The French Heritage of North Carolina

There is a significant French heritage in North Carolina. The first European explorers to the North Carolina region were, in fact, French (1524). French Huguenots migrated to the state as early as 1690, and many North Carolinians have family names of French origin.

Towns such as Bath, Beaufort, New Bern, and La Grange are a testimony to French settlers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the city of Fayetteville is named after the Marquis de Lafayette, a French ally during the American Revolution.

Beyond names, North Carolina has many other remnants of the French presence. With materials gathered from archives, libraries, interviews, and photographs, this book traces the French heritage in North Carolina from its origins to the present, an important part of North Carolina’s cultural history.

<Dudley M. Marchi is a professor of humanities at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. His previous books are on Michel de Montaigne (inventor of the essay) and French-American relations.

Dudley M. Marchi
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 284
Bibliographic Info: 77 photos, appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2021
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8543-4
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4384-7
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1
Prologue 7
Introduction 11
Chapter 1. First Discoveries 21
Chapter 2. Huguenot Migrations 27
Chapter 3. Bath 47
Chapter 4. La Colonie Perdue 53
Chapter 5. New Bern 70
Chapter 6. French and Indian War 83
Chapter 7. Beaufort 85
Chapter 8. French North Carolina 102
Chapter 9. Entr’acte 122
Chapter 10. Revolutionary Allies 124
Chapter 11. Crusoe Island 154
Chapter 12. Notable Names 163
Chapter 13. Le Pied du Mont 176
Chapter 14. Go West, Monsieur 194
Chapter 15. Biltmore 212
Chapter 16. Vive le Sud! 217
Chapter 17. French North Carolina Today 237
Epilogue 259
Appendix 1: Family Names 261
Appendix 2: Names in Phone Directories 263
Appendix 3: French North Carolina Place Names 265
Appendix 4: Names of French Origin: The N.C. Gazetteer 268
Appendix 5: Cemetery Records 268
Bibliography 271
Index 275

“Rewarding…The author’s convivial, inquisitive voice acts as a friendly companion throughout. …clearly a labor of love.”—The North Carolina Historical Reviews