A FORGOTTEN HISTORY
For many, the mention of the antebellum south conjures images of vast plantations with Tara-style mansions and genteel slave masters sipping juleps on white-columned verandas. Virtually unknown is the reality of the "Other Side" of the South which "hid" in plain sight in central North Carolina. Here was a southern culture of small farms and "factory girls"… Quakers and "Lincolnites"… political assassination and guerrilla warfare… and runaway slaves escaping to freedom up the Underground Railroad.

The complex heritage of the Deep River region can be understood through five significant themes.

A Heritage of Manufacturing
Since the eighteenth century Deep River has powered the development of the central Piedmont of North Carolina. Though other streams may appear more environmentally pristine or scenic, Deep River for hundreds of years has been manipulated for society's benefit. As much as any watercourse in the state, it has been a "working river," powering grist and oil mills, lumber and saw mills, iron works and powder mills, wool carding and fulling mills and cotton gins, together with factories for the spinning and weaving and knitting of textiles and the production of all types of wood products.

The "New South" reformed the Old South by pulling people away from the agricultural life of small farms into the "public work" of cotton textile mills. From bale of cotton to bolt of cloth, from spinning frame to sewing machine, the Southern Side of the Industrial Revolution happened in small factories like the ones lining the banks of Deep River in central North Carolina. Beginning in the 1830s the Deep River was the moving force that created this pioneer southern industry. Thriving cotton mill villages grew along the river in Cedar Falls (1836), Franklinville (1838), Ramseur (1850), Randleman (1848), Worthville (1880), Central Falls (1881) and Coleridge (1882). Many of the mill buildings and mill village structures still stand in these villages.

The needs of cotton mills for wooden bobbins, sticks and shuttles created a new market after the Civil War for the region’s timber resources. The state’s important furniture industry is the direct outgrowth of its forest riches, and the city of High Point near the top of the corridor is the nation’ furniture headquarters. The High Point area is home to showrooms and the Furniture Discovery Center which showcase the heritage, impact and future of the furniture industry, but other furniture-related sites can be found throughout the corridor

A Heritage of Faith
The history of the region is the history of a broad and active spectrum of religious faith and practice. From Guilford College in Guilford and Snow Camp in Alamance through southern Randolph County, the area was thickly settled in the18th century by members of the Society of Friends, or "Quakers". Some of their "Meetings" in the corridor have been in continuous existence for more than 200 years. Quakers were the moral and ideological underpinning not only for the abolitionist sentiments of the region, but for its emphasis on industrial development, agricultural improvement, public education and publishing.

During the eighteenth century the region was home to a wide variety of the German sectarians so common in Pennsylvania. The Lutheran communities of Randolph and Guilford, and the Moravians of Forsyth, are the last survivors of this rich tradition. The village of Old Salem, in Winston-Salem, provides an in-depth look at the lifestyles and heritage of the Moravians, a religious minority which exercised a powerful influence. Widely acknowledged as one of the country's finest living history museums, Old Salem is a significant adjunct site to the Corridor.

Bishop Francis Asbury and a host of other "circuit riding" missionaries brought Methodism to the region in the 1790s. And some of the earliest and most important sites relating to the history of Southern Baptists can be found within the corridor. Sandy Creek Baptist Church near Liberty has been called the "Mother Church" of both the Southern Baptist and Primitive Baptist religious denominations. Both credit their origins to Elder Shubal Stearns and his "Separatist Baptist" community, established at the Sandy Creek site in 1755. Elder Stearns, who died in 1771, is buried in the adjacent graveyard. Efforts are currently underway to restore the early-19th century log church and document the history of the site.

A Heritage of Conflict
Because of its Quaker heritage the northern half of the Corridor was home to a strong anti-slavery sentiment which caused it to become one of birthplaces of the Underground Railroad movement. Levi Coffin, frequently referred to as the "President" of the underground railroad was a Guilford County native. Coffin and his extended family organized the rescue and smuggling of numerous escaped slaves out of the area prior to his own move to Indiana and Ohio. Homes in Jamestown and Franklinville that were built by members of the Coffin family still stand, and written accounts of their abolitionist activities exist. One of the Corridor’s projects will research and document its UGRR connections, together with post-war activities of the Freedman’s Bureau.

Despite its heritage of Quaker pacifism, the region has had its share of bloodshed and battlefields. As early as the 1771 the region saw the War of the Regulation, a taxpayer revolt against the colonial government which swept the Guilford, Randolph and Alamance county areas. During the Revolution the area was powderkeg of factionalism, seething with guerrilla warfare, political assassination and scorched-earth tactics. The "House in the Horseshoe" State Historic Site showcases this element of the history of the region, just as the Guilford Battleground National Historic Park illustrates the more official side of the war.

During the Civil War the area was notable for its pro-Union activities. Opposition to the policies of the state and Confederate government was so strong a force in Randolph County during the war that local government teetered on the brink of collapse. By 1864 the "outliers," draft-dodgers, northern spies and other disruptive elements had become so powerful that the county was virtually placed under martial law, with state and Confederate troops providing basic law enforcement and protection for the textile factories. After the war the Republican Party gained control of local politics, a distinction that has been maintained in the county to the present day.

Despite the unsettled politics of the region, many companies of troops were recruited from each county along the corridor. The textile mills of Randolph and Alamance were vital to the war effort, providing the cotton undergarments required by state troops to wear their wool uniforms both winter and summer. The mines of Randolph and Chatham counties provided iron ore to the war effort, and the mines of Cumnock and Gulf produced the coal necessary to steam blockade runners out of Wilmington. At the close of the war real devastation had come no closer than Sherman’s destruction of Fayetteville, but the surrender found elements of Johnston’s army camped all across the central portion of the corridor, awaiting what would have been the final encounter between North and South.

A Heritage of Handicraft
The Deep River region is one of the last places in North Carolina’s Central Piedmont where traditional arts and crafts maintain a tenuous existence. Guilford, Randolph and Moore counties have long been recognized by collectors for their beautiful early handmade furniture. Other necessary domestic crafts such as spinning, weaving, dyeing, and blacksmithing did not survive the early 20th century, but the region’s potters have been recognized as a cultural asset for 80 years, and have become nationally known during the last quarter century. During the nineteenth century, potters could be found in every county of the region; they still have significant presences in Randolph, Moore, Montgomery, Chatham and Lee. Numerous "old time" and traditional musicians have been documented, and many families have preserved a musical heritage. The earliest documented banjo player in the state is Manley Reece of the Franklinville-Ramseur area, who migrated to the Galax, Virginia area in the 1850s and founded that nationally-significant musical culture. Daner Johnson of northeast Randolph founded a distinctive style of three-finger banjo picking. His student Charlie Poole, born in the Millboro vicinity to a family of textile workers, became the formative voice of southern string band music of the 1920s. Fiddler’s Contests have survived more than half a century in places such as Star and Seagrove.

A Heritage of Nature
The Deep River flows through a geography of incredible variety, from the rolling hills of the central Piedmont to the long-leaf pine forests of the Sandhills and Coastal Plain. The region is already one of the fastest-growing portions of North Carolina, and the pressure of economic and residential development threatens to urbanize much of its characteristic landscapes. Every part of the history of the region has had some relationship to its natural resources. From the beginning natives and pioneers benefited from the fertility of its soil. The power of the river’s falling water turned the shafts of mills and machines. Its gold and iron and coal were mined and refined. Its forest resources built its homes and houses of worship, and were the foundation of its furniture industry. The red clay of its banks attracted potters and brickmakers. But all the uses and abuses of human society have barely diminished its rich heritage of nature.

The development of the Deep River Corridor will provide a much needed catalyst to identify, preserve and sensitively develop natural resources of local, regional, state and national significance. Natural landmarks, environmentally- sensitive areas and rare or endangered plant species must be identified throughout the corridor, and institutions such as the Piedmont Land Conservancy and the North Carolina Zoo have already begun compiling such natural heritage resource inventories for a few counties. Prime agricultural lands must be identified and, where possible, protected from urban development for the lasting benefit of both farmers and consumers. Protective "green ways" along floodplains and steep slopes should be created and maintained using conservation easements to provide buffer zones that improve water quality, decrease soil erosion and slow run-off. Finally, new opportunities for outdoor recreation near urban and suburban areas can be accomplished through creation of a series of riverfront parks by participating communities to ensure not just to the conservation of natural areas but provide for their enjoyment.