From its early years as a colony, North Carolina was an important source of tar, pitch, and turpentine – materials that were vital to the Royal Navy. This trade survived independence, continuing throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
According to the website of the University of North Carolina's Alumni Association, "workers who distilled turpentine from the sticky sap of pine trees, and burned pine boughs to produce tar and pitch, often went barefoot during hot summer months, and undoubtedly collected tar on their heels. To call someone a 'rosin heel' or 'tar heel' was to imply that they worked in a lowly trade.
"During the Civil War, North Carolina soldiers began calling themselves 'tar heels' as an expression of state pride. Others adopted the term, and North Carolina became widely known as the Tar Heel State."
© Haydn Thompson 2021