Greensboro, North Carolina

“ The great success of this institution has led the citizens of other towns in the State to establish schools of like character. There are now to be found flourishing graded schools at Salisbury, Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Wilson, Greensboro, Charlotte, Wilmington, New Bern, Rocky Mount and Franklinton. Several towns also contain excellent schools of this description for the colored people, and their effectiveness is rapidly becoming apparent. ”

“ This institution was established at Raleigh, in 1842, under the patronage of Bishop Ives and the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Rev. Dr. Aldert Smedes, who soon presided over its fortunes, was singularly fitted for such place; for in no other institution in America was intellectual training more largely supplemented by the moral and social graces. These popular institutions were soon reinforced by the excellent Methodist Female College at Greensboro. ”

“ The ink was hardly dry on the document when news came of the surrender of Lee's army, and that the Federal cavalry was pushing southward west of Danville. So the Confederate government again hastily packed its archives and moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where its headquarters were prudently kept on the train at the depot. Here Mr. Davis sent for Generals Johnston and Beauregard, and a conference took place between them and the members of the fleeing government—a conference not unmixed with embarrassment, since Mr. ”

“ General Moore's strategy was brilliant in conception and daring in execution; but no strategy, however brilliant, and no courage however daring, would have availed anything had not North Carolina been prepared to put promptly in the field troops with the necessary munitions of war. These troops that took part in the campaign came some from above Greensboro in the west and others below New Bern in the east. Infantry, artillery and mounted troops were all engaged, and everything went on as smoothly as if the province had never known anything about war. ”

“ The Boat would take you from there to the bluff an' then you would have to catch the train to go to Greensboro, and other places in No'th Carolina.
"I remember when the Fourth Street Fire Department bell was in front of the City Hall. An' Mr. Maginny had his school right back of the City Hall.
"I believe we was all happy as slaves because we [Pg 7] had the best of kere (care) . I don't believe none of us was sold off because I never heard tell of it. I have always served nice folks an' never 'sociated with any other kind. ”

“ N.W. of the city, where there is now a Battle-Ground Park of 100 acres (including Lake Wilfong) ; this park contains a Revolutionary museum, and twenty-nine monuments, including a Colonial Column, an arch (1906) in memory of Brig.-General Francis Nash (1720–1777) , of North Carolina, who died in October 1777 of wounds received at Germantown, and Davidson Arch (1905) , in honour of William Lee Davidson (1746–1781) , a brigadier-general of North Carolina troops, who was killed at Catawba and in whose honour Davidson College, at Davidson, N.C., was named. ”

“ Yet if collected together they would form a considerable volume; and if we consider their contents they give a high idea of the intellect which could find its relaxation in such labors. The dominant feeling of his life was loyalty to the State and her institutions; hence the subjects usually selected by him were drawn from her history.
Among these was a lecture delivered at Greensboro, in 1860. The citizens of that section of country, of which Greensboro is the centre, contemplated the erection of a monument to commemorate the services of General Greene in the Revolutionary struggle. ”

“ When the county town of Westmoreland (Hannastown) was burned by the Indians in 1783, one of this family distinguished himself by saving the lives of the women and children. After the burning of that place, the name of the town was changed to Greensburg, and a new location selected on land donated by William Jack, who had become quite wealthy, and one of the Associate Judges of Westmoreland county. He had five sons, four of whom died bachelors; the elder married, but none of his descendants are now (1876) living, except a grand-son, (William Jack,) who resides near Greensburg, Pa. ”

“ By way of contrast to the Hillsboro town plan, Figure 5 is a drawing of Grenoble, a medieval French city. This drawing is reproduced from The Culture of Cities, by Lewis Mumford. The winding streets are natural paths that have become fixed as streets. Some curving streets mark the location of early town walls, removed as the town grew and as larger encircling walls were erected. ”

“ Goldsboro has representative posts of all of the popular fraternal organizations, a Rotary and a Kiwanis Club, and a well organized Womans' Club with over four hundred active workers devoting their time to civic development; a Chamber of Commerce composed of all of the business and industrial man-power of the city devoting their entire time to the commercial, industrial and social growth of Goldsboro. ”

“ In the town of New Berne, within the rude triangle formed by the rivers Neuse and Trent on two sides, and our line of fortifications on the other, are 6,560 colored people. The town contained in 1860, 5,482 inhabitants, white and colored. Nearly the whole of the white population abandoned the place before our army entered it. The most valuable, active, and useful of the slaves were compelled to accompany their masters.
But the free blacks generally remained, not having the fear of "the Yankees" before their eyes. They are all self-supporting. ”

“ Greensboro was founded and became the county-seat in 1808, was organized as a town in 1829, and was first chartered as a city in 1870.
↑ One of the first cotton mills in the South and probably the first in this state was established at Greensboro in 1832. It closed about 20 years afterwards, and in 1889 new mills were built. Three very large mills were built in the decade after 1895, and three mill villages, Proximity, Revolution and White Oak, named from these three mills, lie immediately N. of the city; in 1908 their population was estimated at 8000. ”

“ W. of Greensboro is Guilford College (co-educational; Friends) , founded as “New Garden Boarding School” in 1837 and rechartered under its present name in 1888. Greensboro has a Carnegie library, St Leo hospital and a large auditorium. It is the shipping-point for an agricultural, lumbering and trucking region, among whose products Indian corn, tobacco and cotton are especially important; is an important insurance centre; has a large wholesale trade ”

“ The majority of his followers, who were little better than highway robbers, had gathered to his standard as the best representative of the king in North Carolina, after the defeat at Moore's Creek.
There is not and never has been a Willisborough in North Carolina. There is a Williamsboro in Granville county, but has never been the seat of government even for a few days. Hillsboro, practically, was the capital in 1781.
The nearest to an organization of Highlanders, after Moore's Creek, was Hamilton's Loyal North Carolina regiment; but this was made up of refugees from over all the state. ”

“ Cotton was very little grown in that region of the State, and no market for its sale had even existed nearer than Norfolk and Petersburg.
8. But this state of things was not to continue. Numbers of young men, combining great energy and judgment with small capital, came to the city and began the work of expanding its trade and resources. It has not, like Durham, risen up in a few years from almost nothing, but so great a change has been wrought, that the story of its growth is one of the most striking incidents in the State's history. ”

“ He was shortly followed in death by William Hooper and Archibald Maclaine. Willie Jones had retired from public life; and thus, four most conspicuous leaders almost simultaneously disappeared from public life.
4. Colonel William R. Davie, of Halifax, John Haywood, of the same county, and Alfred Moore, of Brunswick, were greatly influential, and were worthy successors of the older servants of the public who had been thus removed from the arena of their former usefulness. Governor Johnston having been elected United States Senator, was succeeded as Governor by Alexander Martin. ”

“ If the pay of colored soldiers had been more promptly given them, they would have provided food for their families. Indeed it would have been a great saving to the government to have made more frequent settlements with its colored employés, for so long as they had no cash in hand, they had no means of living, and must be helped as a charity.
After Gen. Sherman had arrived at Goldsboro', and opened the eastern gates of the Old North State, it was wonderful to see how the dark tide of population rolled into the sea-board towns. ”

“ Ever since the close of the late war, the colored people of North Carolina have shown a remarkable unanimity in their efforts to procure education for themselves and their children. In this desire they have been nobly aided by the white men and women, and their progress has been rapid. It is the belief of all that only in enlightened public sentiment can safety be found for our peace and liberties; and thus the State is doing all that can be effected for the culture and mental improvement of all classes of its population. ”

“ Sloping in a long, gradual sweep of undulating hills and valleys, overspread with the silver network of her myriad streams, from her lofty green-bannered battlements, erected by God, down to her shifting shore, where Hatteras lies in wait for her enemies by sea, North Carolina spreads out the peaceful lap of her bounteous land for her children and for all who cherish her. ”

“ The State of Vermont originated in the same way; and it is fortunate that such precedents have long since ceased in America. There is some limit to the doctrine of the people's right to self-government, just as liberty is not to be found in mere license.
QUESTIONS. 1. What matters occupied the attention of the people in North Carolina after the Revolution? How were some men disposed to view the new plan of government?
2. What was the opinion of Samuel Johnston? What had been provided for in the Halifax Constitution?
3. What private schools were in operation, and where were they? ”

“ The planters of Albemarle were men led to the choice of their residence from a hatred of restraint. Are there any who doubt man's capacity for self-government? Let them study the history of North Carolina. Its inhabitants were restless and turbulent in their imperfect submission to a government imposed from abroad; the administration of the colony was firm, humane, and tranquil when they were left to take care of themselves. Any government but one of their own institution was oppressive. North Carolina was settled by the freest of the free. ”

“ Only the General Assembly shall have the power to classify property for taxation, which power shall be exercised only on a State-wide basis and shall not be delegated. No class of property shall be taxed except by uniform rule, and every classification shall be made by general law uniformly applicable in every county, city and town, and other unit of local government. ”

“ In just a half century the iron lines, beginning at the sea, have reached and pierced the mountain barriers of Western North Carolina. From State to State rush the tireless ministers of our wealth and pleasure. Instead of the wagon toiling slowly in the rear of weary axemen, we see the long and well-appointed railroad train sweep by with the speed of the hurricane, bearing the wealth of States, and doing more in the course of twenty-four hours to diffuse civilization and luxury than our ancestors could have accomplished in as many years. ”

“ The Convention at Hillsboro limited the seat of the State government to some point in Wake county. The capital had been migrating from town to town for nearly the whole period of North Carolina's existence. The Legislature also passed a bill creating the University of North Carolina, and the terms of the Halifax Constitution, as to popular education, were thus first put into some shape of accomplishment. ”

“ The skill in self-government of the isolated people beyond the mountains, and the ability they had already demonstrated in the organization of "associations," received a strong stimulus on June 2, 1784, when the legislature of North Carolina ceded to the Congress of the United States the title which that state 311 possessed to the land west of the Alleghanies. Among the terms of the Cession Act were these conditions: that the ceded territory should be formed into a separate state or states ”

“ In a word, every function of government was from that time exercised in the name and by the authority of the people of North Carolina. Virtually the province was under martial law, but it was under martial law self-imposed.
8. It is evident that the men who constituted the Hillsboro, or third Provincial Congress, knew perfectly well what they were doing, and had fully counted the cost. Success meant freedom, and would make them patriots; failure meant abject submission to a foreign government, and would make them traitors. ”

“ It can hardly be realized amid the present luxuries and enjoyments of the American people, what dangers and privations were encountered by the white settlers in North Carolina two hundred years ago; for while now thronging cities, teeming fields and busy highways of a people numbering many millions cover the land, then cruel and crafty Indians, always hostile at heart to the tread of the white man, surrounded the defenceless homes of the scattered colonists and filled the great forest stretching three thousand miles toward the setting sun. ”