Waxhaws

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The Waxhaws is a geographical area on the border of North and South Carolina.

1 Geography
- 1.1 History
- 1.2 Present
2 External Links
3 Notes

[edit] Geography

The Waxhaws region is in the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, southwest of the Uwharrie Mountains. The region encompasses an area just south of Charlotte, North Carolina to Lancaster, South Carolina, and from the Catawba River in the west to Monroe, North Carolina in the east. It is generally forested and hilly, but not mountainous. One town in the region has taken on the name, but is only one corner of the region.

[edit] History

Originally known as "the Waxhaw Settlement," The area was named for its first inhabitants, the Waxhaw Tribe. The Waxhaw were almost annihilated by disease and by the Yamasee War of 1715, leaving the area mostly empty. About 1740 the area began to be settled by European immigrants, mostly Scots-Irish and German immigrants. The Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Church was built in 1752.^[1]

Andrew Jackson, 7th president of the United States, was born and raised in the Waxhaws. The exact site of his birth is uncertain; Jackson himself claimed that it was in a cabin on the South Carolina side of the border, but there is a strong local tradition that he was born north of the border.^[1]

During the American Revolution, the people of the Waxhaws put up a fierce resistance to the British, notably under the command of Col. William Davies. The most important event of the war in the region, however, did not involve locals. This was the Waxhaw massacre, in which a force of about 350 Virginian Continentals under Abraham Buford was defeated by a Loyalist force led by Banastre Tarleton. The battle took place at what is now Buford, South Carolina.^[2]

During the American Civil War, Sherman's army came through parts of the region.

The Belk department store chain was founded in 1888, in Monroe, North Carolina.

[edit] Present

The Waxhaw region is largely rural with a number of small towns, the remnants of a textile industry, and a fair number of new industries. This region is modernizing tolerably well, aided by the proximity of Charlotte. The western parts of the Waxhaws have already become suburbs of Charlotte.