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North carolina

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{{US state | Name = North Carolina | Fullname = State of North Carolina | Flag = Flag of North Carolina.svg| Flaglink = Flag of North Carolina | Seal = North Carolina state seal.png | Map = Map of USA highlighting North Carolina.png | Nickname = Tar Heel State; Old North State | Capital = Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh | LargestCity = Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte | Governor = Mike Easley (D)| Senators = Elizabeth Dole (R) Richard Burr (R) | PostalAbbreviation = NC | OfficialLang = English language English | AreaRank = 28^th | TotalArea = 139,509 | LandArea = 126,256 | WaterArea = 13,227 | PCWater = 9.5 | PopRank = 11^th | 2000Pop = 8,049,313 | DensityRank = 17^th | 2000Density = 63.80 | AdmittanceOrder = 12^th | AdmittanceDate = November 21, 1789 | TimeZone = Eastern Standard Time Zone Eastern: UTC-5/Daylight saving time -4 | Latitude = 34Â°N to 36Â°21'N | Longitude = 75Â°30'W to 84Â°15'W | Length = 240 | Width = 805 | HighestElev = 2,039 | MeanElev = 215 | LowestElev = (sea level) 0 | ISOCode = US-NC | Website = www.nc.gov }} '''North Carolina''' is a U.S. Southern States Southern U.S. state in the United States, also considered a Mid-Atlantic States Mid-Atlantic state in some cases. It is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. The state was originally named for King Charles I of England.

History

Native Americans and the Lost Colony
North Carolina was originally inhabited by a number of native peoples, including the Cherokee, Creek people Creek, Tuscarora (tribe) Tuscarora, Lumbee and Catawba (tribe) Catawba. North Carolina was the first American territory the England English attempted to colonize. Sir Walter Raleigh, for whom the state capital is named, chartered two colonies on the North Carolina (then Virginia) coast in the late 1580s, both ending in failure. The demise of one, the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island, remains one of the great mysteries of American history. Virginia Dare, the first English child to be born in North America, was born in North Carolina. Dare County, NC Dare County is named for her.

Colonial and Revolutionary War period
The first permanent European settlers of North Carolina were English people English colonists migrating south from Virginia, following a sharp decline in this colony's mortality rate and the subsequent shortage of available farmland. The earliest documented of these Virginians was Nathaniel Batts, who settled south of the Chowan River and east of the Great Dismal Swamp in 1655.{{ref|Fenn_24-25}} By 1663, this northeastern area of the Province of Carolina was experiencing full-scale English settlement.{{ref|Powell_105}} During the same period, the English monarch Charles II of England Charles II gifted the province to the Lords Proprietors, a group of noblemen who had helped restore Charles to the throne in 1660. In 1712, North Carolina became a separate colony. With the exception of the Earl Granville's holdings, it became a royal colony seventeen years later. According to legend, on May 20 1775, Mecklenburg County, NC Mecklenburg County became the first North Carolina county to declare its independence from Great Britain. On April 12 1776, the colony became the first to instruct its delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence from the British crown. The dates of both of these independence-related events are memorialized on the state flag and state seal. On November 21, 1789, North Carolina ratified the Constitution to become the twelfth state in the Union. It is one of the main reasons the United States Bill of Rights exists. NC refused to ratify the constitution until some sort of declaration of the peoples rights was added. The North Carolina Government received a letter from Continental Army General George Washington stating that this was a wonderful idea. Thus, the Bill of Rights was added to the United States Constitution.North Carolina worked to establish its state and local governments. In 1840, it completed the North Carolina State Capitol state capitol building in Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh, still standing today. In mid-century the state's rural and commercial areas were further connected by construction of a 129 mile (208 km) wooden plank road, known as a "farmer's railroad," from Fayetteville, North Carolina Fayetteville in the east to Bethania, North Carolina Bethania (northwest of Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem).

The Civil War
In 1860 North Carolina was a slave state. It refused to join the Confederate States of America Confederacy until Abraham Lincoln Lincoln called on it for troops to invade South Carolina. The state was the site of few battles but in the American Civil War Civil War it provided 281,205 troops to the Confederacy, more than any other Confederate state. Approximately 40,000 of those troops never returned home, dead of battlefield wounds, disease and privation. Governor Zebulon Baird Vance, elected in 1862, tried to maintain state autonomy against president Jefferson Davis in Richmond. The state's troops served in virtually all the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. The largest battle in the state was at Battle of Bentonville Bentonville, a futile attempt by Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston to slow Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman Sherman's advance into the Carolinas in the spring of 1865. Gen. Johnston surrendered one of the largest Confederate armies at Bennett Place, a farm house in what is now Durham, in late April 1865, weeks after Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. A small, integrated guerrilla force of white and Cherokee Confederates under William Holland Thomas continued fighting in the mountains until May 10. This unit, called the "Thomas Legion," was never actually defeated by Union troops; it had the odd distinction of capturing a city (Waynesville, North Carolina Waynesville) then voluntarily ceasing from hostilities. As in the other Southern states, Reconstruction proved to be a traumatic episode for North Carolina.

The 20th century and beyond
Today, North Carolina is home to Fort Bragg, North Carolina Fort Bragg, near Fayetteville; it is the largest and most comprehensive military base in the United States and is the headquarters of the XVIII Airborne Corps, U.S. 82nd Airborne Division 82nd Airborne Division, and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Next to Fort Bragg is Pope Air Force Base. North Carolina is also home to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune which, when combined with nearby Marine bases MCAS Cherry Point, Camp Geiger, Camp Johnson, Stone Bay and Courthouse Bay, makes up the largest concentration of Marines and sailors in the world. Over the past century, North Carolina has grown to become a national leader in agriculture, Banking financial services, and industry. The state's industrial output—mainly textiles, chemicals, electrical equipment, paper and paper products—ranked eighth in the nation in the early 1990s. Tobacco, one of North Carolina's earliest sources of revenue, remains vital to the local economy. Recently, technology, research, and banking have been on the rise, especially with the creation of the Research Triangle Park between Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina Durham in the 1950's, along with Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte's newfound status as the second largest banking center in the United States. The state is also a center of American motorsports with many NASCAR racing teams and related industries located near Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte. NASCAR recently announced that the NASCAR Hall of Fame will be built in Charlotte. In 2005, the state Legislature voted to implement a Lotteries in the United States state lottery, killing North Carolina's reputation as the "anti-lottery" state, where owning a lottery ticket, even from another state, was once a felony. The lottery began selling tickets March 31, 2006. North Carolina remains an Alcoholic beverage control state, although beer and wine can be sold by retailers. The USS North Carolina USS ''North Carolina'' was named in honor of this state.

State constitution
:''Main article: North Carolina Constitution'' North Carolina has had three constitutions: *1776: This one was ratified December 18, 1776, as the first constitution of the independent state. The Declaration of Rights was ratified the preceding day. *1868: This was framed in accordance with the Reconstruction Acts after North Carolina was readmitted into the Union. It was a major reorganization and modification of the original into fourteen articles. It also introduced Township (United States) townships which each county was required to create, the only Southern state to do so. *1971: This is a minor consolidation of the 1868 constitution and subsequent amendments.

Law and government
The governor, lieutenant governor, and eight elected department heads form the North Carolina Council of State. Ten other department heads appointed by the Governor form the North Carolina Cabinet. The state's current governor is United States Democratic Party Democrat Mike Easley. The governor's office is located on the first floor of the North Carolina State Capitol. ''See List of North Carolina Governors''The first governor of the state was Richard Caswell.

Legislative branch
The North Carolina General Assembly consists of two houses, a 50-member Senate and a 120-member House of Representatives. For the 2005–2006 session, the current President Pro Tempore of the Senate is United States Democratic Party Democrat Marc Basnight (the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina is the President of the Senate); The House Speaker is United States Democratic Party Democrat James B. Black. The prior term's power sharing Co-Speaker arrangement is no longer in effect, as the House Democrats won a decided victory and majority of the seats in the 2004 election.

Judicial branch
The Supreme Court of North Carolina is the state's highest appellate court; it numbers seven justices. The North Carolina Court of Appeals is the only intermediate appellate court in the state; it consists of fifteen judges who rule in rotating panels of three. Together, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals constitute the Appellate division of the court system. The Trial division includes the Superior Court and the District Court. All felony criminal cases, civil cases involving more than $10,000 and misdemeanor and infraction appeals from District Court are tried in Superior Court. A jury of 12 hears the criminal cases. In the civil cases, juries are often waived. Civil cases such as divorce, custody, child support and cases involving less than $10,000 are heard in District Court, along with criminal cases involving misdemeanors and infractions. The trial of a criminal case in District Court is always without a jury. The District Court also hears juvenile cases involving children under the age of 16 who are delinquent and children under the age of 18 who are undisciplined, dependent, neglected or abused. Magistrates accept guilty pleas for minor misdemeanors, accept guilty pleas for traffic violations, and accept waivers of trial for worthless-check cases among other things. In civil cases, the magistrate is authorized to try small claims involving up to $4,000 including landlord eviction cases.

Geography
Image:North carolina topographic.jpg right|thumb|400px|North Carolina topographic map North Carolina consists of three distinct geographic sections: the coastal plain, which occupies the eastern 45% of the state; the Piedmont region, which contains the middle 35%; and the Appalachian Mountains and foothills, which take up the remaining 20% of the state in the west. The coastal plain begins in the east as a chain of narrow, sandy barrier islands known as the "Outer Banks". The Outer Banks encompass two sounds — Albemarle Sound in the north and Pamlico Sound in the south; they are the two largest landlocked sounds in the United States. Inland the coastal plain is relatively flat, with rich soils which grow tobacco, soybeans, and cotton. The major rivers of this section, such as the Tar River and Cape Fear River, tend to be slow-moving and wide. Farther inland is the "fall line," a series of hills which mark the end of the coastal plain and the beginning of the Piedmont. The Piedmont region of central North Carolina is North Carolina's most urbanized and densely-populated region. It consists of gently rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low isolated mountain ridges. A number of small, deeply eroded mountain ranges and peaks are located in the Piedmont, including the Saura Mountains, Pilot Mountain (North Carolina) Pilot Mountain, the Uwharrie Mountains, Crowders and Kings Mountains, the Brushy Mountains, and the South Mountains. The Piedmont ranges from about 300-400 feet elevation in the east to over 1,000 feet in the west. The major rivers of the Piedmont, such as the Yadkin River Yadkin and Catawba River Catawba, tend to be fast-flowing, shallow, and narrow. The western section of the state contains the Appalachian Mountains. Among the subranges of the Appalachians located in the state are the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, Balsams, Pisgahs, and the Black Mountains. The Black Mountains are the highest mountains in the Eastern United States, and culminate in Mount Mitchell (North Carolina) Mount Mitchell (6,684 feet, 2,037 meters). It is the highest point east of the Mississippi River.

Economy
Image:wiki_northcarolina.jpg thumb|230px|Greetings from North Carolina According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the state's 2003 total gross state product was $314 billion. Its 2003 Per Capita Personal Income was $28,071, 38^th in the nation. North Carolina's agricultural outputs are poultry and Egg (food) eggs, tobacco, hogs, milk, nursery stock, cattle, and soybeans. Its industrial outputs are tobacco products, textile goods, chemical products, electric equipment, machinery, and tourism. However, North Carolina is the state most affected by outsourcing; one in five North Carolina manufacturing jobs has been lost to overseas competition.{{ref.html">Charlotte, the largest city in the state, is also the nation's largest banking presence outside of New York City. North Carolina is also one of the largest film making states outside of California. Movie studios are located in Shelby, Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, and the most popular, EUE Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington.html" title="Meaning of Fishman_179}} Wilmington">Wilmington,_North Carolina|Wilmington. Some of the films and television shows filmed there include: ''Dawson's Creek'', ''One Tree Hill (TV series) One Tree Hill'', ''Cape Fear'', ''Maximum Overdrive'' and ''The Crow''.

Demographics
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