Robeson County, North Carolina: History
=== Early history and colonial era ===
Indigenous people have lived in the region as early as 20,000 BC, though little is known about those who lived there in the pre-colonial and early colonial eras. Archeological excavations in the area eventually encompassing Robeson County have uncovered glass beads—often used by Native Americans in trade, pottery, and clay pipes. Archeologist Stanley Knick concluded that the land had been inhabited continuously from 12,000 BC in the early Paleo-Indian period through the Archaic and Woodland periods and up to the present. The earliest written mention of Native Americans in the area is a 1725 map compiled by John Herbert, which identified tribes near Drowning Creek—later known as the Lumber River.
The Native American/American Indian-descent people in the Lumber River valley eventually coalesced into a series of farming communities collectively dubbed "Scuffletown" by whites but known by inhabitants as "the Settlement". The date of Scuffletown's formation is unknown as was its actual location. Some scholars believe it was in the vicinity of the later town of Pembroke while others place it at Moss Neck. Historians Adolph Dial and David K. Eliades believed it was a mobile community. Others still believe the name applied broadly to any concentration of Indians in the area. Mary C. Noment, who wrote "The Lowry History," asserted that Robeson County had the largest free Black settlement in North Carolina, believing they were descended from runaway slaves, who were "free negros or mulattos", with one reporter referring to it as "The Mulatto Capital".
Culturally, the Scuffletonians were similar to other Europeans in their dress and style of homes. They were Protestant Christians and spoke English, though they spoke an "older form", which set them apart from later settlers. Not viewed as Native Americans by the state of North Carolina until the 1880s, these people were generally dubbed "mulattos" by locals and in federal documents throughout the mid-1800s to distinguish them from blacks. Genealogical and historical analysis shows many of their ancestors were free Black people in Virginia. The original Scuffletonians were joined by some whites and blacks in the mid-1700s, including some escaping enslavement. The earliest written record of white settlement dates from 1747 land deed applications. Migrants from free black communities to the north were also settling in the county in the mid-1700s.
The area eventually comprising Robeson County was not heavily settled by whites until about ten years before the American Revolution, when Highland Scots moved into the area. They formed a separate community from the Scuffletonians. The immigrants encompassed a range of class distinctions, from literate and aristocratic English-speaking families to poorer Scottish Gaelic-speakers, many of whom were indentured servants. The latter were called "Buckskins" due to their reputation for wearing pants made of deer leather. Gaelic remained spoken in the area as late as the 1860s. English and a few French settlers moved into the eastern portion of the eventual county.
Despite the increase in settlement, population levels in the Lumber River valley remained low for many years, as swamps and thick vegetation divided arable land and made transportation difficult. …