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History Timeline

1663 - Lords Proprietors

King Charles II of England creates the Carolina colony on March 24. He grants the land that will become North and South Carolina to eight loyal followers who are known as the Lords Proprietors.

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1768 - Charlotte Chartered

December 3, 1768 - Charlotte is chartered, which means the new town will have a courthouse and a prison. The law establishing a town for holding court in Mecklenburg County was first passed at a session of the colonial Assembly. It was then sent on to the governor, who made it effective on December 3 of that year. Here is the full text of the law from the State Records of North Carolina: 

 

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1654 - Carolina's First Settler

Nathaniel Batts is the first known permanent English settler in North Carolina. He builds a two-room home in Bertie County.

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1750 - Slavery

In West Africa, men, women and children are captured and forced onto ships bound for the American colonies. These people will be sold as slaves. Although the Africans have their own beliefs, language, families and culture, their owners will not care. The slaves will lose the rights of free people to act and live as they choose.

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1766 - The First Mecklenburg County Courthouse

The First Courthouse was a log cabin, built on ten-foot tall brick pillars. This tradition of raising the courthouse or main town market building was borrowed from England, and provided an open space at the center of town that could be used for the selling of animals, produce and other goods. Additionally, in the center of the open space, a post was driven into the ground to mark the middle of town, from which distances to other towns, river fords, and other destinations could be measured. 

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1774 - Hezekiah Alexander Home

<p>The home of influential leader Hezekiah Alexander is completed. The 2-1/2 story plantation house on 600 acres is home to Alexander, his wife Mary Sample, and their 10 children. The sturdy stone house will still survive more than 200 years later as the oldest dwelling in Mecklenburg County.</p>

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1585 - Ralph Lane Colony

Ralph Lane established a colony on Hatteras Island on July 27, 1585. The expedition comprised of 108 male settlers, eventually makes its way to Roanoke Island. One year later, the threat of an Indian uprising coincides with the arrival of Sir Francis’s Drakes’ fleet off the Carolina. The members of the Lane Colony quickly decide to take advantage of the opportunity and return home to England.

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1770 - Designing a City

Surveyors mark off the locations of Charlotte's streets in a block pattern called a grid. The four sections defined by the crossing of Trade and Tryon streets will evolve into four areas, called wards. In years to come, each of the wards will change tremendously. Economic, racial and political issues will determine which buildings survive and which are destroyed.

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March 6, 1773 - King's Power

King George III is still unhappy with the colonists and their desire for independence. On this day it is announced in New Bern that he has rejected a bill passed over two years previously that established a "seminary for learning" in Charlotte. When he revokes the charter for Queens College, he also takes away the right of Presbyterian ministers to perform marriages. There is increasing ill will toward Britain.

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1607 - Brave New World

Jamestown, Virginia becomes the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

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