Editing Salisbury, North Carolina (section)

==History==
[[File:Rowan County Courthouse Salisbury North Carolina.jpg|thumb|left|Old Rowan County Courthouse in Salisbury, 1934]]
[[File:PhC 25 453.jpg|thumb|left|Main Street (1914)]]
[[File:A doffer boy. Salisbury, N.C. - NARA - 523137.jpg|thumb|Child laborer in Salisbury, 1908]]

In 1753, an appointed Anglo-European trustee for Rowan County was directed to enter {{convert|40|acres|}} of land for a County Seat, and public buildings were erected. The deed is dated February 11, 1755, when [[John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville]] conveyed {{convert|635|acres|}} for the "Salisbury Township".<ref name='Rumple'>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofrowanco00rump#page/76/mode/2up|title=A history of Rowan County, North Carolina: with Sections on Prominent Families and Distinguished Men|author=Rumple, Jethro Rev.|publisher=J.J. Bruner, Salisbury, North Carolina, republished by the DAR in 1916|year=1881|access-date=May 14, 2019}}</ref> The settlement was built at the intersection of longtime Native American trading routes. It became an economic hub along what was improved as the [[Great Wagon Road]] in North Carolina.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/9780738598420/Salisbury|title=''Salisbury''|website=arcadiapublishing.com|access-date=17 April 2018}}</ref> It became the principal city of the [[Salisbury District, North Carolina|Salisbury judicial and militia districts]] in the years leading up to the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref name='Rumple'/>  On June 12, 1792, Salisbury was granted a US Post Office. Its first postmaster was George Lauman. This post office has been in continuous operation ever since.<ref name=Lewis>{{cite web|url=http://www.carolana.com/NC/Towns/Salisbury_NC.html|title=A History of Salisbury, North Carolina|author=Lewis, J.D.|access-date=February 20, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.salisburypost.com/2011/07/22/remembering-bygone-days-of-rowan-mills/|title=Remembering bygone days of Rowan Mills|author=Salisbury Post|date=July 22, 2011}}</ref>

During the United States [[American Civil War|Civil War]], Salisbury was home to the first and only [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] Prison in North Carolina, used to house captured Union [[Prisoner of war|prisoners-of-war (POWs)]], dissident Southerners, and Confederate defectors. On July 9, 1861, six weeks after North Carolina declared secession from the Union, the Confederate government asked [[Henry Toole Clark|Governor Henry T. Clark]] if the state could provide a place to hold prisoners of war (POWs). The 20-year-old Maxwell Chambers textile mill in Salisbury, then vacant, was retrofitted for that purpose. The prison was only designed to hold up to 2,500 prisoners, but by 1864, more than 10,000 prisoners had arrived due to the [[Atlanta in the American Civil War|fall of Atlanta]] and the ongoing [[Richmond in the American Civil War|siege of Richmond, Virginia]]. By February 1865, prisoners were  transferred out of the Salisbury prison, and in April 1865, Union Major [[George Stoneman]] destroyed the prison and other Confederate installations collectively known as the Salisbury Arsenal. The next month, Federal troops occupied the town, and in early September 1865 the Union commander turned over civil control of Salisbury to local town officials.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Confederate Prison (Salisbury) {{!}} NCpedia |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/confederate-prison-salisbury |access-date=2024-01-04 |website=Ncpedia.org}}</ref> The [[Salisbury National Cemetery]] was established on a portion of the former prison site, starting because of thousands of Union soldiers who died while imprisoned.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Salisbury National Cemetery--Civil War Era National Cemeteries: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary |url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/north_carolina/salisbury_national_cemetery.html |access-date=2024-01-04 |website=Nps.gov}}</ref>

In the antebellum period and after the American Civil War, Salisbury was the trading city of an upland area devoted to cultivation of cotton as a commodity crop. It was also the business and law center of the county. Numerous houses and other structures were built by wealthy planters and merchants in this period. In the late 19th century, the city was served by railroads, becoming a railroad hub as people and freight were transported along the eastern corridor.

After three black men were [[lynching|lynched]] in Salisbury in 1906, one of the lynchers was prosecuted. This resulted in the first conviction for lynching in North Carolina, and one of the first in the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clegg |first=Claude Andrew |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/768084141 |title=Troubled ground : a tale of murder, lynching, and reckoning in the New South |date=2010 |isbn=978-0-252-09009-7 |location=Urbana [Ill.] |oclc=768084141|author-link=Claude Clegg}}</ref>

In the 20th century, Salisbury's economy grew into an industrial-based economy. Entrepreneurs developed the textile industry for processing cotton, first, and numerous textile mills operated in the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isjl.org/north-carolina-salisbury-encyclopedia.html|title=Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities – Salisbury, North Carolina Salisbury|publisher=Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life|year=2017}}</ref>

The industry owners moved their jobs and mills offshore in the late 20th century, to areas with cheaper labor costs. This change cost the city and area many jobs, and unemployment rose for a period. Since 2000, the city's population has grown rapidly, with people attracted to the city's resources and amenities.