Riding an ore bucket, miners ascend a shaft at the Gold Hill Mine in Rowan County. Industry in antebellum North Carolina developed as an adjunct to agriculture. Although nineteenth-century Tar Heels mined limited quantities of iron and coal, it was gold that captivated the state's fancy. Begun on a part-time basis by Cabarrus and Mecklenburg County farmers, the gold-mining industry in North Carolina employed some 30,000 laborers and ranked second only to agriculture in economic importance at its height.

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