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The history of North Carolina from prehistory to the present covers the experiences of the people who have lived in the territory that now comprises the U.S. state of North Carolina. Before 200 A.D., residents were building earthwork mounds, which were used for ceremonial and religious purposes. Succeeding peoples, including those of the ancient Mississippian culture established by 1000 A.D. in the Piedmont, continued to build or add onto such mounds. In the 500–700 years preceding European contact, the Mississippian culture built large, complex cities and maintained far flung regional trading networks. Historically documented tribes in the North Carolina region included the Carolina Algonquian-speaking tribes of the coastal areas, such as the Chowanoke, Roanoke, Pamlico, Machapunga, Coree, Cape Fear Indians, and others, who were the first encountered by the English; Iroquoian-speaking Meherrin, Cherokee and Tuscarora of the interior; and Southeastern Siouan tribes, such as the Cheraw, Waxhaw, Saponi, Waccamaw, and Catawba. Spanish attempts to settle the interior, with several forts built by the Juan Pardo expedition in the 1560s, ended when the Indians destroyed the forts and killed most of the garrisons. Nearly two decades later, English colonists began to settle the coastal areas, starting with a charter in 1584. Sir Walter Raleigh began two small settlements in the late 1580s, but they failed. Some mystery remains as to what happened to the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island, but most historians think a resupply ship was delayed. By 1640 some growth took place with colonists migrating from Virginia, who moved into the area of Albemarle Sound. In 1663 the king granted a charter for a new colony named ''Carolina'' in honor of his father Charles I.〔(North Carolina State Library - North Carolina History )〕 He gave ownership to the Lords Proprietors.〔Lefler and Newsome, (1973)〕 North Carolina developed a system of representative government and local control by the early 18th century. Many of its colonists resented British attempts after 1765 to levy taxes without representation in Parliament. The colony was a Patriot base during the American Revolution, and its legislature issued the Halifax Resolves, which authorized North Carolina delegates to the Second Continental Congress to vote for independence from Britain. Loyalist elements were suppressed, and there was relatively little military activity until late in the war. During the first half of the nineteenth century, North Carolina remained a rural state, with no cities and few villages. Most whites operated small subsistence farms, but the eastern part of the state had a growing class of planters, especially after 1800 when cotton became highly profitable due to the invention of the cotton gin, which enabled cultivation of short-staple cotton in the uplands. All cotton cultivation as a commodity crop was dependent on slave labor of African Americans. Politically the state was highly democratic, as heated elections (among adult white men) pitted the Democratic east versus the Whiggish west. After the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861, North Carolina seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America. More soldiers from North Carolina fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War than from any other state, but few major battles were fought here. During the early years of Reconstruction, strides were made at integrating the newly freed slaves into society. Whites regained political power by violence and in 1899, disfranchised blacks through a new constitution, imposing Jim Crow and white supremacy. The Civil Rights movement strengthened in the 1950s and 1960s, and it had strong supporters and activists in North Carolina. Events such as the sit-in protest at the F.W. Woolworth's store in Greensboro would become a touchstone for the movement. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a central organization in the movement, was founded at Shaw University in Raleigh. Following passage of national civil rights legislation to enforce suffrage, in 1973, Clarence Lightner was elected in Raleigh as the first African-American mayor of a major southern city. ==Pre-colonial history== The earliest discovered human settlements in what eventually became North Carolina are found at the Hardaway Site near the town of Badin in the south-central part of the state. Radiocarbon dating of the site has not been possible. But, based on other dating methods, such as rock strata and the existence of Dalton-type spear points, the site has been dated to approximately 8000 B.C.E., or 10,000 years old.〔Ward (1999), pp. 35-46〕 Spearpoints of the Dalton type continued to change and evolve slowly for the next 7000 years, suggesting a continuity of culture for most of that time. During this time, settlement was scattered and likely existed solely on the hunter-gatherer level. Toward the end of this period, there is evidence of settled agriculture, such as plant domestication and the development of pottery.〔Ward (1999), pp. 51-75〕 From 1000 B.C.E. until the time of European settlement, the time period is known as the "Woodland period". Permanent villages, based on settled agriculture, were developed throughout the present-day state. By about 800 C.E., towns were fortified throughout the Piedmont region, suggesting the existence of organized tribal warfare.〔Ward (1999), pp. 98-99〕 An important site of this late-Woodland period is the Town Creek Indian Mound, an archaeologically rich site occupied from about 1100 to 1450 C.E. by the Pee Dee culture of the Mississippian tradition.〔Ward (1999), pp. 123-133〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Town Creek Indian Mound )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of North Carolina」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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