Additional Resources

This page contains a curated list of resources on the history of the North Carolina Constitution. To the extent possible, links are to publicly accessible copies of the sources listed. Where that is not possible, the link directs to an online database.

Books

John V. Orth and Paul M. Newby, The North Carolina State Constitution (2013)

Articles

Harold J. Counihan, The North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1835: A Study in Jacksonian Democracy, 46 N.C. Hist. Rev. 335 (1969)

Samuel Davis, Popular Sovereignty, Democratic Equality, and the Past and Future North Carolina Constitution, 102 N.C. L. Rev. F. 128 (2024)

Marcus Gadson, North Carolina’s Constitution of Contrasts, State Court Report (2025)

M. T. Van Hecke, A New Constitution for North Carolina, 12 N.C. L. Rev. 193 (1934)

Earle H. Ketcham, The Sources of the North Carolina Constitution of 1776 (1929)

Harry C. Martin, The State as a Font of Individual Liberties: North Carolina Accepts the Challenge, 70 N.C. L. Rev. 1749 (1992)

John V. Orth & William S. Powell, Constitution, State, NCpedia (2006)

John V. Orth, Fundamental Principles in North Carolina Constitutional History, 69 N.C. L. Rev. 1357 (1991)

John V. Orth, North Carolina Constitutional History, 70 N.C. L. Rev. 1759 (1992)

John L. Sanders, Our Constitutions: An Historical Perspective (1995)

Joseph F. Steelman, Origins of the Campaign for Constitutional Reform in North Carolina, 1912-1913, 56 N.C. Hist. Rev. 396 (1979)

University of North Carolina Law Review, Vol. 70, No. 6, Symposium—the Law of the Land (1992)

Convention and Commission Records

North Carolina’s Fifth Provincial Congress of 1776

Journal of the Convention of 1835

Journal of the Convention of 1868

Journal of the Convention of 1875

Report of the North Carolina Constitutional Commission (1959)

Government Publications

NCPedia, State Library of North Carolina

Other Databases and Publications

North Carolina History Project

University of North Carolina, Research Guide: North Carolina Constitution, Statutes & Ordinances

2011-2012 North Carolina Manual