The 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission has just released a draft of its report on the violent uprising that ravaged Wilmington’s African American community in November 1898. The Commission was organized under legislation sponsored by two Wilmington legislators and charged with examining and reporting on what is now widely acknowledged to be the only coup d’etat in American history. Today’s Raleigh News & Observer and Wilmington Star-News have stories about the report’s findings.
N.C. Christmas Trees
An alert reader pointed out that in yesterday’s post we neglected to mention another agricultural product in which North Carolina is among the national leaders: Christmas trees. Indeed, the National Christmas Tree Association confirms that as of 2002 North Carolina was second in the nation in tree production, trailing only Oregon. If North Carolina is going to take the top spot, there’s a lot of catching up to do: in 2002 Oregon harvested nearly three and a half million more trees than North Carolina.
Although North Carolina does not produce the most Christmas trees, the state may have come up with this year’s most prominent one. The 2005 White House Christmas tree (pictured here) is an 18.5 foot Fraser Fir from a farm in Laurel Springs, N.C.
We’re Number One!
We’d heard recently that North Carolina produced more sweet potatoes than any other state. The North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission is justly proud (see their website to join the NC Sweet Potato recipe club). This had us wondering whether there were other crops and agricultural products in which North Carolina led the nation. We checked the website for the National Agriculture Statistics Service and found that, as of 2001, we ranked first in turkeys and tobacco. North Carolina was second in hog production (behind Iowa), and a distant third in strawberries (behind California and Florida).
BBQ Lit
We try to acquire all of the latest barbecue literature, and have just received a copy of Wilber W. Caldwell’s Searching for the Dixie Barbecue: Journeys Into the Southern Psyche (Pineapple Pres, 2005).
The restaurants Caldwell visits are primarily in Georgia and Alabama, but there is a short discussion of the Red Pig Barbecue in Concord, N.C. We admire Caldwell’s scientific approach to his subject. In a comprehensive side dish survey of fifty restaurants, he found that the dishes that most commonly accompany barbecue are cole slaw, baked beans, and potato salad. At the bottom of the list we find rice, apple sauce, greens, and black-eyed peas. The numerical approach returns in the appendix which includes a “Funk Factor Rating Guide.” Searching for the Dixie Barbecue is nicely illustrated with black and white photographs of restaurants throughout the South.
North Carolina Festival for the Book
The schedule for the North Carolina Festival for the Book, coming to Duke this spring, is an impressive one. The festival, formerly the North Carolina Literary Festival, is a biennial event that rotates between Duke, North Carolina State, and UNC. The four-day event highlights North Carolina authors and readers, but will also bring in nationally-known writers including Tom Wolfe, Barbara Kingsolver, Pat Conroy, and Roy Blount, Jr.
Egg Nog
This holiday season, don’t settle for store-bought egg nog. Make your own, the way they used to in eighteenth-century North Carolina. We found this recipe in William Attmore’s Journal of a Tour to North Carolina, 1787 (James Sprunt Historical Publications vol. 17 no. 2., 1922, pp. 42-43):
Tuesday, December 25. This Morning according to North Carolina custom we had before Breakfast, a drink of EGG NOG, this compound is made in the following manner: In two clean Quart Bowls, were divided the Yolks and whites of five Eggs, the yolks & whites separated, the Yolks beat up with a Spoon, and mixt up with brown Sugar, the whites were whisk’d into Froth by a Straw Whisk till the Straw wou’d stand upright in it; when duly beat, the Yolks were put to the Froth; again beat a long time; then half a pint of Rum pour’d slowly into the mixture, the whole kept stirring the whole time till well incorporated.
Presidents in Kernersville
Most of the media reports of President Bush’s speech yesterday in Kernersville noted that it was the first presidential visit in the town since George Washington passed through in 1791.
Washington visited North Carolina on his tour of the southern states in the spring and summer of 1791, as part of his plan to visit every state in the union during his term in office. We know about his visit to Kernersville from an entry in his diary for June 2, 1791. Washington’s party was traveling from Salem, where he had spent several days, to Guilford, where he was to visit the site of the Revolutionary War battle of Guilford Courthouse. Washington wrote,
“In company with the Govr. I set out by 4 Oclock for Guilford — Breakfasted at one Dobsons at the distance of eleven Miles from Salem . . . .”
The “one Dobson’s” was Dobson’s tavern, located at Dobson’s crossroads, at the site of what would later become the town of Kernersville (incorporated 1871). Sadly, there is no mention in the diary of what was served.
December 18, 1776: North Carolina Constitution
This Month in North Carolina History
News that the American colonies had declared independence from Great Britain finally reached North Carolina on July 22, 1776. One of the first orders of business in the newly independent state was the writing of a constitution. Elections for the Provincial Congress were held in October and, once elected, the representatives met in Halifax. Several states had already adopted constitutions, and North Carolina looked to these as examples. The legislators also examined the English Declaration of Rights and wrote to John Adams for advice. Rather than go through the lengthy and uncertain process of submitting the document to the voters, the representatives agreed that once they approved the final draft, it would be enacted. On December 18, 1776, North Carolina had its first constitution.
The 1776 North Carolina Constitution has many elements that will seem familiar to North Carolinians today. The Constitution opens with a Declaration of Rights, containing twenty-five guarantees of personal freedom that anticipate the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution and many of which are present in similar form in the current state constitution. The first North Carolina constitution also presents a familiar form of government, with a governor and a bicameral legislature.
However, there are several sections that differ significantly from current practice. The most notable of these were the property requirements for officeholders and voters. In order to be eligible for the Senate, members had to own at least three hundred acres of land in the county they sought to represent; candidates for the House of Commons were required to own one hundred acres; and voters were required to own at least fifty acres to be eligible to cast a ballot for a senator.
Under the 1776 constitution, most of the power was vested in the General Assembly. Governors were chosen by the legislature, served only a one-year term, and were not eligible to serve more than three terms in a six year period. Legislators were appointed by county (with a few assigned to specific towns), without regard to population. This vested a disproportionate amount of influence in the eastern part of the state, which had many small counties, even though the western counties began to increase steadily in population.
The 1776 constitution was effective in establishing an independent government in North Carolina and guaranteeing individual liberties for its citizens. Yet under this document, the state remained in the control of a small group of primarily eastern elites. North Carolina grew slowly, on its way to earning the nickname “The Rip Van Winkle State” in the early nineteenth century. By overlooking many of the demands of its less prosperous citizens, North Carolina saw a widespread emigration and was finally forced to draft a more egalitarian constitution. The state passed a series of amendments in 1835 that changed to a system of representation that was determined by population and allowed for the popular election of the governor. It was not until after the Civil War, in 1868, when North Carolina finally adopted a constitution that did not include property requirements for officeholders.
Sources:
William S. Powell, North Carolina Through Four Centuries. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.
John L. Sanders, “A Brief History of the Constitutions of North Carolina.” In North Carolina Government 1585-1979: A Narrative and Statistical History. Raleigh: North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State, 1981.
“Constitution of North Carolina: 18 December 1776.” Avalon Project, Yale Law School, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/nc07.htm
Image Source:
The Constitution, or Form of Government, Agreed to, and Resolved Upon, by the Representatives of the Freemen of the State of North Carolina. Philadelphia: Printed by F. Bailey, 1779.
Our First State Constitution
The December This Month in North Carolina History feature looks at North Carolina’s first state constitution, adopted on December 18, 1776.
Chicken Dispute
As a service to our readers, we want to point out that the North Carolina General Assembly has just amended the state law on cockfighting. As of today, “[a] person who instigates, promotes, conducts, is employed at, allows property under his ownership or control to be used for, participates as a spectator at, or profits from an exhibition featuring the fighting of a cock is guilty of a Class I felony.” Previously, guilty persons were charged only with a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Long gone are the days when the fighting cocks of North Carolina were a matter of state pride. In B.W.C. Roberts’s article, “Cockfighting: An Early Entertainment in North Carolina” (North Carolina Historical Review, July 1965), we learned about the great battle between North Carolina and South Carolina in Wilmington in 1896. At the three-day match, called a “main,” the North Carolina cocks prevailed, nine to three. We checked the Wilmington Morning Star for May 8, 1896, to see how much attention the fights received in the local press. It was indeed front page news, though it warranted only a single, somewhat droll paragraph under the “Local Dots” section:
“A chicken dispute has been going on for the past three days about a half mile from the city limits on the Princess Street road, between North Carolina and South Carolina, the North Carolina birds winning the main.”