Why The United States Has Two Carolinas: North Carolina And South Carolina

North Carolina and South Carolina, two states entirely connected within a single country that share basically the same name. At one point, the two Carolinas were combined in a single province within the colonial holdings of the King of England known as Carolina, but the two were split up, and we've had two Carolinas ever since. Here's why there's a North Carolina and a South Carolina. Hello, and welcome to Geography by Jeff. Now, a little while ago, we visited North Dakota and South Dakota to determine why we have two Dakotas in the place of a single territory simply and sufficiently named Dakota. And in the midst of that episode, I got a lot of comments asking me to prepare a similar video on the Carolinas. And so I did it. It's a fascinating story because unlike the Dakotas, the Carolinas split happened well before the United States ever existed. And we're going to explore how that happened in today's video. But of course, if you're a fan of geography, be sure to check out my podcast, Geography is Everything. New episodes premiere every Wednesday and you can listen right here on YouTube Sub Stack where there is exclusive content or whatever app you use to listen to podcasts. The history of the North Carolina and South Carolina split is rooted in the history of how colonies even came to be colonies in the 1st place. So it's worthwhile to revisit the way in which England handed out charters and mandates for the establishment of territory within North America. But make no mistake here, North Carolina and South Carolina started out their existence as a single territory called Carolina. Back in the 1500s, the English monarchy was realizing that it was falling behind in the exploration and expansion of its empire in the New World. Of course, the Americas weren't new and had actually been inhabited by thousands of different peoples for thousands of years, but that's a whole other story. But England quickly realized that if it was going to compete with the likes of Spain, it was going to need to start establishing its own colonies in North America. And so it began issuing charters to various groups of people who wanted to establish settlements. The first English colony was established at Roanoke, which was founded in 1585. Unfortunately for England's first attempt, the colony didn't last. By 1590, the entire settlement was found completely abandoned. To this day, nobody truly knows what happened to the nearly 120 colonists. But England persisted and began issuing more charters for more colonies. By the middle of the 1600s, colonies were found up and down the East Coast of the modern United States. This would include the early province of Carolina, which was founded in 1629 and consisted of the land from the Albemarle Sound in present day North Carolina to the Saint Johns River in the South just below the current Florida Georgia state line. So quite a bit more than the North Carolina and South Carolina we know today. Unfortunately for Carolina, the colony would ultimately fail. A lack of funding and resources prevented it from growing and ultimately competing with the colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts. And at the time, England found more value in its Caribbean colonies than it did in Carolina. But the colony wouldn't stay gone for too long. Carolina was not a hugely successful start for the area that we would today call North and South Carolina, but it was an important first step towards the establishment of the two states we know today. But before we get into how two states came from one colony, if you're enjoying this video, hit that subscribe button. More fun geography videos are just a single click away. After the colony of Carolina failed, the entire region was left in a state of limbo. King Charles the First, who issued the original charter, was executed in 1649, and the original retainer of the charter, Sir Robert Heath, had fled to France. This left the entire region without any sort of owner or occupier. Heath's heirs did try to claim the land for themselves, but the new King, Charles the 2nd, ruled the claim invalid. On March 24th, 1663, Charles the 2nd issued a new charter to a group of eight English noblemen called the Lord Proprietors, granting them the land formerly known as Carolina as a reward for their faithful support of his efforts to regain the throne of England, and during this transition it was renamed to the Province of Carolina. The charter granted the Lord Proprietors title to all of the land from the southern border of the Virginia colony at 36° N to the land at around 31° N. The goal here was to provide a buffer between the successful English colony of Virginia from the Spanish colony in present day Florida and prevent any northern expansion by the Spaniards. Now of the 8 Lord Proprietors, only one would take much interest in the new province, Lord Shaftsbury, and he had big plans for the Province. Shaftsbury, along with famed English philosopher John Locke what's said about attempting to create their vision for a utopian society in the province of Carolina known as the Grand Model. Really, this was simply a plan for how cities and towns would be laid out, with a particular emphasis to be resistant to fires due to London almost burning down in 1666. It also factored in things such as public health and safety, land use, and urban aesthetics, All things we take for granted now but in 1666 were revolutionary in terms of city and town planning. But while the Lord Proprietors had big goals for Carolina, the reality is that the best laid plans always go awry, and in the case of Carolina, it was destined to eventually be split in two. The first thing to know about the split between North Carolina and South Carolina is that there was no single event that caused the divide. Instead, it was really more of a slowly simmering divide that eventually boiled over. That said, we can point to a couple different events that really spurred the division along. The first is the Tuscarora War in 1711 between the British colonial settlers and the native indigenous peoples of the area. The Tuscarora tribe existed in what is today North Carolina for a long time before European settlers invaded their land, and as one might expect, they didn't take too kindly to having their land stolen from them. More to that point, because the province of Carolina was ruled by 8 separate Lords Proprietors, the treaties and deals they struck with the tribe were often overruled, ignored, or broken by another Lord. This inevitably would lead to friction and eventually war. The Tuscarora would ultimately lose, but it would build contention in the Carolina colony between those in the north who pulled in more resources to defend the land, and those in the South who felt like it really wasn't their problem. You see, the northern part of the Carolina province and the southern part were always a bit separate. Charlestown, known today as Charleston, was the capital of the colony, but the northern area governed themselves independently and had their own major cities in Albemarle and Cape Fear. In fact, both the North and the South had their own governors well before the formal split. Due to the tensions between the two halves, the Lord's Proprietor's inability to effectively govern the territory, and the burgeoning wealth by the southern part of the colony, The King reclaimed the southern part of Carolina for the crown in 1719 and left the northern part for the Lord's Proprietors, and thus North Carolina and South Carolina were officially separated. Today, North Carolina and South Carolina are two completely separate states within the United States, and over the last 300 or so years, the two have grown considerably. North Carolina today is home to a little over 10.5 million people, and South Carolina has about 5.2 million people. Of the two states, North Carolina has become the dominant economic engine, with cities such as Charlotte and Raleigh leading in terms of GDP over South Carolina's largest city, Charleston, and largest metropolitan area, Greenville. But regardless, the two are very prosperous as of today, with each growing in population by about 10% between 2010 and 2020. And of course, because the single province is now 2 separate U.S. states, it means that each gets their own representation in the US Congress. Both North Carolina and South Carolina each get 2US senators, and North Carolina has 14 representatives and South Carolina has seven representatives in the US House of Representatives. But in another timeline, perhaps these two states may have entered the Union as a single state simply named Carolina. The Carolinas have a fascinating history that predates the US as a whole. While our episode on the Dakotas was largely about US politics, today we have two Carolinas largely because of English politics. And because both were independent before the US even became its own country, there's very little chance of them ever unifying today. I hope you enjoyed learning why we have two Carolinas instead of just one. If you did, please subscribe to my channel and if you want to watch more of my videos, you can do so here. Thanks for watching, see you next time.