Who were the first immigrants of North Carolina?

The first Europeans to settle permanently in what is now North Carolina were English colonists who arrived on the Outer Banks in 1585 and established the Roanoke Colony, which was abandoned a year later. In the 1600s, European settlers began to arrive in the Albemarle region of what is now North Carolina. These early settlers were mostly English, with some Scottish and Irish. They established tobacco plantations, and by the end of the century, North Carolina was a major tobacco-producing colony.