Record #:

13843

Author(s):

Sharpe, Bill

Abstract:

Bill Sharpe explains the meaning and history of the famous nickname for North Carolinians, \r\n'Tar Heel'. Sharpe claims that prior to the Civil War, people who lived by the Virginia-North Carolina border employed patrolmen to keep slaves from crossing state lines. Each state enforced a penalty on slaves caught escaping. In North Carolina this penalty was to tar the heels of the slave, hence the name, 'Tar Heel'.\r\n

Source:

The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 20 Issue 39, Feb 1953, p7

Subject(s):

Nicknames