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Charlotte, North Carolina: A Brief History
Founded in 1768 at the crossing of two Indian trails, Charlotte has a rich heritage to match its age. Hear the personal voices of discovery, hardship, wars, privation, segregation and achievement from village to boomtown.
In this extensively researched volume, accomplished author and historian Mary Kratt chronicles the history of Charlotte from the earliest Catawba inhabitants to the development of finance, culture and transportation, still centered on those ancient crossroads. Whether detailing the cotton fields and textile mills of yesterday or the banking center of tomorrow, Kratt's account is a fascinating history of the people who have made Charlotte a queen among southern cities.
In this extensively researched volume, accomplished author and historian Mary Kratt chronicles the history of Charlotte from the earliest Catawba inhabitants to the development of finance, culture and transportation, still centered on those ancient crossroads. Whether detailing the cotton fields and textile mills of yesterday or the banking center of tomorrow, Kratt's account is a fascinating history of the people who have made Charlotte a queen among southern cities.
- GenresHistory
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 4, 2009
Mediocre writing and mediocre history--I was pretty disappointed in this book. (I rarely give something two stars!) I did learn some neat facts about Charlotte history. Discovering Camp Greene Street three days after finishing the book, and being able to connect this street to the Camp Greene that existed as a tent city for thousands of soldiers during World War I, made my day. However, especially towards the end, the book focused on big business and sports teams and read like it had been lifted from a City Council promotional website. By the final pages, I was wincing at the obsequious tone. It ultimately glossed over major social movements and ignored many of the neighborhoods and much of the cultural history and change that interests me most.
"On a Saturday in spring, something involuntary causes people of the Piedmont to buy azaleas when they intended only milk or bagels."
This book is worth a skim but isn't a super read.
"On a Saturday in spring, something involuntary causes people of the Piedmont to buy azaleas when they intended only milk or bagels."
This book is worth a skim but isn't a super read.
November 18, 2013
A wonderful book about the history of Charlotte, NC. I have lived in Charlotte now for over 30 years. A lot of the information in the book I already knew, but many facts I did not know. The following quote from the book I thought was fascinating:
As soon as the predominantly Scots-Irish settlers built their early one-room cabins, they moved their modest goods from the wagons, where they had camped in the interim. Their next concern was always a church. Until the families had a building, they convened in an agreed-upon central spot for preaching - a home, a grove of trees or beneath a large, patriarchal oak, their horses hitched to saplings and their lunches tucked under the wagon seats.
The Scots-Irish brought with them the very serious conviction that education makes the man and the family. To that end, a spiritual leader was sought to teach them. Families often settled within several miles of one another in order to attract a preacher. When, and if, he came (for preachers were scarce), he was the exhorter, the academic and catechistic teacher of children and youth, as well as adults; a one-man cultural resource - no small task even for this era of extraordinary men and women. The community fed on interminable sermons, read Scripture as literature and used the Bible to teach reading and writing. In the "Colonial Records of North Carolina," Governor Dobbs reported seeing a group of settlers at Rocky River. "I set out the 17th of June to view my lands," he wrote. He saw between thirty and forty families and
"except two or three was not less than 5 or 6 to ten children in each family, each going barefooted in their shifts in the warm weather, no woman wearing more than a shift and one thin petticoat. They are a colony from Ireland removed from Pennsylvania of what we call Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who with others in the neighboring Tracts settled together in order to have a teacher of their opinion and choice."
To such eager, serious souls as these at Rocky River came Presbyterian Alexander Craighead, a lightning bolt of a man. He was a revivalist (a "Newsider" as they were called), and by preaching civil liberty, he altered the early county as no one else. Some call him the area's "father of independence."
As soon as the predominantly Scots-Irish settlers built their early one-room cabins, they moved their modest goods from the wagons, where they had camped in the interim. Their next concern was always a church. Until the families had a building, they convened in an agreed-upon central spot for preaching - a home, a grove of trees or beneath a large, patriarchal oak, their horses hitched to saplings and their lunches tucked under the wagon seats.
The Scots-Irish brought with them the very serious conviction that education makes the man and the family. To that end, a spiritual leader was sought to teach them. Families often settled within several miles of one another in order to attract a preacher. When, and if, he came (for preachers were scarce), he was the exhorter, the academic and catechistic teacher of children and youth, as well as adults; a one-man cultural resource - no small task even for this era of extraordinary men and women. The community fed on interminable sermons, read Scripture as literature and used the Bible to teach reading and writing. In the "Colonial Records of North Carolina," Governor Dobbs reported seeing a group of settlers at Rocky River. "I set out the 17th of June to view my lands," he wrote. He saw between thirty and forty families and
"except two or three was not less than 5 or 6 to ten children in each family, each going barefooted in their shifts in the warm weather, no woman wearing more than a shift and one thin petticoat. They are a colony from Ireland removed from Pennsylvania of what we call Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who with others in the neighboring Tracts settled together in order to have a teacher of their opinion and choice."
To such eager, serious souls as these at Rocky River came Presbyterian Alexander Craighead, a lightning bolt of a man. He was a revivalist (a "Newsider" as they were called), and by preaching civil liberty, he altered the early county as no one else. Some call him the area's "father of independence."
July 25, 2015
The truth is in the title, 250+ years in 180 pages. Quick, concise and with plenty of references to other books, should you want to further investigate the history of Charlotte.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews