16: Granddaughter Audrey is why we visited the Museum

17: The Museum says that the Judaculla Rock is the State's best known prehistoric rock art. They date it to 500 to 1,500 years ago. We don't know what the petroglyphs mean, or the language, stories or beliefs of the people who carved it.

18: Spanish Conquistadors came and left.

19: The graphic layout of this panel suggests that African Americans and Native Americans came to the State and settled the same way English and Scottish people did. The fine print in the African American bubble acknowledges that "most" African Americans "came" to the State as "enslaved laborers brought overland from neighboring colonies." The bubble for "Western Indians" states that Cherokees farmed throughout western North Carolina long before white settlers arrived. I could find no mention of the Trail of Tears that forced Cherokees, Muscogees (Creeks), Seminoles, Chickasaws, and Choctaws out of North Carolina. The bubble for "Eastern Indians" notes that their population "had diminished."

20: This reference to "cultural differences" feels like a euphamism for racism and white supremacy, but without blaming any one race for violence that ensued.

21: So, what was it that Eastern and Plains Indians survived from? And were the only survivors the ones who gave up their native culture and acclimated to white culture?

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23: "English brought their way of life to North Carolina." Does this mean that everyone else just chose to adopt that culture without anyone using any violence?

24: This panel expressed white aspirations to farm the "backcountry" and does not mention any "fight" until it attributes the "fight" to "Indians" who want to keep "it."

25: The Museum acknowledges here that slavery was a "harsh system" that "often tore families apart" -- but not until it first mentions that a few African Americans gained their freedom. There is no attribution here to whomever made this "system" so "harsh."

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27: This is the Museum's interactive exhibit.

28: This panel recognized that in the early 19th Century, North Carolina's governmental power was disproportionately held by "wealthy planters in Eastern North Carolina." They "refused to fund improvements to benefit the entire state." To fix this terrible problem, North Carolina adopted a new state constitution in 1835 that finally brought "balance" to political power. From this description, one might think that women, Native Americans and African Americans were finally and fairly represented in the North Carolina State House. May I also feel relieved that the Eastern "planters" got wealthy by planting their crops themselves and not using any violence to make anyone else do it for them?

29: This is the Museum's picture of "Social Order," while the panel makes clear that this was the order in "antebellum" society. Thank goodness we don't have any such social order today.

30: In this conflict between a state flag that emphasized its connection to the nation, and one that did not, North Carolina chose the one that did not, and still has it today.

31: This is the Museum's prominent image of slavery -- depicting an old-fashioned house. The panel's last sentence blames the occupants for failing to preserve their possessions to tell their story.

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34: This is the clearest portrayal of the violence of slavery I could find in the Museum: a branding iron used to scar the cheeks of a 14-year-old slave, Peter, who, in 1787, assisted his brother, Darby, to kill their "owner" with an ax. Darby was burned at the stake. The panel says the ax murder was a "rare" act of violent resistance.

35: Meanwhile, this panel says that work slow-downs and "slipping away for short periods" was "routine[]" while violence against whites occurred "less often." The major function of militias was to supress slave uprisings. The panels ends by noting that the militias pleaded for more firearms without saying if they ever used them.

36: This panel comes close to acknowledging racism. It states that because "dark skin denoted servitude, free blacks -- especially successful ones -- created a dilemma." "Their enterprise contradicted the assumption of inferiority on which the entire system rested." The panel concludes by noting that the 1835 state "balancing" constitution deprived all blacks of the right to vote.

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38: The side panel about "Lydia" explains that she was assaulted by an owner after she tried to flee a beating around 1809. The North Carolina Supreme Court confirmed that such an assault was entirely within the rights of ownership. The main panel describes the ways that slave owners can profit from slave labor and the sale of children. Also, many poor whites supported slavery because they dreamed of becoming slave owners.

39: This panel explains that "slavery affected everyone." It built buildings, canals, roads and railways. The panel does not say the word "racism" and this panel does not mention any violence.

40: We jump here to the Sit-In Movement.

41: Sufferage for white women, prohibition of alcohol and opposition to lynching, share this panel on the Social Movements of the 1900s. It notes that lynching continued.

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44: North Carolina State House.

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