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- Nickname(s): Tar Heel State; Old North State
- Motto(s): Esse quam videri: "To be, rather than to seem" (official); First in Flight
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Spanish colonial forces were the first Europeans to make a permanent settlement in the area, when the Juan Pardo-led expedition built Fort San Juan in 1567.
North Carolina became one of the English Thirteen Colonies and with the territory of South Carolina, was originally known as the Province of Carolina. The northern and southern parts of the original Province separated in 1729.
Originally settled by small farmers, sometimes having a few slaves, who were oriented toward subsistence agriculture, the colony lacked cities or towns. Pirates menaced the coastal settlements but by 1718 the pirates had been captured and killed.
Growth was strong in the middle of the 18th century, as the economy attracted Scots-Irish, Quaker, English and German immigrants. The colonists generally supported the American Revolution, as the number of Loyalists was smaller than in some other colonies.
On May 20, 1861, North Carolina was the last of the Confederate states to declare secession from the Union, 13 days after the Tennessee legislature voted for secession.