what type of food is north carolina known for
Culture of North Carolina A nationally-famous cuisine from North Carolina is pork barbecue and bacon. In Eastern North Carolina pork barbecue uses a vinegar-based sauce and the "whole hog" is cooked, thus using both white and dark meat. While there is not one town in Eastern NC that can claim to be the indisputable "capital" of Eastern North Carolina barbecue, the medium-sized cities of Greenville and Goldsboro and their surrounding communities boast the highest concentrations of highly ranked establishments.[citation needed] The annual Newport Pig Pickin' (the largest whole pig cooking contest in North Carolina)[citation needed] is held featuring primarily eastern-style barbecue. Western North Carolina pork barbecue uses a tomato and vinegar based sauce and only the pork shoulder (dark meat) is used. The "capital" of western Carolina barbecue is indisputably the Piedmont Triad town of Lexington, home of the Lexington Barbecue Festival which brings in over 100,000 visitors each October.
History of North Carolina During the first half of the nineteenth century, North Carolina remained a rural state, with no cities and few villages. Most whites operated small subsistence farms, but the eastern part of the state had a growing class of planters, especially after 1800 when cotton became highly profitable due to the invention of the cotton gin, which enabled cultivation of short-staple cotton in the uplands. All cotton cultivation as a commodity crop was dependent on the slave labor of African Americans. Politically the state was highly democratic, as heated elections pitted the Democratic east versus the Whiggish west. After the fire and ensuing battle on Fort Sumter in April 1861, North Carolina seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America. More soldiers from North Carolina fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War than from any other state, but few major battles were fought here. During the early years of Reconstruction, strides were made at integrating the newly freed slaves into society. Whites regained political power by violence and in 1899, disfranchised blacks through a new constitution, imposing Jim Crow and white supremacy.