Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

You are here

Home

History Timeline

1712 - Carolina Divides

May 9, 1712 - The center of government is in Charleston, inaccessible to people in the colony's northern and western parts. In addition, legislation designed to recognize the Church of England as the established church creates a division between the Anglicans on one side and on the other the Presbyterians and the Quakers thus increasing political tensions in the state. To solve these problems, the Lords Proprietors divide the colony in two: North and South Carolina. Edward Hyde (1667-1712) becomes the first governor of the newly formed colony of North Carolina.

Date of Event:

1755 - Great Wagon Road

Northern colonies in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia are becoming crowded, and settlers move south to North Carolina. They follow Thomas Spratt's route, now called the great wagon road. Many of the families seek religious and economic freedom. Some have come from Germany. Others come from Scotland via Ireland; they become known as the Scots-Irish.

Date of Event:

1775 - Crown's Strong Arm

August 1775 - It becomes clear that no solution is possible for the bitter disagreements between the American colonists and the rulers in their homeland. The British monarchy sends 20,000 Hessian soldiers to America. But these men from Germany are not fighting because they are loyal to Britain -- they are soldiers who are paid to fight, called mercenaries.

Date of Event:

1715 - Economic Beginnings

Trading becomes more important as natives and settlers learn to live together. Indians are expert hunters, and offer animal furs or skins, along with the pottery they make. Settlers bring metal tools and fine cloth to trade. But fighting breaks out when some Catawba and Yamassee Indians think they are treated unfairly by the settlers.

Date of Event:

1758 - Religion and Revolution

January, 1759 - Families who settle near each other hope to attract a preacher for their new communities. The outspoken Rev. Alexander Craighead moves from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to what will soon become Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Craighead is active in the Independence Movement, which encourages worshipers to resist control by the British rulers.

Date of Event:

1775 - Mecklenburg Militia

May 19, 1775 - Colonel Thomas Polk is leader of Mecklenburg's citizen army, called a militia. He has asked citizens to send representatives to meet at the Charlotte courthouse. They are planning ways to protect their freedom from British rule when a messenger arrives with news of the battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. Furious, the citizens decide to cut all ties with Britain.

Date of Event:

1729 - Royal Colony

The Proprietors (with the exception of the Earl of Granville) sell their shares to the Crown, and North Carolina becomes a royal colony. The governor is now appointed directly by the King.

Date of Event:

1759 - A Child Called Peter

A contagious and deadly disease called smallpox leaves Peter Harris an orphan. The Catawba Indian boy is welcomed into Thomas Spratt's home in Charlotte. Harris will remain close with his adoptive white family throughout his life. He will fight for the Americans during the Revolutionary War, and be buried in Spratt's family graveyard when he dies.

Date of Event:

1775 - The Shot

April 18, 1775 - The British are angry at the American colonists who defy orders to follow the monarchy's laws. Paul Revere rides his horse through the countryside and warns the minutemen, who were ready to fight at a moment's notice, that the British are coming. British soldiers called redcoats because of their uniforms, fire upon colonists gathered at the village green in Lexington, Massachusetts. The Revolutionary War has begun. 

Date of Event:

1763 - Chief of the Catawbans

Since beginning his rule in 1750, Catawba Chief Hagler has been a respected leader. He is known for working to keep alive the tribe's traditions while striving to live peacefully with the white settlers. Returning from a meeting where he had spoken on behalf of his people, Chief Hagler is killed by a Shawnee war party.

Date of Event: