as Pinehurst and Southern Pines. The submountain or Piedmont Plateau extends from the fall line, which runs in a northeast-southwest direction through the present counties of Northampton, Halifax, Wake, Lee, Hoke and Scotland. From the mountain section to the Piedmont the transition is very sharp, there being a drop of not less than 1,500 feet within a very few miles. The Mountain Region is composed of a broad plateau bounded on the east by the Blue Ridge and on the west by the Great Smoky Mountains. The plateau is the culminating region of the Appalachian system and contains not only its largest masses, but also its highest summits. It is divided by a number of cross ranges and, consequently, into a number of smaller plateaus or basins, each bounded on all sides by high mountains. There are in this mountain area forty-three peaks which attain an elevation of over 6,000 feet and eighty-two mountains which exceed 5,000 feet in height. Mount Mitchell, with an elevation of 6,684 feet, is the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.

RIVERS AND SOUNDS

Great bodies of shallow water, called sounds, lie between the Coastal Plain and the Atlantic Ocean. These sounds are Currituck, Albemarle, Chowan, Roanoke, Pamlico, Core and Bogue. Between the sounds and the Atlantic Ocean is a low-lying ridge of sand which extends along most of the North Carolina coast and reaches for miles into the ocean, at many places being largely covered with water. There are few passageways for ships through this sand bank, and a hurricane may close a passage which has been open for years. The shallow waters, shifting sands and treacherous currents have helped to make the North Carolina coast line the most dangerous one on the entire Atlantic coast of the United States. The waters around Cape Hatteras have been called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

The Coastal Plain is drained by six great rivers: the Chowan, Roanoke, Tar-Pamlico, Neuse, Trent and Cape Fear. These streams run in a southeasterly direction and all except the Cape Fear empty into the shallow sounds off the coast, tending to make them increasingly more shallow with sediment deposits. The Cape Fear flows directly into the Atlantic, but sediment deposited near its mouth forms Frying Pan Shoals which make a dangerous entrance. The Chowan and the Roanoke originate in Virginia; the Tar-Pamlico, Neuse and Cape Fear rise in the Piedmont region of North Carolina; and the Trent rises in this state’s Coastal Plain. The main rivers of the Piedmont, the Catawba, Yadkin and the Broad, run in a southeasterly direction and flow through South Carolina before entering the ocean. These rivers are narrow and flow more swiftly than do those of the Coastal Plain. On these rivers have been developed the state’s great water power which has been used for industrial development. More than eighty per cent of the state’s present-day industrial plants are in the Piedmont area. The important rivers of the Mountain Region are the French Broad, Little Tennessee, Hiawassee and New. All of these streams rise west of the Blue Ridge and drain into the Tennessee River, eventually entering the Gulf of Mexico. Thus the Blue Ridge forms the divide of the land east of the Rocky Mountains.

THE BEGINNINGS OF NORTH CAROLINA

Based on the discovery of the Cabots, England claimed all eastern North America for nearly a hundred years before making any effort to colonize the region. While Sir Walter Raleigh failed in his attempt to plant the first English colony in America, his efforts stimulated the efforts of the English people in the land and led to the planting of the Jamestown Colony in 1607. At the time this first English colony was planted, Virginia extended southward to the Spanish colony of Florida. As the Jamestown Colony grew, settlers from it made their way southward to the region around Albemarle Sound. A few of these early pioneers bought land in that region from the Indians. Outstanding among these purchasers was George Durant, who in 1661 acquired from the Chief of the Yeopim Indians a tract lying along the Perquimans River and Albemarle Sound, which still bears the name of Durant’s Neck.

By 1663 the settlements on the Albemarle Sound had become of sufficient importance to attract attention in England. A group of English courtiers saw an opportunity to undertake on a vast scale a colonizing enterprise which promised large returns in wealth and power. They were not long in requesting such a grant from the King. In compliance with their request, Charles II issued his famous Charter of 1663 by which he granted to eight noblemen, called the Lords Proprietors, all the region lying between thirty-one and thirty-six degrees north latitude, and extending westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the “South Seas,” or the Pacific Ocean. When it was learned that the Charter did not include the settlers on the northern border, a second charter was issued, in 1665, extending the boundary thirty minutes north. Thus began a colony which in a little over a century was to extend its settlement westward to the Great Smoky Mountains.

The physiographic features and other geographic factors of the territory played a major role in the settlement and early development of the state. Its story of development is largely a record of fighting a wilderness containing a great variety of forests, wild animals and Indians. The decided differences in geography, the ethnic elements and the difficulties of exchanging ideas caused a number of conflicts among the people of the various regions as settlement advanced. The underlying cause of these struggles is found in the efforts of the colonists to overcome an unfavorable environment. It has been said that our past is a record of using our good geography well and adapting ourselves to the bad.