Origin Of Tar Heel

Image from the State Archives On June 2 1863 an article in the semi-weekly Raleigh newspaper the North Carolina Standard the nickname Tar Heel appearedone of the first known uses in print. To call someone a rosin heel or tar heel.

Civil War Origins Of Tar Heel Nc Dncr

State North Carolinas nickname Tar Heel State most likely originates from the states most prosperous industry from 1720 to 1870.

Origin of tar heel. The manufacture of tar for naval vessels. Tar Heel was later adopted by the University of North Carolina for its athletic teams. The group met at Bennett Place in Durham Tuesday where they formed a caravan and drove together to UNC-Chapel Hill.

Hailing from the Tar Heel State UNCs athletic program naturally adopted the name Tar Heels but what does it mean. The term appears to have come into popular use after the Civil War despite its clear connection to North Carolinas prominent role in the naval stores tar turpentine and pitch industry going back to prerevolutionary times. In one the nickname goes back to the Revolutionary War.

Civil War Origins of Tar Heel An 1851 issue of the North Carolina Standard. The term at first is derogatory in terms of race and class then gets turned into a symbol of Confederate pride and loyalty UNCs explanation of the term Tar Heel refers to. According to the university there are two widely circulated origin stories.

Tar Heel is the nickname for a native or resident of North Carolina as well as for the state itself which is known as the Tar Heel State. The term tar heel dates back to North Carolinas early history when the state was a leading producer of supplies for the naval industry. The University of North Carolina offers a couple of explanations.

UNC changed its team name from the White Phantoms to the Tar Heels in the 1920s. There was also mention of some back and forth with South Carolina troops when a North Carolina soldier mentioned that tar sticks when he. Workers who distilled turpentine from the sticky sap of pine trees and burned pine boughs to produce tar and pitch often went barefoot during hot summer months and undoubtedly collected tar on their heels.

One legend says that people would see a worker and remark Look at that tar heel There is a reference to a general making the Tar Heel remark at Bull RunManassas and in a newspaper reference after a battle in Tennessee. Those who forded the river found their feet covered in tar when they emerged leading to the tar heel nickname. North Carolina in the Civil War was a divided land and not all North Carolinians even white ones supported the Confederacy.

Group calls for change to UNCs Tar Heels nickname. Whats now known as the Tar River had tar poured into it to slow down British troops. Yet this more complex tale of the origins of Tar Heel shows that it is rooted in hard work by poor people work that dirtied the bodies of both enslaved Africans and poor whites in the Piney Woods.

It is out of this disloyalty to the Confederacy that North Carolina soldiers came to be given the racially derogatory nickname of Tar Heels. More on the Origin of Tar Heels Digging again through old newspapers I came across another very early use in print of the nickname Tar Heels A little over a year ago I wrote about the appearance of the nickname in an ad in an 1864 Fayetteville paper which was a contender for the earliest use of Tar Heels in print. The origin of this nickname is mysterious though most historians agree that the name derives from North Carolinas long history as a producer of naval stores --tar pitch rosin and turpentine--all of which were culled from the States extensive pine forests.

Origin of the NC Tar Heels In Colonial days North Carolina was a big producer of tar pitch and turpentine. North Carolinas abundant pine forests provided a. The group called the Union Soldier Campaign argues that Tar Heels are associated with Confederate soldiers and they want the name changed to the Rams.

Where did the Tar Heels nickname come from. During one of the fiercest conflicts of the Civil War North Carolina troops felt they had been let down by a regiment carrying the colors of another state and thus carried chips on their shoulders when they pulled back from the front after the battle.

What Is A Tar Heel Unc General Alumni Association