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Click on one of the links below to view a list of materials related to specific states or specific North Carolina counties.
What is the American South?
From the time the first ship landed in what would become Virginia to the time of the Civil War and into the present day, the geographic South has been many things: a frontier, a colony, a region, a nation, and the concept of the South as a cultural and sociological entity has existed in many forms as well. Documenting the American South includes materials that relate to all states that, at some point, have been considered within the geographic boundaries of the South. In addition, DocSouth includes travel accounts, slave narratives, and memoirs written by or about people who came from the South and adventured beyond its geographic borders. In addition, the collection "North American Slave Narratives" includes autobiographies, biographies, and fictionalized personal narratives of slaves and ex-slaves who were held in slavery anywhere in North America. While the antebellum South is infamous for espousing slavery, it was not the only region that allowed slavery. In the early history of North America, slavery was legal in the northern United States and in the Caribbean, and the traffic of slaves affected the entire continent.
What states comprised the Confederate States of America?
The Confederacy included eleven states that seceded from the United States between 1860 and 1861 and formed a nation from that time until the end of the Civil War in 1865. They were: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Documents published and diaries and letters written in the Confederate States of America during the Civil War can be found in the collection "The Southern Homefront." Materials about or relating to these states from any historical period may also be found by using the US map listed above.
The Mason-Dixon Line
Originally drawn in the late 1700s, the Mason-Dixon line separates the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland, which became states after the Revolutionary War. During the Missouri Compromise of 1820, this line became the focus of much political debate because it was the de facto dividing line between the southern states that allowed slavery and the northern states that had abolished slavery.
North Carolina
One of the original thirteen colonies, North Carolina has a rich history that spans centuries. Documenting the American South provides a wide variety of materials related specifically to North Carolina in two of its collections, "The North Carolina Experience" and "North Carolinians and the Great War". To browse these materials by topic, click on the name of the Collection at the left. To browse these materials by county, click on the link to the North Carolina map listed above.