The Old North State (nickname for North Carolina) [Antedated to 1824]

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

The OED shows an 1839 usage as its earliest example for "the Old North
State," a nickname for North Carolina.  Here are a few (of many) that
appeared before 1839.

-- Bonnie

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Be not alarmed, ye citizens of the old north State, at my unfurling
the standard of Liberty. [From "Communication; Proclamation," Raleigh
(NC) Register and North-Carolina State Gazette, 16 April 1824, p. 4;
via newspapers.com.]

Seeing that it has been declared elsewhere, that nothing short of a
total repeal of the Tariff will be accepted as a propitiatory ovation
to present discontents, and that even that will not be sufficient to
satisfy the demands of the Reformers, we should be sorry indeed to
find the old North State range herself on the side of such wild and
visionary politics and politicians.  [From "North Carolina," The Daily
National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), 22 November 1830, p. 3; via
genealogybank.com.]

Thus it seems that a narrow neck of land, not exceeding 11 miles in
breadth, divides three fourths of this State, from one of the finest
harbors and sea ports in the union -- and for want of another good
outlet to the sea, at least 500,000 people are daily becoming "hewers
of wood and drawers of water" to their neighbors, -- when a single act
of the legislature, would remove the difficulty, and place the 'Old
North State' on a proper footing in the confederacy.  [From "Internal
Improvement," The New Bern (NC) Spectator and Literary Journal, 25
November 1831, p. 3; via newspapers.com.]

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