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John Owen (1787-1841) Encyclopedia
John Owen served two, one-year terms as a North Carolina governor, after he had served in the House of Commons, as a state senator, and on the Council of State. He is known for being an advocate for primary public education and internal improvements and for warning against what he considered abolitionist attempts to spark civil unrest. He is the brother of James Owen, slaveowner of Omar Ibn Said, author of the only known American slave narrative written in Arabic.
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Piedmont & Northern Railway Encyclopedia
The Piedmont & Northern (P&N) Railway fueled the growth of North Carolina’s textile industry. Running from Spartanburg to Greenwood in South Carolina and from Gastonia to Charlotte in North Carolina, the P&N shipped cotton, textiles, and other goods throughout the Piedmont region. But an ambitious plan to make the railroad a regional powerhouse was foiled by the federal government.
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Plank Roads Encyclopedia
To bring wealth and awake their state from its supposed economic slumber in the antebellum era, North Carolinians advocated the use of plank roads in the late 1840s. These wooded highways were purported to be an improvement over rough, dirt roads and a necessary step to create an intrastate (an eventually interstate) trade network of plank roads, railroad hubs, and seaports. Such an effort was considered much needed, as one historians puts its, because plank roads could free “citizens from the bondage of primitive roads.”
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George E. Preddy (1919-1944) Encyclopedia
A native son of Greensboro, North Carolina, George E. Preddy became one of America’s top flying aces during World War II. At the end of the war, he had the third-highest ranking among American pilots. Historians speculate that he might have emerged as the nation’s premier ace had not his plane been shot down by friendly fire on Christmas 1944.
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Rip Van Winkle Encyclopedia
During the early 1800s, North Carolina acquired a nickname: “the Rip Van Winkle State.” It was named so because more than few considered the state’s economy to be asleep while neighboring states were bustling with production and trade. Some historians argue, however, that outsiders used this term and that economists have misunderstood North Carolina's incremental economic growth
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James Iredell Waddell (1824-1886) Encyclopedia
Many North Carolinians influenced the course of the American Civil War, but none so uniquely as did James Iredell Waddell. One of the most successful Confederate commerce raiders, much like Raphael Semmes and John Taylor Wood, Waddell spent much of the conflict overseas and left a controversial legacy behind. In particular, he commanded the only Confederate ship to circumnavigate the globe and continued fighting U.S. boats after the war's end.
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