Antedating of "Tarheel" Meaning North Carolinian

[Sam Clements]

The Tar River name can be found as far back as 1783 using Google Books.

Sam Clements

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2009 22:08
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Tarheel" Meaning North Carolinian


> 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:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
>> header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      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.  (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.  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.  They are never spoken of without some contemptuous epithet.  "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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>
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