T H E M I L L E N N I U M I N T H E C A R O L I N A S TODAY: 1710 – THE CAROLINAS SPLIT
Carolina border battles
TH E M F I L E S
P
olitics, not just geography,
decided the division of North
and South Carolina.
Settlers in the Albemarle
Sound area chafed under rule
from Charles Town. In 1691, a
deputy governor was given
charge of the Carolina colony
north and east of Cape Fear. In
1710, that area became North
Carolina when it got its own
governor. It took until 1821 to
settle the N.C.-S.C. boundary.
The N.C.-Virginia border
wasn’t settled until 1728.
Frontiersmen to the west tried to
establish the State of Franklin in
1784, but the state gave land to the
federal government that became Tennessee instead. And a border dispute with
Georgia, which led to armed skirmishes in
1803, lingered until 1971. — Foon Rhee
This map shows the approximate
borders (white lines) of the Southern
colonies in about 1700. The border
with Virginia was “fixed” in 1728.
The undulating border with South
Carolina began in the 1730s. Here’s
a look at some of our border woes:
B.
VIRGINIA
1
2
SOUTH
CAROLINA
NORTH
CAROLINA
Title page from
William Byrd’s classic,
“The History of the Dividing
Line betwixt Virginia and
North Carolina.”
Atlantic
Ocean
Teach’s coastal terrors
The “lost state” of Franklin
Charles
Town
Shortly after the Carolinas split, Edward Teach —
better known as the pirate Blackbeard — and his
40-gun ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, terrorized
the Atlantic and Caribbean. Teach, who lived for a
time in the town of Bath, even occupied and held
Charles Town for ransom. On Nov. 22, 1718,
Royal Navy Lt. Robert Maynard killed the infamous
pirate in a battle near Ocracoke Island. North
Carolina’s Gov. Charles Eden and other officials
were thought to be sharing in his pirating profits.
SPANISH FLORIDA
9
A.
The Dividing Line – 1728
Four commissioners appointed by Gov. Richard
Everard of North Carolina worked with William Byrd II
and other Virginia representatives to “run the line”
and settle the long-running border dispute. They met
at Currituck inlet (A) and surveyed west 233 miles to
present-day Stokes County (B). To the surprise of
Virginia and the delight of North Carolina, a great deal
of Virginia was added to North Carolina.
Border shapes – 1730s
The funny little jag in the border
south of Charlotte is due to surveyors’
efforts to include the land of the Catawba
Indians inside South Carolina.
GEORGIA
No.
KY.
FRANKLIN
VA.
N.C.
TENN.
John Sevier, a g’s
hero of the Kin lutionary
Mountain Revolped form
War battle, he s
Franklin and wa r.
elected governo
King’s
Mountain
S.C.
GA.
THE M-FILES ONLINE: www.charlotte.com/2000/mfiles/
SOURCES: “North Carolina: A History;” “North Carolina: The History of a Southern State;” “South Carolina: One of the Fifty States;” N.C. Division of Archives and History
After the Revolutionary War,
N.C. settlers poured over the
mountains into what is now East
Tennessee. The settlers, feeling
disenfranchised from the rest of
North Carolina, broke away and
formed their own government.
They named it the State of
Franklin, after Benjamin
Franklin. But Congress refused
to recognize what would have
been the 14th state. The
would-be state collapsed and
in 1789 North Carolina gave
up its western territory, which
would become Tennessee.
Copyright © 1999 by The Charlotte Observer
NEXT WEEK: 1711 — The Tuscarora War
TM
WM PITZER/Staff