Riding around the Backcountry is safe and in fact tourism now.

Ride around the backcountry and see the wineries with Yadkin Valley Wine Tours. I noticed in my research there was a summary of NC in 1790 when things settled down and the country finally had a constitution. Grapes were included as an asset of the state. The attitude toward slavery is evident and distasteful. I believe it was the Ronald Reagan half-a-loaf concept. It took another 100 years to correct it and it wasn't easy. The summary follows:

NORTH-CAROLINA.
The following minutes concerning the State of North-Carolina, will tend to shew the situation and prospects of that state.

A CENTRAL seat of state government has been fixed and a State House and other necessary public buildings, have been erected at the City of Raleigh.

A University for the Education of youth, has been lately established. Formerly a liberal education was sought, at a great expence, in the more northern states.

A light house has been completed at the mouth of Cape Fear River, on which lies Wilmington, the principal sea port. use to all the other ports of North-Carolina.

A lighted Beacon, at the important inlet of Occacock, is erected and is under the same circumstances.

The complete establishment of the settlements and State of Tennessee has relieved all the counties of North-Carolina, from the inconveniences and injuries of Indian neighbours. The Tennessee settlements and State contain above 100,000 persons.

There is no extensive portion of North-Carolina in a wilderness state. It is well divided into sixty four counties, each having a court-house, and intersecting roads, and there is not one of them, which have less than 10,000 inhabitants.

Iron ore is very abundant in North Carolina. There are iron works in most of the counties of the middle and in almost every county of the Western districts. They however are not capital.

Wheat, rye, indian corn, barley, oats, upland rice, indigo, tobacco, cotton, hemp, flax, the white or Irish potatoe, the red and yellow sweet potatoe, the pumpkin, the gourd, the water melon, the musk melon, the turnip, the carrot, the parsnip, the cabbage, the grape, the peach, the pear, the apricot, the nectarine, the plumb, the clover, blue grass, timothy, spear grass, and most of the productions of the northern, middle and southern states, are raised in North-Carolina. Tar, pitch, and turpentine, rozln, spirits of turpentine, ship timber, ship plank and boards, iron, and almost every important article for the building and equipment of ships, are made in North-Carolina.

The whole state of North-Carolina lies on the easterly or Atlantic side of the blue ridge or Appalachian mountain except a part of one single district out of eight districts into which the state is divided.

The natural growths of the Eastern districts of the state, are the pine of every denomination, with cypress, live oak, and red cedar. But all the various oaks, hickory or white walnut, chesnut, poplar, maple, buckeye, mulberry, black walnut and locust, the grape-vine and pea-vine, prevail in the middle and more western districts.

Horses, neat cattle, sheep, hogs, and other animals, usually raised by farmers, in the middle and northern states, and in Europe, abound and thrive in North-Carolina. The mildness of the winters is particularly favorable to them. Even in the most rough parts, North-Carolina is not represented to be a stony country. The hills and mountains are often rich and fertile, and are said to be very seldom what is called barren, in the more northern states.

The latitudes of this state correspond with those in Europe, most distinguished for the value of their wool, but it will always abound in cotton.

The latitudes of this state correspond with those of Europe, which produce abundant and valuable vintages. The western district is well adapted to the vine.

The population of the state is 344,807 free persons, besides blacks which are chiefly in the eastern districts.

It has much fewer slaves in proportion to whites, than Maryland, Virginia, South-Carolina, and Georgia. All these states, have prohibited the importation of slaves. In the western district of North-Carolina, not more than one person in 16 or 18 is a black--In Delaware, they are as 1 in 7, in New-Jersey as 1 in 16 or 18, in New-York, as 1 in 18.

This state abounds in mill seats, particularly in the middle and western districts--and has in those districts, great capacities for watering grounds.

The latitudes of North-Carolina are nearly those of Arabia, Barbary and Spain, which three countries produce the three finest breeds of horses in the world--A curious attention to the breeding, management and feeding of those three kinds of horses, has improved them greatly in more rigid climates, but without great care in all those particulars, the Arabian, Barbary, and Spanish horses degenerate in countries having a very severe winter. The ass and the male have thriven well, in the latitudes of the eastern continent, corresponding with those of North-Carolina.

The rivers emptying into the sea on the coasts of North-Carolina, Virginia, and South-Carolina, afford a very great share of inland navigation to the people of this state; and two important canals are now making, which will greatly extend the natural advantages of that kind. That of the Broad River, Pacolet and Santee, is made passable by boats.

In most of the countries, brick clay is more frequent and abundant, than stone.
The land rents of New-England and New-Jersey, are at this time higher, than the price of as good lands in North-Carolina. The British land rents are far higher.

The Quakers, and the Moravians and other Germans, have made considerable and thriving settlements in North-Carolina.

The cotton ginning mill by water, is erecting in many of the counties of North-Carolina, and particularly along the South-Carolina line. There are two or three in Rutherford county. At the little town Fayeteville alone 500,000 pounds of Cotton, in the seed, are annually brought to market.