<P> The road to Yorktown and America's independence from Great Britain led through North Carolina . As the British Army moved north from victories in Charleston and Camden, South Carolina, the Southern Division of the Continental Army and local militia prepared to meet them . Following General Daniel Morgan's victory over the British Cavalry Commander Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, southern commander Nathanael Greene led British Lord Charles Cornwallis across the heartland of North Carolina, and away from the latter's base of supply in Charleston, South Carolina . This campaign is known as "The Race to the Dan" or "The Race for the River ." </P> <P> In the Battle of Cowan's Ford, Cornwallis met resistance along the banks of the Catawba River at Cowan's Ford on February 1, 1781, in an attempt to engage General Morgan's forces during a tactical withdrawal . Morgan had moved to the northern part of the state to combine with General Greene's newly recruited forces . Generals Greene and Cornwallis finally met at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in present - day Greensboro on March 15, 1781 . Although the British troops held the field at the end of the battle, their casualties at the hands of the numerically superior Continental Army were crippling . Following this "Pyrrhic victory", Cornwallis chose to move to the Virginia coastline to get reinforcements, and to allow the Royal Navy to protect his battered army . This decision would result in Cornwallis' eventual defeat at Yorktown, Virginia, later in 1781 . The Patriots' victory there guaranteed American independence . </P> <P> On November 21, 1789, North Carolina became the twelfth state to ratify the Constitution . In 1840, it completed the state capitol building in Raleigh, still standing today . Most of North Carolina's slave owners and large plantations were located in the eastern portion of the state . Although North Carolina's plantation system was smaller and less cohesive than that of Virginia, Georgia, or South Carolina, significant numbers of planters were concentrated in the counties around the port cities of Wilmington and Edenton, as well as suburban planters around the cities of Raleigh, Charlotte, and Durham in the Piedmont . Planters owning large estates wielded significant political and socio - economic power in antebellum North Carolina, which was a slave society . They placed their interests above those of the generally non-slave - holding "yeoman" farmers of western North Carolina . In mid-century, the state's rural and commercial areas were connected by the construction of a 129 - mile (208 km) wooden plank road, known as a "farmer's railroad", from Fayetteville in the east to Bethania (northwest of Winston - Salem). </P> <P> Besides slaves, there were a number of free people of color in the state . Most were descended from free African Americans who had migrated along with neighbors from Virginia during the 18th century . The majority were the descendants of unions in the working classes between white women, indentured servants or free, and African men, indentured, slave or free . After the Revolution, Quakers and Mennonites worked to persuade slaveholders to free their slaves . Some were inspired by their efforts and the language of the Revolution to arrange for manumission of their slaves . The number of free people of color rose markedly in the first couple of decades after the Revolution . </P>

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