Just What Is A Tarheel?

Well this question was posed to me by some slow Yankee Boy recently. So for those of you who ain't from here (NC--The Tarheel State--USA--Yee Haw), here is the story as I have heard it.

Way back when--during the Civil War--a lot of dumb southern people just couldn't deal with the ideas that all them Damned Yankees had. So they decided that the southern states would no longer be part of the Union. Hey! The South had lots of pretty land and cotton and *cheap labor* and loads of ego! What else do you need?! Forget the fact that the North had these things called "Factories" where they could make things that would blow the South away. And forget the fact that people outside of the South were beginning to evolve and were realizing that slavery was retarded. The South was gonna be all tough and teach them Yankees a thing or two.

Well we all know how that worked out. But in the process, North Carolinians who engaged in battle were dubbed "Tarheels" because they were...

A) some kick-ass soldiers who stuck in battle "as if their heels were stuck in tar"

or

B) so poor that they couldn't afford shoes and, therefore, the bottoms of their feet were disgusting.

Either story explains why NC is The Tarheel State

For what it's worth, I am from NC and I have several pairs of shoes that I wear often, I never spit inside, and there is no history of inbreeding in my family. Thank you.