Florence Kidder Memorial Scholarship
Scholarship Sponsored by National Society of the Colonial Dames of America
Introduction
The Florence Kidder Memorial Scholarship commemorates Florence Hill Kidder, the inaugural president of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of North Carolina. The scholarship supports graduating high school seniors who intend to pursue further education at a post-secondary institution located in North Carolina.
Award details
- Six awards will be given for the year: First place — $3,000; Second place — $1,000; Third place — $800; and three Fourth-place awards — $400 each.
- Awards are one-time grants and are not renewable.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be high school seniors planning to enroll in a post-secondary institution in North Carolina.
2026 Essay Topic
Exploring the Voices of Early Carolina: Life, Hardship and Settlement Through Primary Sources
Assignment overview
Using the listed firsthand accounts written by people who experienced the early English exploration and settlement of Carolina, write an essay that reconstructs daily life and emphasizes the challenges and hardships encountered by both early European settlers and the Indigenous peoples of the area.
Primary sources (required as the foundation of your analysis)
- Robert Horne, A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina (1666), pp. 62–73.
- Thomas Newe, Letters of Thomas Newe (1682), pp. 176–186.
- Samuel Wilson, An Account of the Province of Carolina (1682), pp. 160–175.
- William Hilton, A Relation of a Discovery (1664), pp. 31–61.
These pieces are collected in: Salley, Alexander S., Jr., ed., Narratives of Early Carolina 1650–1708. Original Narratives of Early American History. J. Franklin Jameson, gen. ed. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911. Available online: https://archive.org/details/narrearlycarolina00sallrich/page/60/mode/2up
Research and analysis guidelines
- Your essay should be grounded primarily in the four primary-source documents listed above.
- You may consult general background resources (for example, Wikipedia or Google Maps) for context, but the heart of your analysis must come from the assigned texts.
- Clearly attribute and cite any specific information or quotations you take from the primary sources or any secondary references.
Topics and perspectives to address (suggested areas)
- The physical environment: landscape features, climate conditions, and natural resources available to inhabitants.
- Social relations: interactions within settler communities and between settlers and Indigenous peoples.
- Disease: occurrence, effects on communities, and any recorded responses.
- Subsistence and supplies: access to food, tools, and other necessities.
- Recruitment and settlement efforts: methods used to attract new colonists and challenges in sustaining a population.
Please ensure citations are clear for any direct details or quotes drawn from the documents listed above.