Antedating of "Tarheel" Meaning North Carolinian

[Wilson Gray]

Bear in mind that the "tar" referred to is _pine tar_, made from the
sap of pine trees and not coal tar or the sludge  left over from
petroleum-refining.

Is the name of the _Tar_ River, which flows through that area, of any relevance?

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain





On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 9:13 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Antedating of "Tarheel" Meaning North Carolinian
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The OED's first use for _Tarheel_ is dated 1864.
>
> Just to make sure Jesse has this for the OED, the earliest known usage of _Tarheel_ meaning specifically a North Carolinian is apparently in a Feb. 6, 1863 entry in the diary of William B. A. Lowrance:
>
> http://ncrec.dcr.state.nc.us/Cat/CatServer.asp?WCI=MainEp&WCE=CatV1&WCU=509.16
>
> This web page, which also describes other early _Tarheel_ usages, has an image of the diary, but I'm not sure where there is an OED-citable printed version of the diary entry.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Bonnie Taylor-Blake [taylor-blake at NC.RR.COM]
> Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2009 7:56 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Tar heels [1846]
>
> Here's an antebellum use of "Tar heels" that seems applied broadly to poor
> Southern whites, though it's possible the term may have had more specific
> application to those living in tar-producing areas of the South. Â (Bayley
> was writing from Amesbury, Massachusetts, and may not have accurately
> reflected nuances in usage.)
>
> From what I can tell of others' research, the earliest appearances of "Tar
> heel" noted so far have dated to 1863. Â All are linked in some fashion to
> North Carolina.
>
> -- Bonnie
>
> ----------------------
>
> There are at this moment at least as many poor whites in the slave states as
> there are slaves, who are hardly less miserable than the slaves themselves.
> They have no weight in society, grow up in ignorance, are not permitted to
> vote and are tolerated as an evil, of which the slaveholder would gladly be
> rid. Â They are never spoken of without some contemptuous epithet. Â "Red
> shanks," "Tar heels," &c., are the names by which they are commonly known.
> The slaveholders look with infinite contempt upon these poor men -- a
> feeling which they cherish for poor men every where.
>
> (From A.L. Bayley, "To the Workingmen of Essex," *The Emancipator* [New
> York, NY], 21 October 1846.)
>
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