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[1690]  [1730]  [1770]

• 1662. Virginia law determines child's status (slave or free) according to the status of the mother, not the father, in a break with traditional English law.
• 1663. Maryland Settlers pass law stipulating that all imported blacks are to be given the status of slaves. Free white women who marry black slaves are to be slaves during the lives of their spouses. (For more information, see Innercity.org.)
  1663. Charles II Grants a Charter for the Colony of Carolina to the 8 "Lords Proprietors" who had helped him regain the throne.
• 1665. A second charter is granted, making the territory more specific.
• 1669. John Locke writes the "Fundamental Constitution" as a model for the government of Carolina

• 1711. Colony of Carolina separated into North and South Carolina.
  North Carolina Surveyor John Lawson Executed by Indians in Land Dispute.
• 1711-1715. Tuscacora War
• 1718. North Carolina Pirate Blackbeard Killed

• 1728. Colonel William Byrd of Virginia's Team surveys the dividing line
• 1729.North Carolina falls again under the crown, excepting one portion in the North.

• 1730. Virginia Tobacco Inspection Laws passed
• 1739. Beginning of "Spanish Alarm"

• "Spanish Alarm" continues till 1748.
• 1741. Edgecombe County formed
• 1748. Arthur Whitehead of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, who owns land in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, gives a tract of Edgecombe County land to one of his sons, Nathan Whitehead

• 1751. North Carolina's first newspaper, "The North Carolina Gazette," is published. (Click to see the neighbors' newspapers!)
• 1752. England and its colonies adopt the Gregorian Calendar, changing the dates of Holidays. (various New Year's dates were in use in Europe in the Middle Ages; the Gregorian Calendar restored the celebration of the New Year to January 1 and also changed slightly the length of the year; see http://www.hermetic.ch/cal_stud/cal_art.htm; Tarek Maani's Calendar Information & Web Exhibits Calendar History.)
• 1755. French and Indian War begins. John Mitchell's Map, published on the eve of the war, shows the English view of their territory.

• French and Indian War continues until 1763.
• 1761. Slave Traders excluded from the Society of Friends (Quakers), though Quakers continue to own slaves.
• 1762. Carl Linnaeus publishes Caroli Linnaei Species plantarum, with tobacco among other plants described.
• Oct. 7, 1763. George III of England signs the proclamation of 1763, which restricts settlement west of the Appalachians and reserves land for the Indians. Some settlers in the colonies resented this infringement.
• 1765. Current North Carolina Governor William Tryon writes a letter advertising North Carolina's bounty.

• 1770. The "Regulators" (a movement started a decade back by the Sandy Creek Baptists Assn) set fire to Judge Henderson's barn, stables, Nov. 12 & 14.
• 1774. North Carolina Joins the Revolutionary Movement
• 1776. American Revolution begins. (Ends 1783.)
• 1776. Quaker Church recommends their members manumit slaves, and Quakers are then (in 1777) cited as contributing to unrest during this period for freeing slaves.
• April, 1776. The Continental Congress bans the importation of slaves (this ban will later be lifted for a short span of years, and then reinstated). (Ball, Slaves in the Family.)
• June, 1776. Philadelphia Congress debates the first draft of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, and South Carolina delegate lobbies "to delete" a passage abolishing slavery. (Ball, Slaves in the Family.)

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