North Carolina 2^nd edition is a single volume, fascinating history of the state that covers political, economic, cultural and social dimensions of the Tar Heel state’s past. This new edition includes new material and an updated history to the present day.

• The most up-to-date history of the state, encompassing events up until 2015
• The new edition includes six sections of primary-source documents
• Includes the very latest historical literature
• Answers meaningful questions concerning the history and the future of this unique and quickly growing state

William A. Link is Richard J. Milbauer Professor of History at the University of Florida. He is the author of seven books on the history of the South, including Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (2003), Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism (2008), North Carolina: Change and Tradition in a Southern State (2009), and Links: My Family in American History (2012). His most recent book is Atlanta, Cradle of the New South: Race and Remembering in the Civil Wars Aftermath (2013).

Preface and Acknowledgments ix

Part 1 Colonial North Carolina 1

1 European Invasion 3

2 Origins of North Carolina 24

3 A Slave Society 44

Suggested Readings, Part 61

Document Section, Part 64

Part 2 The Revolutionary Republic 79

4 Immigrants and the Back country World 81

5 The Age of Revolution 101

6 The New Republic 124

Suggested Readings, Part2  146

Document Section, Part 2 149

Part 3 The Civil War Crisis 161

7 Social Change in Antebellum North Carolina 163

8 Political Parties and the Coming of the Civil War 184

9 The Civil War 201

Suggested Readings, Part 222

Document Section, Part 227

Part 4 Reconstruction and Its Aftermath 237

10 Reconstruction 239

11 Social Change in the Post-Reconstruction Era 260

12 Populism and the Crisis of the 279

Suggested Readings, Part 300

Document Section, Part 303

Part 5 Modernizing North Carolina 315

13 Progressive North Carolina 317

14 WorldWar I and the  343

15 Depression, New Deal, and WorldWar II 367

Suggested Readings, Part 392

Document Section, Part 395

Part 6 Toward the Twenty-First Century 409

16 Postwar North Carolina 411

17 The Civil Rights Revolution 435

18 Modernizers and Traditionalists 458

Suggested Readings, Part 6 481

Document Section, Part 6 484

Appendix 495

State Symbols 495

Governors 495

United States Senators 498

North Carolina Population, 1790–2010 500

Index 501