Robeson County, North Carolina

Robeson County is in the of. As of 2004, the county had a population of 126,469-- an increase of 2.54% from the 2000 census. Robeson County was incorporated in from, and was named in honor of Col. of for his  service. While Col. Robeson never lived in the county that now bears his name, toward the end of the war in 1781, he and 70 colonial rebels defeated an army of 400 loyalists at the Battle of Elizabethtown.

is the.

Geography
Robeson County is bounded by the state of, and the counties of , , , , and.

According to the, the county has a total area of 2,463 (951 ), making it the largest in. 2,457 km² (949 sq mi) of it is land and 6 km² (2 sq mi) of it (0.23%) is water. Thus, the topography is mostly level to undulating, largely comprised of and coastal dunes with elevations above mean sea level that vary from 60 feet in the extreme southeastern portion of the county to 250 feet in the north, to the west of. Moreover, numerous swamps that generally flow in a northwest to southeast course, characterize the area and eventually drain into the Lumbee, or. The highest density of swamps is in that part of the county that is most populated by the Indian Tribe of.

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 123,339 people, 43,677 households, and 32,015 families residing in the county. The was 50/km² (130/sq mi). There were 47,779 housing units at an average density of 19/km² (50/sq mi).

As of 2000, the racial makeup of the county was:
 * 38.02%
 * 32.80% or
 * 25.11% or
 * 4.86% or  of any race
 * 0.33%
 * 0.06%
 * 2.26% from
 * 1.41% from two or more races

In 2005 29.1% of the county population was non-Hispanic whites. 38.5% of the population was Native Americans. 24.3% of the population was African American. 7.4% of the population was Latino.

Native Americans
The Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina comprises more than one-half the state of 's indigenous population of 84,000. With a population of 58,443, reflecting a 34.5% increase from the 1980 population of 43,465 members, the Lumbee reside primarily in Robeson,, , and counties. In Robeson County alone, there are currently 46,869 Lumbee Indians out of a total county population of 123,339, and thus, the Lumbee make up 38.02%, making them the largest racial/ethnic group in the county. In fact, the Lumbee are also the largest tribal nation east of the, the ninth largest tribal nation, and the largest non-reservation tribe of in the.

Several Lumbee communities are located within Robeson County, including, New Hope, Back Swamp, , Saddletree, Raft Swamp, Deep Branch, Union Chapel, Evan's Cross Roads, and Red Banks. These settlements are, for the most part, separated from one another by populations of non-Indian people.

Households
There were 43,677 households out of which 37.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.60% were living together, 20.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.70% were non-families. 22.70% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.20.

In the county the population was spread out with 29.00% under the age of 18, 10.60% from 18 to 24, 29.30% from 25 to 44, 21.10% from 45 to 64, and 10.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 94.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.20 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $28,202, and the median income for a family was $32,514. Males had a median income of $26,646 versus $20,599 for females. The for the county was $13,224. About 19.60% of families and 22.80% of the population were below the, including 30.00% of those under age 18 and 25.30% of those age 65 or over.

History


Archaeological excavation performed in Robeson County reveals a long and rich history of widespread and consistent occupation of the region, most especially near the since the end of the last. Local excavations indicate that peoples made stone tools using materials brought into present-day Robeson County from the Carolina Piedmont. The large amounts of ancient pottery found at some Robeson County sites have been dated to the early, and suggest that settlements around the river were part of an extensive trade network with other regions. If anything, portions of the river basin show that Robeson County was a "zone of cultural interactions." After colonial contact, European-made items, such as tobacco pipes, were traded by the Spanish, French, and the English to  peoples of the coast, and found their way to the Robeson County region long before Europeans established permanent settlements along the.

Swamps, streams, and artesian wells provided an excellent supply of water for Native peoples. Fish was plentiful, and the regions lush vegetation included numerous food crops. "" continue to dot the landscape, and, if the sheer number of 10,000 year old s found along their banks are any indication, Native peoples found these unique depressions filled with water to be ideal campsites.

Colonial Incursions
Early written sources specific to the Robeson County region are few for the post-contact period of European colonization. Surveyors for the Wineau factory charted a village of Indians on the, a few miles west of the present-day town of  on a map in 1725. In 1754, North Carolina Governor Arthur Dobbs received a report from his agent, Col. Rutherford, the head of a militia, that a "mixed crew" of 50 Indian families were living along Drowning Creek. The communication also reported the shooting of a surveyor who entered the area "to view vacant lands." These are the first written account of the Native peoples from whom the descend.

Refugees
encompassed a portion of what is today Robeson County, and the was at this time called by English colonials, "Drowning Creek." After the violent upheavals of the of 1715-1717, and the  of 1711-1715, families of  Indians had left  in 1718, and had very likely established a village west of present-day  by 1725. The “mixed crew” that Rutherford observed in 1754 were located in the same locale as the earlier Waccamaw settlement.

The research of the noted anthropologist, of the  corroborates much of the oral tradition of the  Indians of Robeson County. Swanton posited that the were the descendants of  peoples of which the most prominent were the  and Keyauwee. These communities that would later comprise the would also have included  refugee groups of the Eno, Shakori, as well as coastal groups such as the  and. Interestingly, colonial migrants to the present-day Robeson County basin came into contact with an acculturated population of  who reportedly spoke some English, owned European trade goods, and used primitive English-style farm tools in their agricultural pursuits. By then, English, speaking, and Welsh colonials had begun to make their way from present-day , to , and eventually, to Drowning Creek, or the present-day. Critical to keep in mind is that at the same time that Native peoples were fleeing into the Robeson County region and seeking refuge from the incalculable destruction of warfare and disease, European colonials were in pursuit, attempting to gain a foothold, then wrest control of the resessed region of Robeson County.

By the mid-eighteenth century, Indians continued to populate the basin area and its numerous tributaries. slowly moved into and established settlements, but overall, they initially lived on the periphery of those lands to which the ancestors of the Lumbee had managed to secure title with the colonial administration of North Carolina. The main Indian settlements during the late eighteenth century were and Red Banks. Individual land ownership by had far-reaching consequences for the history of Robeson County in that Native peoples were less subject to the political and economic dominance of, managing to live in a homogeneous network of settlements that provided social and cultural security.

Nineteenth Century
By the middle of the nineteenth century however, settlement patterns had shifted: now ancestral settlements were interspersed among faster growing  communities, and the name of the region's river was changed again. A lottery was used to dispose of lots with which to establish. The town was later incorporated in, and John Willis proposed the name "Lumberton" for the site, the name of which derives from either the Lumbee, or , or is a reference to the lumber and naval stores industry that began to dominate, and continued to dominate the economy of Robeson County throughout the nineteenth century. The section of the Lumbee, or where  is located was known throughout that century as "Drowning Creek", a name by which portions of the river are still known. But then, in 1809, Drowning Creek was renamed the.

The first courthouse was erected on land which formed a part of the "Red Bluff Plantation" owned by  founder, John Willis. Robeson County's post office was established in, and much like today, from the end of the eighteenth- to the mid-nineteenth centuries, numerous languages could be heard throughout Robeson County: the of the highland Scots and the , English, and one can speculate, remnant , , and  languages of the ancestral.

The Civil War
By the beginning of the, most attempted to eke out an impoverished existence. Their status had continued to decline. Since 1790, in the southern states were enumerated as "free persons of color" on the local and federal census. By 1835, and in the wake of the convergence of three historical events, 's Rebellion, the ratification of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention, and, they were summarily stripped of their previously held right to vote, serve on juries, own and use firearms, and to learn to read and write. The gradual dispossession of tribal lands accelerated, and Robeson County's regarded the local  slave-owning elite as robbers and oppressors.

Henry Berry Lowrie's War on Robeson County
Robeson County entered the in 1861. After a major epidemic the following year wherein 10 percent of the  region's population succumbed to the disease, and free labor either joined the war effort or fled the region, Indians, along with  slaves, were forcibly conscripted to build a system of forts intended to defend the Gibraltar of the South,, near. 's adjutant general, John C. Gorman noted in his reports that Robeson County's conscription of several years duration especially impacted, "Scuffletown [which] was included in the impressment and almost ever able-bodied male in the [Indian] settlements was dragged from home and railroaded to the coast." was then known as "Scuffletown," and three of the "able-bodied" Indians to which Gorman referred were the cousins of who, after escaping from the disease-ridden conditions of, were murdered by a local member of Robeson County's home guard.

At this same time, and his army began to push their way toward Robeson County. After his army sacked and burned on February 17, 1865, Robesonians to the north held their breath. Washington Chaffin, a prominent  minister in  nervously speculated in his diary about what the county could expect from Sherman and the s. At the same time, Chaffin made reference to the young Indian,  and his  band's campaign against those local Robeson County  elites who were "doing much mischief in this country." Moreover, they had "torn up and destroyed" elite homesteads. Paranoid about Sherman's imminent approach, and fearful of s in their midst, Robeson County's home guard, which included county magistrates, clergymen, and lawyers who largely represented the interests of the county's planter class, raided the farmstead of Allen Lowrie, 's father, and murdered the old man and one of his sons. swore revenge, and two days after Allen and William Lowrie's funerals, local guides helped Sherman's army cross the  through torrential rains and into. According to Sherman, the trek across the, and through the s, s, and creeks of Robeson County "was the damnest marching I ever saw." And for the next ten years, Robeson County was at war with, the community, and its poor  and  residents.

Twentieth Century
Until late in the 20th Century, Robeson County was a center of activity and support in. On January 18,, armed  chased off an estimated 50  and supporters led by grand wizard  at the town of  in the.

Law and government
Robeson County is a member of the regional.

Adjacent Counties

 * - north-northeast
 * - east
 * - southeast
 * - southwest
 * - west
 * - northwest
 * - north-northwest

Notable Robesonians

 * is the mother of the deceased rapper, and was an early member of the.
 * represents North Carolina's 7th Congressional district in the.
 * , born in, is the starting offensive lineman for the of the.
 * Rebecca Revels is former Miss North Carolina
 * , a Indian and culture hero of the  and  Indian Tribes of  was a pioneer in the fight for the indigenous rights of Indians and the  of African Americans during the  and Reconstruction.
 * , journalist for .
 * , is the men's basketball coach of the at . He previously held the same position at  (1981-86),  (1988-94) and the  (1994-2006).
 * is a correspondent.
 * is a professional wrestler better known as, "Tatanka" and "The War Eagle," and is a member of the (WWE).
 * , entrepreneur from, often called "the father of ".
 * , a Native American Activist who was the first person to be charged under the 1984 Anti-Terrorist Act for holding the Robesonian Newspaper hostage.
 * , born in Lumberton, is a player and currently a  in the  for the.