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Article: North Carolina
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NORTH CAROLINA
NORTH CAROLINA.
One of the thirteen states to declare independence from Great Britain in 1776, North Carolina has also been a proprietary British colony, a royal colony, and a state in the Confederacy.
Beginnings
Native Americans have populated North Carolina since about 10,000 b.c.e. After European contact in the 1600s, some thirty tribes numbered about 35,000 people. The largest tribes were the Tuscarora, the Catawba, and the Cherokee. Early European explorers of North Carolina were Giovanni da Verrazzano (1524), Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon (1520 and 1526), Hernando de Soto (1540), Juan Pardo and Hernando Boyano (1566
–
1567), and Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe ...