Tar Heel is a nickname that is applied in the state of North Carolina and its residents in the US. It's also a nickname for athletic teams, students, alumni, and North Carolina University fans.
The exact etymology of the nickname is unknown, but most folklore believes its roots come from the fact that tar, pitch, and turpentine made from vast pine forests are some of North Carolina's most important exports early in the country's history. For a short time after the American Civil War, the name Tar Heel was initially insulting, but later reabsorbed by people in North Carolina. Because the exact history of the term is unknown, a number of legends have been developed to explain it. One legend claims it as a nickname given during the US Civil War, due to the state's interest on the Confederate side, and the fact that troops "stick to their ranks as they wish." The term "Tar Heel" gained popularity during the Civil War.
Video Tar Heel
History of the term
In the early years as a colony, North Carolina settlements became an important source of tar, pitch, and turf naval stores, especially for the British navy. Tar and pitch are mostly used to paint the bottom of a British wooden ship both to seal the vessel and prevent the shipworm from damaging the hull of the ship.
At one time, about 100,000 barrels (16,000 m 3 ) were tar and pitch sent every year to England. After 1824, North Carolina became the leader in the United States for naval stores. In the Civil War, North Carolina had more than 1600 turpentine distilleries, and two thirds of all the turpentine in the United States came from North Carolina and one-half of Bladen and New Hanover districts.
Hugh Lefler and Albert Newsome claimed in North Carolina: History of the South (3rd ed., 1973) that North Carolina led the world in naval store production from about 1720 to 1870.
At that time, tar is made by piling pine wood and burning it until hot oil seeps out of the spout. The massive production of tar from North Carolina caused many people, including Walt Whitman, to give the nickname "Tarboilers" to North Carolina residents. North Carolina was nicknamed "Tar and Turpentine State" because of this industry.
Somehow, these terms evolved until the nickname Tar Heel was used to refer to the inhabitants of North Carolina and became famous during the American Civil War. During this time, Tar Heel's epithet was degrading, but beginning around 1865, the term began to be used as a source of pride.
In 1893, University of North Carolina students set up a newspaper and named it The Tar Heel, which was renamed The Daily Tar Heel. In the early 1900s the term was embraced by many as a non-derisive term for the North Carolinians by people from inside and outside the state of North Carolina.
Maps Tar Heel
Legendary explanation
The following legend and anecdotes appear to explain the history of the term Tar Heel.
River Digging by General Cornwallis
According to this legend, British Cornwallis General troops during the American Revolutionary War were wading through what is now known as the Tar River between Rocky Mount and Battleboro when they discovered that the tar had been thrown into the river to block the British army crossings. When they finally cross the river, they find their feet completely black with tar. Thus, the soldiers observed that anyone who waded through the North Carolina River would get a "tar heel."
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In the third volume of Walter Clark Histories from Several Regiments from North Carolina in the Great War, the authors explain that the nickname came about when North Carolina troops held their land during a battle in Virginia during the American Civil War while other support troops retreated. After the battle, the support troops asked the winning North people: "Anything else in the Old North state, children?" and they replied: "No, not least, old Jeff bought everything." The supporters continued, "What would he do with it?" Northern Carolinian troop response: "He'll put it on your heels to make you stay better in the next fight."
Reluctant separation
The State of North Carolina is the last remaining state to secede from the United States, and as a result the country is dubbed "a reluctant state" by other countries in the south. The jokes that circulated at the beginning of the war went like: "Got tar?" "No, Jeff Davis has bought everything." "What for?" "Wearing a friend's heel to keep you afloat." As the war progressed, many Northern Carolinian troops developed a smart reply to this mockery term: The 4th Infantry in Texas lost its flag in Sharpsburg. When they passed North Carolina 6th a few days after that, the Texans called, "Tar Heels!", And the answer was, "If you have a few tar on your heels, you'll bring your flag back from Sharpsburg."
Quote Robert E. Lee
The book Tales Grandfather of North Carolina History (1901) states that:
During an unpleasant war between the United States [North Carolina] is sometimes called "Tar-heel State," because tar is made in the State, and because in battle the North Carolina army is stuck in their bloody work as if they had tar on their heels , and when General Lee said, "God bless Tar-heel's son," they take that name. (p. 6)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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