Tar Heel = Black Foot????

[Linda]

I bright young lady posed this question recently. Could the nickname for carolinians -- Tar Heelers -- have something to do with the usage of the word Blackfoot among many NC derived Indian descendants?

Does anyone know the derivation of the term Tar Heel?

[Coharie Roy]

I could be wrong on this, but I think the word, "tarheel" has to do with North Carolina's early naval stores industry. (Naval stores industry is another way of saying the turpentine industry.)

Along the Cape Fear River drainage basin, from the time of the first white settlement of about 1725, on and until about 1850, when the resource became exhausted, there were vast tracts of virgin pine forests. The earliest of these white settlers would go into these pine forests and make "V" shaped slits in the trunk of the pine trees, and hang a bucket to collect the sap/rosin. They would then distill the liquid into several products: turpentine, pitch, etc. (Pitch is another word for tar.) The pitch, or tar, was then rafted down river to Wilmington, where it was used in the building and maintainance of Britain's huge naval fleet.

Since it was a fundamental industry in early North Carolina, and since so many people were involved in it, North Carolinians thus acquired the sobriquet, "Tarheels." Therefore, it would seem to me that the words, "tarheel" and "Blackfoot" have nothing to do with each other.

Anyhow, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :-)
http://www.harima.co.jp/naval/naval_e.html

[SmokeEater]

One origin I had heard stated that during a battle during the Civil War, Confederate forces were under heavy fire and were being forced back. Just when it seemed as if the battle was lost, a North Carolina unit stepped up to the front lines, and put up fierce resistance. Ignoring orders to retreat, the North Carolina unit was observed to have "tar on their heels".
After that battle, NC soldiers were called "Tarheels", by other Confederate troops. In reply NC soldiers would say something to the effect, "General Lee says he's going to put tar on your heels to get you all to stay and fight too..."

[Linda]

This is a bit tangential, but I have a friend who researched a dissertation on the causes of the Tuscarora war, he went over to London to research their colonial records. He told me at one point that he believed the underlying motivation for the war was the Brits insistance that they have those virgin pine forests. They needed the naval supplies and the tall masts for their ships to keep their empire building going.

When the Tuscarora refused to sell these hunting reserves all british protections vanished (except perhaps for those Tuskies who were willing to cooperate with them) and provocations heaped up until the tuscarora went to war.