Robeson County ( )Talk Like a Tarheel , from the North Carolina Collection website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved August 16, 2023. is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of North Carolina and is its largest county by land area. Its county seat and largest community is Lumberton. The county was formed in 1787 from part of Bladen County and named in honor of Thomas Robeson, a colonel who had led Patriot forces in the area during the Revolutionary War. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 116,530. It is a majority-minority county; its residents are approximately 38 percent Native American, 22 percent white, 22 percent black, and 10 percent Hispanic. It is included in the Fayetteville-Lumberton-Pinehurst, NC Combined Statistical Area. The federally-recognized Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is headquartered in Pembroke.
The area eventually comprising Robeson was initially inhabited by Native Americans, though little is known about them. A Native community eventually coalesced around the swamps near Lumber River, which bisects the area. In the mid-18th century, Scottish, English, French, and free black settlers occupied the county. The population remained sparse for decades due to the lack of suitable land for farming, and timber and naval stores formed a crucial part of the early economy. The proliferation of the cotton gin and rising demand for cotton led Robeson County to become one of the state's major cotton-producing counties throughout the 1800s. The Lowry War was fought between a group of mostly-Native American outlaws and local authorities during the latter stages of the American Civil War and through the Reconstruction era. After Reconstruction ended, a unique system of tripartite racial segregation was instituted in the county to separate whites, blacks, and Native Americans.
In the early 20th century, Robeson developed significant tobacco and textile industries while many of its swamp lands were drained and roads were paved. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the county experienced tensions over racial desegregation. During the same period, local agriculture mechanized, and the manufacturing industry grew. The new sector was unable to provide stable enough employment to locals, and by the 1980s, Robeson was heavily afflicted by cocaine trafficking. The narcotics trade fueled violence, social unrest, political tensions, and police corruption and caused the county's statewide reputation to suffer. The county's economy was further damaged by significant declines in the tobacco and textile industries in the 1990s and early 2000s, which have now been supplanted by the supply of fossil fuels, poultry farming, biogas and bio-mass facilities, and logging. Robeson continues to rank low on several statewide socioeconomic indicators.
History Early history and colonial era
Indigenous people have lived in the region as early as 20,000 BC, though little is known about those who lived there in the pre-colonial and early colonial eras. Archeological excavations in the area eventually encompassing Robeson County have uncovered glass beads—often used by Native Americans in trade, pottery, and clay pipes. Archeologist Stanley Knick concluded that the land had been inhabited continuously from 12,000 BC in the early Paleo-Indian period through the Archaic and Woodland periods and up to the present. The earliest written mention of Native Americans in the area is a 1725 map compiled by John Herbert, which identified tribes near Drowning Creek—later known as the Lumber River.
The Native American/American Indian-descent people in the Lumber River valley eventually coalesced into a series of farming communities collectively dubbed "Scuffletown" by whites but known by inhabitants as "the Settlement". The date of Scuffletown's formation is unknown as was its actual location. Some scholars believe it was in the vicinity of the later town of Pembroke while others place it at Moss Neck. Historians Adolph Dial and David K. Eliades believed it was a mobile community. Others still believe the name applied broadly to any concentration of Indians in the area. Mary C. Noment, who wrote "The Lowry History," asserted that Robeson County had the largest free Black settlement in North Carolina, believing they were descended from runaway slaves, who were "free negros or mulattos", with one reporter referring to it as "The Mulatto Capital".
Culturally, the Scuffletonians were similar to other Europeans in their dress and style of homes. They were Protestant Christians and spoke English, though they spoke an "older form", which set them apart from later settlers. Not viewed as Native Americans by the state of North Carolina until the 1880s, these people were generally dubbed "mulattos" by locals and in federal documents throughout the mid-1800s to distinguish them from blacks. Genealogical and historical analysis shows many of their ancestors were free Black people in Virginia. The original Scuffletonians were joined by some whites and blacks in the mid-1700s, including some escaping enslavement. The earliest written record of white settlement dates from 1747 land deed applications. Migrants from free black communities to the north were also settling in the county in the mid-1700s.
The area eventually comprising Robeson County was not heavily settled by whites until about ten years before the American Revolution, when Highland Scots moved into the area. They formed a separate community from the Scuffletonians. The immigrants encompassed a range of class distinctions, from literate and aristocratic English-speaking families to poorer Scottish Gaelic-speakers, many of whom were indentured servants. The latter were called "Buckskins" due to their reputation for wearing pants made of deer leather. Gaelic remained spoken in the area as late as the 1860s. English and a few French settlers moved into the eastern portion of the eventual county.
Despite the increase in settlement, population levels in the Lumber River valley remained low for many years, as swamps and thick vegetation divided arable land and made transportation difficult. The production of timber and naval stores formed a key part of the area's early economy, with logs being floated down the river for sale in Georgetown, South Carolina, in the late 1700s. During the American Revolutionary War, control over the Lumber River valley was heavily contested by British Loyalists and Patriots. Tensions raised by the war caused some whites to migrate out of the area, moving as far away as Canada.
Creation Robeson County was created by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1787 out of a western section of Bladen County. It was named for Thomas Robeson, a colonel who had led Patriot forces in the area during the Revolutionary War. General John Willis, owner of the Red Banks plantation, lobbied to have the county's new seat of government located on his land. The site, to be known as Lumberton, was chosen due to its central location in the county, proximity to a reliable ford of the Lumber River, and as it was where several roads intersected. The first county courthouse was a wooden residence sold by Willis, which was moved into place after the land was cleared.
Lumberton served as county residents' primary area of commerce for much of the area's early history, as transportation links with major regional cities elsewhere were tenuous. The 1790 United States census recorded 5,356 county residents, of whom five percent were free blacks. The county's first U.S. Post Office was established there by 1796. That year settlers moved up the Lumber River and established Robeson's second white community, Princess Anne. Much of the county's geography was not officially understood by surveyors until the early 1800s. The county's boundaries were modified and remarked several times between 1788 and 1832.
Antebellum Initially, wheat, corn, rice, sugar cane, and potatoes were popular crops among Robesonian farmers. The proliferation of the cotton gin and rising demand for cotton led it to be rapidly adopted, and Robeson County became one of the state's major cotton-producing counties throughout much of the 1800s. Wealthy white planters held the best land in the county, and often outcompeted smallholding Indian and white farmers due to the aid of enslaved labor, creating stark class divisions. Cotton demand facilitated the growth of slavery and the expansion of plantations. By 1850, the county had a population of 7,290 whites, 4,365 enslaved people, and 1,171 free persons of color.
In 1835 a new Constitution of North Carolina was ratified, which restricted the ability of "free persons of color" and "free persons of mixed blood" to vote and bear arms. While having previously enjoyed the same political rights as white people, Native Americans were disenfranchised by the new constitution. White farmers in Robeson County also sought ways to obtain Native Americans' land or labor. According to Indian oral tradition, the "tied mule" incidents were emblematic of this. In these scenarios, a farmer would tie his mule to an Indian's land and release some of his cattle there before bringing local authorities to the scene to accuse the Indian landowner of theft. Doubtful of a fair trial in the courts, an Indian would settle with the farmer by offering him a portion of land or free labor. By the 1860s, many Indians were landless. The legal discrimination and exploitative practices heightened racial tensions in the area.
In 1848, a new county courthouse was constructed to replace the original building. Lumberton was formally incorporated four years later. In 1860, the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad was laid through the county as its first railway. By April 1861, the line reached the town of Shoe Heel—later known as Maxton. The introduction of the railroad facilitated the creation of new towns in the county.
Civil War North Carolina seceded from the United States in 1861 and joined the Confederate States of America to fight in the American Civil War. Many Indians and Buckskin whites were unenthusiastic about the war; most local supporters of the Confederate cause were wealthy or well-educated. Some Indian men enlisted in the Confederate States Army, though it is unknown whether they were accepted as recognized Indians or passed as white. Major white enslavers were exempted from service, as were those wealthy enough to pay for surrogates to serve in their place.
In 1863, Confederate authorities began conscripting the Indians and other free persons of color for labor along the coast, especially at Fort Fisher. The Indians were usually tasked to either construct batteries or grind salt. Most found the work dangerous and monotonous, and the conditions at the labor camps were poor. Many consequently fled into the swamps of Robeson County to avoid conscription. Though some Indians still sought to serve in the army during this time, by late 1863, most had concluded that the Confederacy was an oppressive regime. This change in attitudes was brought on by their contact with Union prisoner-of-war escapees from the Florence Stockade, away in South Carolina. Indians became increasingly willing to help the Union soldiers escape and avoid recapture.