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The North Carolina Experience: An Interpretive and Documentary History
This collection of nineteen original essays on selected topics and epochs in North Carolina history offers a broad survey of the state from its discovery and colonization to the present. Each chapter consists of an interpretive essay on a specific aspect of North Carolina's history, a collection of supporting documents, and a brief bibliography.
Selections cover historical periods ranging from Elizabethan to contemporary times and examine such issues as slavery, populism, civil rights, and the status of women. Essays address the tragedy of North Carolina's Indians, the state's role in the Revolutionary War and the Confederacy, and the impact of the Great Depression. North Carolina's place in the New South and evangelical culture in the state are also discussed.
Designed as a supplementary reader for the study and teaching of North Carolina history, The North Carolina Experience will introduce college students to the process of historical research and writing. It will also be a valuable resource in secondary schools, public libraries, and the homes of those interested in North Carolina history.
Selections cover historical periods ranging from Elizabethan to contemporary times and examine such issues as slavery, populism, civil rights, and the status of women. Essays address the tragedy of North Carolina's Indians, the state's role in the Revolutionary War and the Confederacy, and the impact of the Great Depression. North Carolina's place in the New South and evangelical culture in the state are also discussed.
Designed as a supplementary reader for the study and teaching of North Carolina history, The North Carolina Experience will introduce college students to the process of historical research and writing. It will also be a valuable resource in secondary schools, public libraries, and the homes of those interested in North Carolina history.
475 pages, Paperback
First published November 26, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 13, 2020
The structure of this book is original: Each chapter has an introduction, broadly describing what happened during a certain time period. This is then followed by original letters and documents.
This is a pretty effective way of going through North Carolina's history, at least for me. I was able to understand the general situation, and then read first-hand accounts of the goings-on (complete with original spelling, such as: "This towne is seated on ye river side, haveing ye clefts of ye river on ye one side..."). It does, however, seem to gloss over certain events for which there is little documentation. For example, the Tuscarora war is just mentioned several times in passing, remarking on how important it was, but it is never dealt with in detail.
The parts about slavery, the civil war, reconstruction, and civil rights were enlightening. I can never help wondering what bias, if any, there is, given how current these issues still are.
Some of my notes:
The treaty between the Cherokee and the United States (p. 21) was so blatantly not followed I am amazed. The treaty itself is almost equitable (the cherokee shall have a delegate to Congress, only the Cherokee who wish to leave need to. Those who leave will have all expenses covered, and a doctor shall accompany them, etc.) To think this was followed through with the trail of tears is mind-boggling.
North Carolina never produced a farming economy comparable to the plantation system of lowcountry South Carolina or tidewater Virginia, so its relationship to slavery was ambivalent, and it pretty much joined the civil war out of solidarity with its Southern neighbors (is this true?).
Nearly one-fourth of all conscripts in the southern army (21,348 men) came from North Carolina (p. 267)
Description of North Carolinians, 1865:
"Spindling of legs, round of shoulders, sunken of chest, lank of body, stooping of posture, narrow of face, retreating of forehead, thin of nose, small of chin, large of mouth, - this is the Native North Carolinian as one sees him outside the cities and large towns. [...]- the man who pays a tax and votes, but never runs for office; who was a private in the Rebel army, but never anything more; who hate the Yankees as a matter of course, but has no personal ill-will toward them; who believes in the Divine right of slavery, but is positive that a free negro cannot be made to work."
-Sidney Andrews (p.294)
This is a pretty effective way of going through North Carolina's history, at least for me. I was able to understand the general situation, and then read first-hand accounts of the goings-on (complete with original spelling, such as: "This towne is seated on ye river side, haveing ye clefts of ye river on ye one side..."). It does, however, seem to gloss over certain events for which there is little documentation. For example, the Tuscarora war is just mentioned several times in passing, remarking on how important it was, but it is never dealt with in detail.
The parts about slavery, the civil war, reconstruction, and civil rights were enlightening. I can never help wondering what bias, if any, there is, given how current these issues still are.
Some of my notes:
The treaty between the Cherokee and the United States (p. 21) was so blatantly not followed I am amazed. The treaty itself is almost equitable (the cherokee shall have a delegate to Congress, only the Cherokee who wish to leave need to. Those who leave will have all expenses covered, and a doctor shall accompany them, etc.) To think this was followed through with the trail of tears is mind-boggling.
North Carolina never produced a farming economy comparable to the plantation system of lowcountry South Carolina or tidewater Virginia, so its relationship to slavery was ambivalent, and it pretty much joined the civil war out of solidarity with its Southern neighbors (is this true?).
Nearly one-fourth of all conscripts in the southern army (21,348 men) came from North Carolina (p. 267)
Description of North Carolinians, 1865:
"Spindling of legs, round of shoulders, sunken of chest, lank of body, stooping of posture, narrow of face, retreating of forehead, thin of nose, small of chin, large of mouth, - this is the Native North Carolinian as one sees him outside the cities and large towns. [...]- the man who pays a tax and votes, but never runs for office; who was a private in the Rebel army, but never anything more; who hate the Yankees as a matter of course, but has no personal ill-will toward them; who believes in the Divine right of slavery, but is positive that a free negro cannot be made to work."
-Sidney Andrews (p.294)
December 10, 2012
Okay, this book isn't actually a "snoozefest" so far, but some of the primary sources are so difficult to read (I am not accustomed to the written English of people from the 1600s) that, despite the interesting content, I am having a hard time powering through my assigned readings. I hope that as we move chronologically the readings will become easier to read through.
Update: So the book actually has essays by various authors (which I didn't realize right away, because I'm not very observant) introducing each section of primary documents, and those are quite interesting to read because they usually offer a more detailed analysis of whatever event than the broad-overview-style textbook we also read. Some of the essays also offered a different perspective from the other textbook, which was interesting from a historiographical point of view. However, some of the essays were also slightly revisionist (e.g. "the National Guard was called in to keep order and prevent deaths" at a strike, although in actuality several strikers were murdered in the course of events--that's kind of a massive thing to erase), which I didn't appreciate.
The primary source documents, as you move through the book and they become easier to read, are a really fantastic resource to gauge various perspectives on different events (i.e. not just the same old quotes from the wealthy elites that made it into the history books by name).
Update: So the book actually has essays by various authors (which I didn't realize right away, because I'm not very observant) introducing each section of primary documents, and those are quite interesting to read because they usually offer a more detailed analysis of whatever event than the broad-overview-style textbook we also read. Some of the essays also offered a different perspective from the other textbook, which was interesting from a historiographical point of view. However, some of the essays were also slightly revisionist (e.g. "the National Guard was called in to keep order and prevent deaths" at a strike, although in actuality several strikers were murdered in the course of events--that's kind of a massive thing to erase), which I didn't appreciate.
The primary source documents, as you move through the book and they become easier to read, are a really fantastic resource to gauge various perspectives on different events (i.e. not just the same old quotes from the wealthy elites that made it into the history books by name).
June 24, 2015
I found this book to be helpful in bringing multiple perspectives to a subject that I was simultaneously reading about from a simple, historical view in North Carolina: Change and Tradition in a Southern State. The source documents really allow a great level of depth and add an element of realism to the lofty political discussion of the times. I highly recommend the reading combination I've outlined above (with Link's book) with both books following a similar chronology.
November 26, 2016
Some of the primary sources are interesting but the introductory essays, oh my word. So glad it is over.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews