Located midway between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta in the Piedmont Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point), Greensboro is surrounded by gently rolling hills and plentiful green trees.
It was named, however, for Gen. Nathanael Greene whose band of 4,400 rebels fought 1,900 British redcoats led by Lord Cornwallis in a vicious battle on March 15, 1781 at Guilford Courthouse. Though Cornwallis won, he lost a quarter of his troops which eventually led to his defeat and the end of the American Revolution seven months later.
First home to Saura and Keyauwee Indians, the Greensboro area was settled mainly by German, Welsh and English Quakers, and Scotch-Irish pioneers around 1740. When residents decided in 1807 to create a new county seat, they purchased 42 acres for $98 and named it after the patriot Greene.
Now a thriving Southern community full of cultural and outdoor attractions, it is a center for insurance, textile manufacturing, transportation, and is home to numerous universities and colleges including the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and Guilford College.
Near the end of the Civil War, Greensboro served briefly as the temporary capital of the Confederacy, but with its large contingency of anti-slavery Quakers, it also was a stop on the Underground Railroad. In 1960, four black college students sat down at an all-white Woolworths lunch counter, and although they were denied service, refused to leave, sparking hundreds of such protests and ultimately leading to the desegregation of Woolworths and other chains. That original counter and stools are now in the Smithsonian.
