Hello, History Friends!!
I've noticed that a lot of timelines skip from the Boston Massacre in 1770 to the Shot Heard Round the World in 1773. But life doesn't quite happen that way. And it's not like nothing happened during those times! Granted, I've had to learn about them, but I'm excited to tell you all the things that I HAVE learned.
We're focusing on North Carolina. Apparently, starting a few years back, in 1765/6, there was something called the Regulator Movement. I had never heard of this before, so now you get all of the background info, too! Before we start, you should know that in this case, Regulators would be the farmers and the regular people in the back country. These folks were mostly Scotsmen and Colonials from all kinds of places. There was an interstate type road called the Wagon Road and people from the Northern Colonies would follow it down looking for new starts.
One of the lectures I watched was by a lady named Marjoleine Kars, who wrote a book called "Breaking Loose Together." She was talking about how the Reformation was a big part of why people were going. People were leaving the Anglican church and joining the Quakers, Protestant, and several other denominations.
Most families came to have a bit of land to have secure families where they'd work together on mostly their own labor, possibly owning a slave or two, but in general, self sufficient. Some came to get rich quickly, buy up lots of land, import slaves a ton at a time.
Geography played a role in this as well. For the most part, those in Colonial Government were living closer to the ocean and the new families were in the back country, more westernly.
Generally, the Get Rich Quicker was in power, partly because they already had money. Seems easier to get into power when you're ok cutting some corners. or can pay for titles, licenses, and privileges. The Fancy Pants group would work for speculators or bigger land owners. The Back Country Family people would come, do all the hard work to turn a piece of land into a homestead or profitable venture, then the Fancy Pants group would decide they wanted it, so they'd tell the people they were on THEIR land and request payment or have the Back Country Family people leave the land.
The Regulators were tired of this.
The governor of North Carolina was William Tryon. You may have heard that name because he ended up being the governor of New York starting mid 1771. All you really need to know about him for this part, though, was that he was well aware of the corruption. He said himself that 2/3 of all taxes collected DIDN'T MAKE IT to the town treasury.
Taxes were high and aggressive. It was a poll tax, which means that everyone paid the exact same amount, no matter how much or how little you had. On top of the already high tax for most of the people, he also decided to build what became known as Tryon's Palace at the expense of the people. It was a demand of 20,000 lbs sterling that he required. As of July 14, 2022, that would be worth $712,917.07.
On top of both the high tax, the housing needs of Gov Tryon, and the fact that they were already poor, there was a high price of credit. Remember that Townshend Acts said that debts had to be paid in sterling?Gold and silver were dangerous things to have in your house, as you were likely to be burglarized. There were no banks, so the corrupt elite were the ones giving loans. They were willing to provide them, but at such high interest rates that it made it pretty much not worth it. I would think that would be the equivelant of going to an EZ LoanZ type place now.
They were very much living in a no win situation. If a tax collector came to your house and demanded an amount, you had to pay in sterling, but since you didn't keep any in your house, you'd agree to go barter for your neighbor's sterling. Meanwhile, you'd give something of worth for collateral; your horse, maybe, or your house- whatever. You'd agree to meet the collector back in town in a few hours and head off to Mr. Joe's down the street to see if by any chance he'll have sterling that he'd give you in exchange for who knows what- maybe your crop or something. Lucky for you, Mr. Joe's good with the trade, so you book it to town.... just in time to see the tax collector sell your property to his buddy, the judge. Too bad. So sad.
So, you'd want to sue, correct? That it wasn't fair that the tax collector just got 100 pounds for your property, when your tax debt was only 40 pounds. The lawyer representing you would delay the trial, then postpone it, then finally have it happen, charge you 70 pounds, and then you'd lose the case anyway because the judge was getting 30 pound (from the sale of your land) from the tax collector to make it so. It for real was not fair at all. (Wonder if I can tell my kids about this next time they whine about unfairness?)
Back to what Ms. Kars had said. Religious customs had been that only the evangelical elites, like popes or priests or whatever had the Holy Ghost (although that's not what she called it). Ordinary people had been told that they weren't capable of feeling that. But after all this reformations and focus on personal relationships with God, people recognized it. They received some courage and a NEED to do what they felt was right
Keep in mind that theses people were not rushing to violence. First they tried to talk to and meet with officials. Then petition the gov't. They made grievances known to governor, assembly, etc. Then entered elections. (and successfully, but nothing they voted for counted because of the more influential Good Ol Boys Club).
So then, they refused to pay taxes. Well, kind of. They collected their taxes and gave them to Herbert Husband, with strict order to not pay them unless he could guarantee they'd be put IN the treasury, where they belonged. They asked the sheriff's to get back illegally procured property. They disrupted court meetings that were going unfairly. They also tried to set up "people's courts" where things would be run properly.
Then a big group in the fall of 1770 disrupted Superior Court. They beat a few people & vandalized the house of Edmund Fanning (a Fancy Pants- he got his, though, he was convicted of extortion later).
Herman Husband, who was the unofficial leader of the Regulators, was accused of libel so they imprisoned him. (He was let go, prolly because Tryon was worried people would try to free him).
In January 1771, Gov Tryon passed a riot act that gave him power to subdue the Regulators. It was kind of like the English Riot Act we talked about in Boston, where you had to read the act aloud and give people an hour to disperse, but it went even farther than that. It defined unlawful assemblies as those of 10 or more people. It allowed the po-po's to get away with hurting rioters, no questions asked. And if someone was considered a rioter and didn't turn themselves in after 60 days, they were considered an outlaw. And outlaws didn't really have any rights. Their stuff was taken and sold and the hunt for them was on. To add salt to the wound, the Act was retroactive. Gov Tryon, through this act, was also allowed to hire militia and make the people pay for it. He even got a few artillery pieces from General Gage.
Then, on May 16, 1771, a bunch of Regulators came to demand justice. When I say a bunch, I mean like, 2,000. They came to talk (as evidence that many of them were Quakers who were not ok with violence), only armed with the kinds of weapons you'd take hunting. They were met by the Governor and his 1,000 Militia men and their big ol cannon guns. He read the Act, as was the law, but the Regulators were super over it. They started ripping their shirts open and taunting the militia, saying stuff like, "Fire and be damned!" Sources say that the militia hesitated a bit, enough so that Gov Tryon told them to shoot- "Fire, fire on them or on me!!" Also, he didn't wait the whole hour. After 45 minutes, he was ready to fight. The Regulators did most of their shooting from the woods. They didn't have what they needed to really fight, though, so after 2 hours, the battle was over. This was called the Battle of Alamance
Tryon lost 9 men and had another 61 wounded. Sources are ALL over the place for what the regulators lost. Somewhere between 9 and 300.
As a result of the battle, Tryon had 15 men arrested. James Few was hanged that day, in the militia's campsite, without a trial.
The Governor & his militia went on a bit of a "round up" tour. They may or may not have grabbed food, belongings, horses, etc. while they pranced around telling everyone that they would have Amnesty if they took the Oath of Loyalty. About 6,000 took him up on the offer.
On June 19, 1776, 12 of the original 15 men were convicted of treason. 2 were acquitted. 6 hanged. Tryon left the next day for NY, where we'll probably talk about him later.
The new Governor, Josiah Martin, was much better. He sympathized with the people and tried to appease them.
Ironically enough, many of the elite ended up being Patriots, like Francis Nash, who at this point was the head of Governor Tryon's militia, but later led a campaign in Philadelphia. The people, however, were over it. I don't know if it was that they just didn't want to deal with these officers again or if they had other reasons, but a good chunk of the Regulators stayed loyal to the Crown or just didn't participate in the Revolutionary War.
So there you go, this was NOT the first battle of the Revolution because it was not against England, it was against locally controlled entities.
People didn't talk about this for a long time and a lot of accounts we have OF the battle were written half a century later. I believe the book, "The Hornet's Nest" by President Carter is about it, but the reviews on it weren't fantastic, so I haven't read it. Apparently one of his ancestors was part of the battle. What about you? Do you have any North Carolina ancestors? Did they struggle with these kinds of politics? Did they participate? I'd love to know!!
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