Charlotte Walking Tours

See the Charlotte Walking Tours map

Welcome to Charlotte! As you move through the center city, or "uptown," you will see an old city dominated by new buildings. This tour will show you some traces of the past that are still detectable to the visitor on foot and highlight evidence of recent and current literary life in a city dedicated to business and economic growth.

Visitors with the time for research will want to consult Georgeann Eubanks, Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont: A Guidebook (Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press, 2010). Her chapter on Charlotte points out the sights, of course, and also includes quotations of poetry and prose about Charlotte.

The city of Charlotte, North Carolina, was founded in 1768 at the crossroads of two Native American pathways. Its citizens bonded in revolutionary solidarity during the War for Independence. They grew cotton and even mined gold in the antebellum period. They thought they were carrying on their ancestors’ revolutionary tradition by opting again for independence in 1861 as a way to protect their economic interests.

Railroads, textile mills, and banking have enriched Charlotte and drawn new people to the city in the century and a half since the end of the Civil War. Its literature reflects the conflict between remembering old ways and realizing the potential of the future, especially in matters concerning equity and justice in race relations.