by David Goldfield Professor of History, University of North
Carolina at Charlotte, 2005. Reprinted with permission from The
North Carolina Atlas Revisited. Managing editor: Alfred W.
Stuart. Development of the Frontier, 1657 - 1835 During the late
17th century, settlement in North Carolina proceeded from
Virginia migration, first into the Albemarle region, then into
the Pamlico district. By 1710, the new sparsely settled province
had a capital at Edenton. But the migration caused growing alarm
among the Indian populations resulting in a conflict that raged
on and off for four years concluding in 1715 with the decimation
of the Indians and the opening up of additional land to white
settlement. The key event that affected the colony’s development
until the time of the Revolution was King George II’s takeover
of North Carolina from the heirs of the Lords Proprietors in
1729. The change generated a land bonanza in the colony as the
Crown eased land purchase requirements and sent out the
equivalent of real estate