Changes in NC Since Statehood

Nicole Davis

What is Statehood?

• Statehood is the status of becoming a state of the U.S

Before Statehood

• People lived on farms and grew their own food

• Capital was in New Bern

• Women cooked and sewed

• Children learned trades.

Becoming a State

• NC became a state on November 21, 1789

• It was the 12th of the original 13 colonies

• In 1794, Raleigh became the capital

• which was named after Sr. Walter Raleigh.

Transportation

Steamboats

• Steamboats are watercrafts that use steam for power. A turbine or a paddlewheel is pushed by the steam to make it go. A steamboat is used in smaller bodies of water such as, streams and rivers and steamships are used in the ocean.

• Steamboats first appeared in NC waters in 1812.

• They played a significant role in transporting goods into the inland in the 1800s

• Transportation of goods was mainly done by steamboats on waterways, rivers, streams, and by sea before the developing of roads, railroads, and airplanes.

Railroad

• Wilmington & Raleigh Railroad was the first NC railroad in 1834.

• North Carolina was one of the first states to have railroads.

• They were the most efficient way to travel.

• In 1840, the 161 mile railroad from Wilmington to Weldon was the world’s longest

• Today, there is 3,360 miles of railroad in NC.

Wilmington to Weldon

Experimental Railroad

• Experimental railroads were horse-drawn carts on the rails.

• There were 2 in NC, Raleigh and Fayetteville.

Horse and Buggy

• Primary mode of transportation, especially between 1815 & 1915

• The upper middle class and farmers used buggies and the rich used elegant 4-wheel carriages for local use.

• Today, horse and buggy is still used by the Amish

Automobiles

• In 1898, the first automobile began appearing in NC.

• The early automobiles were called horseless carriage or buggies.

Automobiles

• In New Bern, Gilbert S. Waters built an original horseless carriage by putting an engine in a buggy in 1900.

• By 1910, there were an estimated 2,400 automobiles in NC

With advances in technology, automobiles have greatly transformed over the years.

1900 1910 1920

1950 1980 2000

Plank Roads • Plank roads are wooden roads

used over rough dirt roads.

• They were used in the mid 1800s.

• In 1850, there were 500 miles of plank roads in NC.

• Companies placed toll houses along the road to help pay for the construction.

• Plank roads didn’t last long because people took alternate routes around the toll houses and there wasn’t enough money to fix them, more people traveled by train, many were destroyed in the Civil War.

Airplanes

• On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright accomplished the first sustained powered airplane flight in Kill Devil Hills.

• The airplane is not only an important invention in North Carolina, but in the world.

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• Traveling by plane is a lot faster than traveling by a horse, train, boat, or car

Population

Population Growth

• The advances in transportation had a great impact on population.

• Before statehood, NC was mostly a rural state with very small towns.

• In the mid-1800s, NC residents migrated from the coastal plains to the western part of the state.

• Before the Civil War in 1861, there were only four towns totaling about 2,500 people.

• After the Civil War ended in 1865, population quickly increased because immigration increased.

• There were over 40 towns by 1910.

Population Growth

• Population increased because there were fewer deaths.

• Population on farms in rural areas decreased because people were moving to the cities.

• People were moving from the farms to the cities because they wanted to have neighbors close by and they wanted to work in factories.

• Small villages began increasing in every county.

• Villages started near major bridges, railroads, and useful river landings.

Mill Towns

• Mill towns began developing along rivers.

• Mill towns were family owned mills that were built near rivers as a source of energy.

• People would move near these mills for work.

• Rocky Mount Mills is located on the Tar River, beside battle Park.

• Rocky Mount Mills was one of the fist cotton mills in NC. Started operating in 1820.

• The mill built small simple mill houses for the employees.

• The mill closed in 1996, due to the decline in the southern textile industry.

Rocky Mount Cotton Mills

Land Use

• As people moved from farms to the cities to work in factories, farm land turns into shopping centers, neighborhoods, and more factories.

• People came to North Carolina from Virginia in search of new land to grow tobacco.

• In 1860 there were 67,000 farms and in 1900 there were 224,637 farms in NC.

• In 2011, there were only 50,400 farms.

Technology

Changes in Technology

• Technology has had a huge impact on the changes in NC.

• Without technology, people wouldn’t have known how to use steam for power and transportation and communication would not be how it is today. As technology advances so does everything else.

Communication

• Before statehood there was not many ways for people to communicate.

• When people first came to North Carolina, letters were the only form of communication, but it could take weeks for the letters to be delivered.

• The mail system began in the 1600s. It was carried by friends, merchants, and Native Americans.

• In the 1800s, postal systems were often run by a local citizen out of his home and traveled by horse.

Telegraph

• The first telegraph in America was created in 1844 by Samuel Morse.

• It was the first form of communication that could be sent from a great distance.

• The telegraph was the best way to communicate in the mid 1800s because it was the fastest way to communicate.

• Telegraphs used a dash and dot code to send messages.

• The code was called Mores Code

Telephone

• The telephone and the telegraph were very similar, but using Morse Code you were only able to receive and send one message at a time.

• Alexander Bell introduced the telephone in 1876.

• He discovered human voices could be transmitted over a wire by using electricity when experimenting with the telegraph.

• The telephone did not become popular in households until the late 1800s because most of the area didn’t have the wiring to provide service.

Technology Impacts

Global Awareness Through….• Radio & Television

• Radio was developed in the early 1900s. People listened to the radio to learn about what was going on in the rest of the country. It wasn’t until the mid 1900s that radios were used as musical entertainment.

• In the early 1900s, the electronic television was invented. It wasn’t until the mid 1900s that TVs became a “must have”.

Technology Improves

• Business opportunities & Health care

• With technology advancing and things becoming more developed it increased more business opportunities because more job openings.

• Heath care was improving because there were advances in medicines.