Opinion
Email
Print
Anniversaries help us understand American heritage
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: June 13, 2009
Most of us love to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, even when they are not our own. We especially like to embrace events when the anniversary is a multiple of 10.
This year, 2009, offers a wealth of opportunities to remember and celebrate significant events and famous people who have affected our national and community stories. Many of these occasions offer inexpensive opportunities to celebrate our collective adventure as Americans, to learn about our community's past and to understand better how we came to be as we are today.
Yes, 2009 marks the 40th anniversary in July of mankind's first landing on the moon and in August the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival; but, looking back much further, we have much more heritage to celebrate, especially in our part of the Old North State.
Notably, 2009 is the 250th anniversary of the Cherokee War on the North Carolina Piedmont. This sub-conflict of the French and Indian War (1754-1763) caused half of the settlers to flee the region. One famous refugee in 1759 was Daniel Boone, departing the Forks of the Yadkin with his family for the safety of more populated areas. By coincidence, 2009 is Daniel Boone's 275th birthday as well -- Nov. 2, 1734. Events around the country, including Daniel Boone Days in Boone, on Labor Day weekend, will honor America's pioneer hero and his 21-year connection to North Carolina. Historic Bethabara Park hosted its French and Indian War event on June 6 with re-enactors and talks about Cherokee culture and Daniel Boone. Fort Dobbs State Historic Site, the state's only French and Indian War site, has events throughout the summer and fall.
While some fled the Carolina frontier in 1759 in the face of danger, the stalwart and committed Moravians east of the Yadkin River moved three miles from Bethabara and established another town, Bethania -- the first planned Moravian settlement in North Carolina. June 12 marked that community's 250th anniversary and there are planned events all weekend.
Two-and-a-half centuries is a long way to look back, but our state's story precedes the mid-1700s by centuries and a "history just on the nines" tells a remarkable tale in itself. In 1629, Carolina got its name when King Charles I granted the lands of "Carolana" to Sir Robert Heath. A century later, in 1729, King George II purchased back the grants to the Lords Proprietors and North Carolina became a Royal colony. A decade later in 1739, North Carolina began its notable legacy of providing armed troops to fight in foreign conflicts, sending members of the provincial guard to fight the Spanish in the Caribbean during the War of Jenkin's Ear. In 1749, North Carolina saw the operation of its first printing press, which shortly gave rise to the colony's first newspaper.
In 1769, Daniel Boone left his home on the Upper Yadkin River and first crossed the Cumberland Gap. In 1779, after escaping capture by the Shawnee, returning to North Carolina and visiting Salem, Boone spent the year recruiting adventurous North Carolinians for a move west into Ken-tuc-ke. Some Loyalists happily obliged to escape harassment by Col. Benjamin Cleveland and the Patriot militia of Wilkes County during the American Revolution. In 1789, the North Carolina Convention ratified the U.S. Constitution and the Assembly chartered the University of North Carolina. A decade later in 1799, Conrad Reed, age 12, set off America's first gold rush with the discovery of a 17-pound nugget in Cabarrus County.
In 1819, the Cherokees, attempting to placate the appetite of westward-expanding settlers, ceded large tracts of western lands, but by 1839 many found themselves forced to migrate into the far west along the Trail of Tears. That same year, the curing method for bright leaf tobacco was discovered by an enslaved African-American and the fortunes of North Carolina took a momentous turn. All that history, just in the years ending in nine.
The story of North Carolina is out there waiting to the rediscovered, celebrated and passed along to another generation. Summer is here and school will soon be out. In tough economic times, families are looking for inexpensive ways to entertain the curiosity and interests of their families. Read, visit and experience the Old North State. North Carolina abounds with tales and true adventures just waiting to be retold regardless of the anniversary.
■ Randell Jones is member of the Road Scholars Speakers' Bureau of the North Carolina Humanities Council. He lives in Winston-Salem.
The Journal welcomes original submissions for North Carolina Voices on local, regional and statewide topics. Essay length should not exceed 750 words. The writer should have some authority for writing about his or her subject. Our e-mail address is: Letters@wsjournal.com. You may also mail a typed essay to: Letters to the Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102. Please include your name and address and a daytime telephone number.
Email
Print
