Will legislators stick their necks out on NC nickname bill?

It would take an act of the North Carolina General Assembly to select an official state nickname, and Senator Don Davis, D-Snow Hill, volunteered to set the wheels in motion.

He introduced Senate Bill 345 on March 25 to declare “The Old North State” as the state’s official nickname.

The immediate response from the gallery was hip hip hooray…but then came the cautionary amber light signaling: “Dagnabbit; not so fast, my friend.”

What happens to North Carolina’s other nickname – “The Tar Heel State?” It appears passage of S.B. 345 would cause “The Tar Heel State” to be shunned and exiled to languish deep in the wilderness of longleaf pines.

It will be interesting to track the movement of S.B. 345…or lack thereof…during this session of the state legislature.

Sen. Davis, who is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, holds a doctorate degree from East Carolina University. He has done his research and has his facts in order.

“In 1710, the Carolina colony was divided into two colonies, North Carolina and South Carolina, and since that time North Carolina has been referred to as ‘The Old North State,’” Sen. Davis said.

“Furthermore, both the official song and the official toast of North Carolina are known as ‘The Old North State.’”

Therefore, the proposed legislation rationalizes: “‘The Old North State’ should be adopted as the official nickname of North Carolina.”

For the sake of consistency, Sen. Davis comes to a logical conclusion, one that is validated by fact checkers within the cubicles of the state library system.

The division of Carolina into North and South was completed at a meeting of the Lords Proprietors held at Craven House in London on December 7, 1710. Common usage of the term “The Old North State” certainly predates the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The term “Tar Heel” appears to have originated somewhat later, rising to prominence during The War Between the States in the 1860s. There are varying versions of the story; some are juicier…and stickier than others.

The economic driver during North Carolina’s infancy was the harvesting of vast pine forests and the production of “naval stores” – tar, pitch, rosin and turpentine. These items were vitally important to England’s maritime industry.

Historian Walter McKenzie Clark’s account of the Tar Heel story takes readers to the site of a Civil War skirmish at Reams Station in Dinwiddie County, Va. There, a fighting force of North Carolinians stood its ground for the Confederacy, while a Virginian regiment skedaddled.

As the story unfolds, one of those Virginia soldiers supposedly taunted a North Carolina militiaman, asking: “Any more tar down in the Old North State, boys?”

Quick as a flash came the answer: “No, not a bit; old Jeff’s bought it all up.” (The reference was to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America.)

“Is that so; what is he going to do with it?”

“He’s going to put it on you-un’s heels to make you stick better in the next fight.”

R.B. Creecy, another revered North Carolina historian, reported that Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, “upon hearing of the incident at Reams Station, said: ‘God bless the Tar Heel boys,’ and from that they took the name.”

An essay in NCPedia contributed by Michael W. Taylor stated: “The official seal of approval of ‘Tar Heel’ as a nickname for North Carolinians came when Gov. Zebulon B. Vance visited the Army of Northern Virginia on March 28, 1864.”

Gov. Vance made a point of addressing the soldiers as “Fellow Tar Heels,” citing “we always stick.”

As Taylor tells it: Ten years later (in 1874), the Town of Tar Heel in Bladen County was settled as a landing on the Cape Fear River. The state operated a ferry at this landing, and it was a major loading point for vessels that transported commodities downriver about 90 miles to market in Wilmington.

“The major product was turpentine by the barrels,” Taylor said. “Tar Heel had several turpentine stills, and the result of transporting…leaking barrels caused a tar-like material to be found around the landing and the access to the river.”

“When the community people talked of going to the village, it was said they were going to get tar on their heels,” further advocating the name Tar Heel.

Before we vote on the North Carolina state nickname, let’s delve a little deeper into the lyrics of the state song and the words of a poem that became the state toast.