The North Carolina General Assembly is the bicameral legislature of the state government of North Carolina. The legislature consists of two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Vested with the state's legislative power by the Constitution of North Carolina, the General Assembly meets in the North Carolina State Legislative Building in Raleigh.

The House of Representatives has 120 members, while the Senate has 50 members. All represent districts and are elected to serve two year-terms. There are no term limits for either chamber. Together, the bodies write the state laws of North Carolina—known as the General Statutes and create the state's biennial budget. Most legislation is subject to the potential veto of the governor, though such a veto can be overruled with a three-fifths majority vote. The legislature can also impeach state officials and propose constitutional amendments.

Both chambers are currently controlled by the Republican Party, but they only hold veto override power in the Senate, holding 1 seat shy of a supermajority in the House of Representatives.

In 1663, King Charles II of England granted a royal charter to eight lords proprietor to establish the colony of Carolina in North America. Under the terms of the charter, regular management of the colony was to be overseen by a governor and a council. 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. This system of government was ultimately never implemented in the area which eventually became North Carolina. In early 1665 the lords proprietor promulgated a constitution for Carolina, the Concessions and Agreement. The document provided for a governor, a council of six to 10 men chosen by the governor with the consent of the lords, and an elected assembly. It also stipulated that the assembly's consent was required for taxes to be levied and that vacancies in the assembly were to be filled by elections called by the governor and his council. A new royal charter for Carolina was granted in 1665 and required the forming of an assembly.

After receiving his commission, Carolina Governor William Drummond summoned a body of freemen who selected 12 deputies to represent their interests. Together with the governor and his council, the deputies served as a provisional legislature for Albemarle County and eventually was named the General Court and Committee. It held its first meeting in the spring of 1665. When the governor and his deputy were absent, the assembly would designate a president or speaker to lead its sessions. Approximately two years later, the temporary assembly divided the county into four precincts: Chowan, Currituck, Pasquotank, and Perquimans. The freemen in each precinct were to convene at the beginning of every year to elect five representatives for the permanent assembly. The first election occurred on January 1, 1668.

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 decided the length and locations of its own sessions, when it adjourned, and its own quorum. It wrote laws, levied taxes, created courts, incorporated towns, determined the sites of ports and forts, regulated the militia, allotted land, and granted citizenship. Laws passed by the legislature held effect for 18 months and were sent to England for ratification by the lords. The lords could refuse to ratify laws and let them expire. From 1692 to 1712, North Carolina and South Carolina were organized as one Province of Carolina. The colony had one governor but North Carolina retained its own council and assembly. After 1731, the members of the governor's council were chosen by the Privy Council and were responsible to the British king.

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. The directives were binding upon the governor and dealt with nearly all aspects of colonial government. 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. Particularly after 1760, the lower house increasingly viewed itself as the representative of the colonists' interests in opposition to the British Crown's interests as relayed by the governor and the council. 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 and accelerated the colony's break with Great Britain.

In 1774, the people of the colony elected a provincial congress, independent of the royal governor, as the American Revolution began. Inspired by the structure of the lower house of the General Assembly and organized in part by House Speaker John Harvey, its purpose was to chose delegates to send to the Continental Congress. 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. A second congress in April 1775 adopted additional economic measures against Great Britain, leading Governor Martin to dissolve the colonial assembly before fleeing the colony. There would be five provincial congresses. The fifth Congress created the first constitution in 1776. This constitution was not submitted to a vote of the people. The Congress simply adopted it and elected Richard Caswell, the last president of the Congress, as acting governor until the new legislature was elected and seated.