1,893,810. From third rank in 1790 the State fell to tenth in 1850, and fifteenth in 1900. The per cent. of gain for 1890-1900 was 17.1, as compared with 20.7 for the United States. The State's heavy contribution to the westward tide of immigration reached its climax in the decade 1830-40, which accounts for the stationary position of the population for that decade. North Carolina has the smallest foreign-born population—4492—of any State. In 1900 there were 624,469 negroes, the State holding sixth rank in negro population. The increase in this element from 1890 to 1900 was 101,451. The negroes are much less numerous in the western or mountainous, counties. As is true of most of the Southern Commonwealths, the urban population constitutes but a small percentage or the total. In 1900 17 places had over 4000 inhabitants each, and together contained 8 per cent. of the total population.
Cities. The population of the four largest towns in 1900 was: Wilmington, 20,976; Charlotte, 18,091; Asheville, 14,694; and Raleigh, 13,643.
Religion. The leading religious denominations are the Baptist and the Methodist, comprising respectively about one-half and two-fifths of all church members. The Presbyterians, Lutherans, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Roman Catholics are largely represented.
Education. Education in the State of North Carolina received a considerable impetus from the immigration of the Scotch-Irish during the second half of the eighteenth century. Classical schools were maintained by many of the Presbyterian missionaries, and as these were mostly graduates of Princeton University, that institution had a considerable influence on higher education in the State. Moravians and Germans also played a conspicuous part in this development. The first State Constitution contained a clause providing for public education, but nothing was done toward carrying it out before 1825, when the dividends from stocks held by the State in several banks and navigation companies, and the revenue derived from liquor licenses, etc., as well as the vacant and unappropriated swamp lands of the State, were appropriated for a common school fund. This fund was subsequently augmented by $1,133,757—the State's share of the surplus revenue distributed among the States by the act of Congress of 1836. The public school system was established in 1840, and the first State superintendent of public instruction was appointed in 1852. By 1860 North Carolina was in education the most advanced of the slave-holding States.
Only a comparatively small part of the school-age population is provided with schools. North Carolina has neither a compulsory attendance law nor uniform requirements for teachers, the professional standing of whom, especially in the colored schools, is in many cases very low. According to the census of 1900, the illiterate population of North Carolina amounted to 28.7 per cent. of the total population of ten years of age and over, being 19.5 per cent. for the native whites and 47.6 per cent. for the colored. The illiteracy of the native whites shows a decrease of 3.6 per cent. for the decade of 1890-1900, as compared with the decrease of 12.5 per cent. for the colored during the same period. In 1900 North Carolina had a school population (6 to 21) of 439,431 white and 220,198 colored. The enrollment for the same year was 270,447 white and 130,005 colored; and about one-half each of the colored and white enrollment was in average attendance.
The length of the school term in 1900 was 73 days for the white and 65 days for the colored, or an average of 70.5 days, the lowest of any State. Of the 7387 teachers employed in 1900, the men constituted 49.4 per cent. The average monthly salaries of white teachers in 1900 were $26.18 for male teachers and $23.41 for female; the average salaries of the colored male and female teachers were $21.14 and $19.82, respectively, as compared with $24.69 and $20.36, respectively, in 1884. The total revenue for the public schools for 1900 amounted to $1,031,327, and the expenditure to $950,317, or about $4.60 per pupil in average attendance. The school revenue is derived principally from a general property tax, a general poll tax, liquor licenses, fines, forfeitures, and penalties.
Secondary education is provided chiefly by the private high schools and academies. There are seven normal schools for the colored youth, and a State normal and industrial college for white women. The chief institutions for higher education are the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill; the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and Davidson College (Presb.), at Davidson; Trinity College (M. E.), at Durham; Wake Forest College (Bapt.), at Wake Forest; Elon College (Christian), at Elon College; Guilford College (Friends), at Guilford; and Saint Mary's College (R. C.), at Belmont. Higher education for the colored race is provided by the Agricultural and Mechanical College (State), at Greensboro; Shaw University (Bapt.) at Raleigh; Biddle University (Presb.), at Charlotte; and Livingstone College (A. M. E. Zion), at Salisbury.
Charitable and Penal Institutions. There is an unsalaried Board of Public Charities which has supervision of the State charitable and penal institutions, and of the county and municipal jails, workhouses, and ‘homes.’ County ‘homes’ are inspected by county boards of visitors. The State maintains an insane asylum for the whites at Raleigh and one at Morganton; also an asylum at Goldsboro for colored insane—the first in the world for this class. There are a State institute for the blind at Raleigh, a school for the deaf at Morganton, and another for the colored deaf, dumb, and blind at Raleigh. A Confederate soldiers' home is located at Raleigh, and an orphan asylum for whites and for blacks at Oxford. The State penitentiary is located at Raleigh. Only those sentenced for the highest crimes are confined in the penitentiary proper. About nine-tenths of the convicts are employed on State farms. The convicts are controlled by State officers and not under the lease system.
History. On July 4, 1584, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, sent by Sir Walter Raleigh under a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth to make explorations in America, dropped anchor off the present coast of North Carolina. On their return they gave the most flattering accounts of the country. The next year a colony of men was sent out under Ralph Lane to make a permanent settlement. They made no attempt to provide a food supply, and in 1586 abandoned the settle-
