Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a native of North Carolina.

1775		N.C. Gazette 24 Mar. 3/3: Then arose Pinuspixterebinthus the Tar-Burner, who had set more than three Thousand three Hundred four Score and seventeen Kilns [DA].
1808		Norfolk Gazette 16 Mar. 2/4: According to the arithmetick of the ignorant ‘Tarburners,’ [this] would amount to eleven hundred and fifty dollars [DA].
1845		St Louis (MO) Reveille 14 May 2/4: The inhabitants of [...] North Carolina [are called ] Tar-boilers [DA].
1846		Jeffersonian Republican (PA) 18 June 1/3: Haywood, a gallant man of the tar burners of North Carolina.
1862		in R.G. Carter Four Brothers in Blue (1978) 14 Sept. 106: He turned his angry face toward the elongated ‘Tar-heeler.’.
1866		Montana Post (Virginia City, MT) 28 Apr. 4/1: The inhabitants of [...] North Carolina [are called] Tar-Boilers.
1869		‘South-Western Sl.’ in Overland Monthly (CA) Aug. 128: A story is related of a brigade of North Carolinians, who, in one of the great battles, (Chancellorsville, if I remember correctly) failed to hold a certain hill, and were laughed at by the Mississippians for having forgotten to tar their heels that morning. Hence originated their cant name, ‘Tar-heels.’.
1870		in Overland Monthly (CA) May 420: This specimen of the Tar-heel [...] staring at you with lustreless eyes, is a veritable production of the piny woods.
1871		Semi-Wkly Lousianian (New Orleans) 31 Aug. 1/3: North Carolina, tar boilers.
1882		Nat. Repub. (Wash. City) 18 July 3/2: The Marquis and the Tar-boiler discussed the Egyptian question [...] ‘Aw, England is a big bully,’ said the Tar-boiler.
1884		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 3 May 2/4: A North Carolina tar burner, whose cabin was literally demolished in [...] heavy winds.
1885		Whitman ‘Sl. in America’ in North Amer. Rev. Nov. 433: Those from [...] . . . North Carolina, Tar Boilers.
1885		Sun (NY) 6 June 2/4: [headline] Tar Heelers at the White House.
1890		(con. 1860s) J.O. Kerbey On the War Path 273: The first Confederate soldier killed was a tar-heel.
1901		Laurens Advertiser (SC) 17 Apr. 2/1: The rascals were trying the same game on Tar Heelers in North Carolina.
1915		Wash. Herald 17 Jan. 5/2: [headline] Tar Heelers to Make Merry.
1922		E. Murphy Black Candle 359: Copenhagen snuff is used by the ‘tar-heelers,’ of North Carolina.
1922		Wash. Herald 8 Oct. 5/2: The Yale Bulldogs met the North Carolina Tar Heelers.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 98: We concluded to pick on one of the North Carolina jugs [...] the Tar Heels and I have some controversy over the job.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: a tar heel . . . a Southern soldier.
1965		A. Green in Journal of Amer. Folklore 🌐 At one time or another Southern local colorists used these analogs for poor white: [...] swamprat, tarheel, hillbilly.
1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 172: Tarheel Anyone from the Carolinas, where producing hemp tar was a major industry in colonial and post-revolutionary days. Formerly derisive, but adopted as a general nickname.
1983		N. Proffitt Gardens of Stone (1985) 40: Yes, I’m a native Tar Heel, born and raised in Wilmington.
2013		NY Times Online 31 Dec. 🌐 Mr Nyang’oro [was] ‘a determined Tar Heeler’ who often went to North Carolina basketball games.