 Guilford County borders Alamance County to the west and was home to a number of Teague ancestors, and was formed in 1771 from parts of Rowan County and Orange County.
The Quaker church played a major role in the European settlement of the county, and numerous Quakers still live in the county.
On March 15, 1781, the Battle of Guilford Court House was fought just north of present-day Greensboro between Generals Charles Cornwallis and Nathanael Greene during the American Revolution. This battle marked a key turning point in the Revolutionary War in the South. Although General Cornwallis, the British Commander, held the field at the end of the battle, his losses were so severe that he decided to withdraw to the Carolina and Virginia coastline, where he could receive reinforcements and his battered army could be protected by the British Navy. His decision ultimately led to his defeat later in 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia, by a combined force of American and French troops and warships. Due to the large number of Quakers living in Guilford, many of the county's residents were opposed to slavery before the Civil War. The county was a stop on the famous Underground Railroad, which provided escaped slaves with a route to freedom in the North. Levi Coffin, one of the founders of the "railroad", was a Guilford County native. He is credited with personally helping over 2,000 slaves escape to freedom before the war. In 1891, the county became home to the state's first and only publicly supported institution of higher learning for women, the State Normal and Industrial School. which is now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
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