North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The capital is Raleigh.
History
North Carolina was one of the original Thirteen Colonies, originally known as Carolina, and the home of the first English colony in the Americas. On 20 May 1861, it became the last of the Confederate states to secede from the Union, and was readmitted on 4 July 1868. It was also the location of the first successful manned powered heavier-than-air flight, by the Wright brothers, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk in 1903.
- ORIGIN OF STATE NAME: Named in honor of King Charles I of England (Carolus is Latin for Charles)
- NICKNAME: The Tarheel State; Old North State
- CAPITAL: Raleigh
- ENTERED UNION: 21 November 1789 (12th)
- SONG: "The Old North State"
- MOTTO: Esse quam videri (To be rather than to seem)
First flag (1861–1865)
North Carolina did not have an official state flag until the North Carolinian state constitutional convention of 1861. During this convention, delegates voted to join the Confederacy. They established a committee to come up with a flag. This flag was ratified by the convention on 22 June 1861. The flag consisted of a red field with a white star in the center. Inscribed above the star was the date 20 May 1775, the date of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Inscribed below the star in a semi-circular form was the date 20 May 1861, which was the date North Carolina declared it had seceded from the Union. The flag also contained two bars of equal width, one in blue and one in white. The design is similar to one suggested by Raleigh artist William G. Browne. During the American Civil War, secessionist leaders spoke of the Mecklenburg Declaration with reverence, attempting to connect it with the state's joining the Confederacy. Confederate leader Jefferson Davis spoke to a Charlotte crowd in September 1864, saying "people of this section were the first to defy British authority and declare themselves free" encouraging them to continue backing the Confederacy's civil war effort.
