In 1663, King Charles II of England granted a royal charter to eight lords proprietor to establish the colony of Carolina in North America.

An assembly consisting of two representatives from each county elected by freeholders was to have the power to write laws with the approval of the governor, his council, and the lords proprietor.

[4] After receiving his commission, Carolina Governor William Drummond summoned a body of freemen who selected 12 deputies to represent their interests.

[5] Together with the governor and his council, the deputies served as a provisional legislature for Albemarle County[a] and eventually was named the General Court and Committee.

Approximately two years later, the temporary assembly divided the county into four precincts: Chowan, Currituck, Pasquotank, and Perquimans.

[7] While required to abide by the Concessions and support the interests of the lords proprietor, the assembly was powerful and largely left to manage itself.

It wrote laws, levied taxes, created courts, incorporated towns, determined the sites of ports and forts, regulated the militia, allotted land, and granted citizenship.

[9] During the period of royal control after 1731, North Carolina's governors were issued sets of secret instructions from the Privy Council's Board of Trade.

As they were produced by officials largely ignorant of the political situation in the colony and meant to ensure greater direct control over the territory, the instructions caused tensions between the governor and the General Assembly.

The assembly controlled the colony's finances and used this as leverage by withholding salaries and appropriations, sometimes forcing the governors to compromise and disregard some of the Board of Trade's instructions.

[11] Frequent tensions between Governor Josiah Martin—a firm supporter of the secret instructions—and the Assembly in the 1770s led the latter to establish a committee of correspondence[10] and accelerated the colony's break with Great Britain.

[12] In 1774, the people of the colony elected a provincial congress, independent of the royal governor, as the American Revolution began.

In addition to this, the congress adopted punitive measures against Great Britain for its Intolerable Acts and empowered local committees to govern the state as royal control dissipated.

[14] Construction of a North Carolina State House began in the planned capital of Raleigh in 1792 and became the meeting place for the General Assembly in 1794.

[22] In May 1861, at the urging of the governor, the General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a convention to consider seceding from the United States.

After the president of the convention declined to convene it to discuss issues of wartime speculation and extortion, authority returned to the state's other civil leaders and institutions.

The document provided for universal male suffrage and abolished all property requirements and religious tests for officeholders.

[32] But shortly before the turn of the century, the Democrats regained control of the state legislature (after a biracial coalition between Republicans and Populists had briefly held power) and passed laws to create barriers to voter registration through poll taxes, literacy tests and other devices.

[43] In 1959, the General Assembly organized a commission to design and fund a new, larger meeting place to accommodate the body, its staff, and improve the delivery of services to the legislators.

[55][56] In the early 1970s, Democratic legislators, spurred in part by the election of a Republican governor in 1972, began an effort to strengthen the General Assembly's power and influence in state government which continued into the 1980s.

Shortly thereafter, the House, feeling threatened by the strengthened positions of the governor and Senate leadership, broke from a decades-long trend and began electing speakers to successive terms.

[88][d] The constitution requires that all effective laws be styled "The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:", with only the words following that phrase being legally operative.

[65] The legally valid language of each passed bill is punctuated by the ratification certificate, consisting of the obligatory signatures of the presiding officers of each house.

The assembly can also influence the bureaucracy through its power to create or dissolve agencies or countermand administrative rules by writing laws and by its decisions in appropriations.

[104] The General Assembly can also, by a two-thirds majority vote, determine the governor or a judge mentally or physically incapable of serving.

[109] Typically the legislature adjourns shortly after June 30, the end of North Carolina's fiscal year, following the passing of a budget.

[111] A majority of the Council of State can call the legislature into session to consider the governor's mental capacity to serve.

[107] When in session, both Houses of the legislature typically meet on Monday evenings and in the middle of the day on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

[76] Official transcripts of debates on the floors of the House and Senate are not produced, though audio of their sessions is recorded as well as the minutes of committee meetings.

[114] Administrative support of the General Assembly is overseen by the Legislative Services Commission, a panel comprising five members of each house.