A Spanish conquistador hunts for gold. Colonists vanish from the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Pirates lurk among the many islands and inlets along the coast. Colonists and Native Americans battle fiercely in the Tuscarora War. The early history of North Carolina reads like the ultimate adventure novel, and the story accelerates when thousands of Scotch-Irish and German immigrants flock to the colony, making it the fourth largest on the eve of the American Revolution.

Readers of this dramatic history will also relish episodes such as the bloody showdown at Alamance Creek, the Edenton Tea Party, and the Battle at Moore's Creek Bridge—all important markers along the road to statehood and victory in the war for American independence.

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