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.