Origins of the Tar Heel nickname for North Carolina

North Carolina is known as the “Old North State” and the “Tar Heel State.” The University of North Carolina’s mascot is the Tar Heels. But there isn’t total agreement on where the nickname started.

When I was in elementary school, most of the attribution for the nickname had Civil War roots. The most common I read was that Gen. Stonewall Jackson supposedly said after an early battle that the North Carolina troops fought like they had tar on their heels, meaning they held their position. This doesn’t seem to be accurate.

North Carolina in the early days was known for its naval stores — raw goods used in the shipbuilding industry. Tar, turpentine, and pitch were chief among the state’s exports due to the abundance of pine trees.

People in other states started referring to North Carolinians as Tar Burners and Tar Boilers (there is the Tar River, also, a topic for another blog post) and the state as the Turpentine State or the Tar and Turpentine State and the terms were not meant as a compliment. They were usually not used by people from the state, either.

Working in naval stores was messy and stirring a pot caused the tar to get everywhere, including on the worker — hands and feet, and it was hard to get off. One legend says that people would see a worker and remark, “Look at that tar heel.”

There is a reference to a general making the Tar Heel remark at Bull Run/Manassas, and in a newspaper reference after a battle in Tennessee. There was also mention of some back and forth with South Carolina troops when a North Carolina soldier mentioned that “tar sticks” when he was called a Tar Heel, but the answer was “when the fire gets hot, the tar runs.”

It’s also recorded that a regiment of Virginia troops passing a North Carolina regiment suggested that the men stick their feet down and stick. North Carolina troops learned to snap back and after they were called Tar Heels by some Mississippi men after the Battle of Fredericksburg, the shout went back that if Mississippi had had some of that tar, maybe they would have stuck to the lines better and not had to have been rescued.

Enter Governor Zeb Vance, a staunch Union man who switched his allegiance after Lincoln called for troops. Vance was giving a speech to troops in Virginia after he’d left his post as a Colonel to become governor. He told the group he couldn’t call them fellow citizens, because some were from Virginia, and he couldn’t say fellow troops because he was no longer in the army, but “… I have concluded to address you as fellow Tar Heels.”

Vance may have been the most popular governor in state history and the term was no longer considered insulting once he claimed it. Gen. Robert E. Lee also wrote Vance praising the North Carolina troops after the Battle of Reams Station (documented) and is reported to have said “Thank God for those Tar Heel boys.” (not documented).

There is a town named Tar Heel in Bladen County and UNC adopted the nickname in the 1920s. It’s often misused as one word and is used in the name of many businesses and organizations.

Sources:

North Carolina Parade by Richard Walser and Julia Montgomery Street

“Tar Heel” by Michael Taylor, NCPedia