AMERICAN INFO.NET

INTRODUCTION

She's been called the Tar Heel state for centuries now... for so long in fact that no one remembers exactly why. The most widely held opinion has it that during a revolutionary battle one band of native sons refused to abandon the line when all else fled. A retreating soldier is supposed to have remarked, "Those Carolina boys... they stick like tar to the heel of a boot." Stubbornness was never one of her traits, those roots go further west, but loyalty and steadfastness always were. North Carolinians could always be counted on... to be North Carolinians.

The key to her unique personality lies of course, in the character of her land and in the heritage of her people; who they were when they arrived, the land they adapted to, and what happened here that changed them. British Islanders mostly... English, Irish, Scots, Welsh, with a sprinkling of Germans and other outlanders, these first settlers came seeking freedom and opportunity in wild and unfamiliar places; the long reaching and bountiful coasts, wide stretches of rolling farm land, the sheltering mountains of her far west. During their more than three hundred years of habitation, North Carolinians have both altered the landscape, and been converted by it. Yet much remains of the robust pioneering spirit which gave her birth, and of the land which nurtured her.

In size she ranks 29th among the states. In this as in so many other ways, she occupies the "middle ground", decisively so. Placed comfortably between the harsher climatic and cultural extremes of her frostier, more mercantile neighbors to the north, and the sultry, slower cadence of those in the deeper south; between the rugged imperatives of her western uplands and the beguiling temptations of her coastal slope... North Carolina seems almost to have studiously avoided the excessive. She's a moderate sort of place, in climate, in attitude, and in manner; her people congenial, tolerant, forgiving. She owns a reputation, even throughout the south, for gentility of custom and of "down home" friendliness to strangers.

But one extreme she has allowed herself: here, more than anywhere else, her citizens persist in clinging to their small-town past. A greater proportion of North Carolinians still reside in rural areas than do the residents of any other state. It is not seclusion they seek, for North Carolina is well known for her modern transportation networks and free-flowing culture, but rather a constant reminder of their connection to the land, as though it were a touchstone of their heritage. Indeed, fully 67% of her residents abide in towns of 2,500 persons or less, maintaining a link with small-town America largely abandoned elsewhere.

Whether because of her proximity to the more industrial north, or because of her own distinctive social and geographic prerogatives, North Carolina has also earned a traditional reputation as a progressive leader of the south. Her long list of firsts in the areas of social welfare and reform, education, commerce, as well as the arts and sciences, bears strong testimony of her commitment to the future. It is this uncommon mix of reverence for the land, remembrance of the past, and dedication to progress, which most sharply defines her. In it's most distinguishing sense, these North Carolinians "know who they are". They recognize in a most fundamental way their native blessings, their basic values, and will stick to their guns to protect them... like tar... to the heel of a boot.