James Carter was expelled for war profiteering.

According to "The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America" by Richard R. Beeman, Carter spent time in a debtors prison in Maryland before moving to North Carolina in the 1740s, settling on the site of present-day Salisbury.

After Rowan County was established in 1753, Carter became "the most powerful political figure" in the area, serving as a (possibly corrupt) justice of the peace, a (corrupt) major in the county militia and a (corrupt) land surveyor.

Serving a clientele eager, even desperate, to gain title to land, Carter was among those surveyors who overcharged for his surveys, refused to publicize his fees, and sometimes sold patents to different individuals for the same tracts.

Carter was elected to the state House in 1754. He was expelled in 1757 when it was discovered that he and several partners had embezzled money provided for guns and bullets during the French and Indian War.