WEBVTT NOTE 51. The North Carolina Regulation 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.680 Volume 3, Chapter 51, The North Carolina Regulation. 2 00:00:05.680 --> 00:00:12.320 Inspired by the success of the South Carolina regulators, a group of citizens of St. George's 3 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:21.440 Parish in backcountry Georgia formed an association movement in the late spring of 1768. The aim of 4 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:29.760 the association was armed action against Indians in the locality, fearful of a full-scale Indian war 5 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:36.480 Governor Wright promptly told the local militia captains to order the association to disperse 6 00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:44.240 on paying of prosecution. The associators apparently obeyed the order as nothing more was heard of 7 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:51.840 them. The term regulator, however, found its most important place in history in a movement that had 8 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:58.960 only that name in common with the South Carolina organization. This movement, the regulators of 9 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:11.960 The roots of the North Carolina back country also adopted the name in April 1768, but its nature and purposes differed radically from those of its southern neighbor. 10 00:01:11.960 --> 00:01:22.960 One of the early roots of the North Carolina regulation lay in land monopoly. Large tracts of land had been arbitrarily granted to one George Selwyn. 11 00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:29.560 In Mecklenburg County in western North Carolina, numerous settlers and squatters refused to 12 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:38.080 acknowledge Selwyn's claim or to pay him for the land. When in May 1765, Selwyn sent 13 00:01:38.080 --> 00:01:44.480 his agent, Henry McCullough, and a group of surveyors to Mecklenburg to enforce payment 14 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:51.440 or eject the settlers, the latter rose up in defense of their land. A mob of settlers, 15 00:01:51.440 --> 00:01:57.920 by Thomas Polk set upon and severely whipped the surveyors and threatened McCullough with death. 16 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:04.800 The North Carolina Council refused to the request of the governor to intervene against the settlers. 17 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:12.000 Another route of the regulation emerged also in the spring of 1765. In Orange County and in 18 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:18.720 Granville County near the Virginia border, disturbances arose from the exactions of excessive 19 00:02:18.720 --> 00:02:23.120 and even illegal fees by county officials. 20 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:31.880 The Nutbush paper issued by George Sims, schoolmaster of Nutbush, Granville County, in June, denounced 21 00:02:31.880 --> 00:02:36.240 extortionate court fees imposed upon the public. 22 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:42.040 The author pointed out that to pay a debt judgment of five pounds, a man had also to 23 00:02:42.040 --> 00:02:49.120 to pay more than 41 shillings, or over 40% of the amount to the county clerk, and thus 24 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:54.920 was forced to contribute his labor to the clerk for 21 days. 25 00:02:54.920 --> 00:03:02.040 In addition, the debtor was enslaved for 19 days to pay legal fees, and a further 19 days 26 00:03:02.040 --> 00:03:05.000 to pay the sheriff for prosecuting him. 27 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:11.980 The climax arrived when the author peacefully drew up a petition protesting these outrages. 28 00:03:11.980 --> 00:03:17.620 Not only was the petition ignored, but the said government officials sued the petitioners 29 00:03:17.620 --> 00:03:21.620 for libel and imprisoned the author. 30 00:03:21.620 --> 00:03:28.780 These incidents were illustrative of the intense resentments and grievances of the back country 31 00:03:28.780 --> 00:03:32.900 against the government of North Carolina. 32 00:03:32.900 --> 00:03:39.940 And the major grievances were specifically against government, against excessive taxes 33 00:03:39.940 --> 00:03:47.900 and Quit rents against extortionate fees and against dishonest and extortionate sheriffs 34 00:03:47.900 --> 00:03:51.800 and other appointed government officials. 35 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:58.700 Nearly all government officials in North Carolina were paid in fees, and the fees were of course 36 00:03:58.700 --> 00:04:04.620 exacted from the hapless inhabitants of whatever locality the officials ruled. 37 00:04:04.620 --> 00:04:12.360 Indeed, as the historian John S. Bassett wrote, as soon as frontier counties were organized, 38 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:20.480 sheriffs, clerks, registers and lawyers swooped down upon the defenseless inhabitants like 39 00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:22.580 wolves. 40 00:04:22.580 --> 00:04:27.340 The various ranks of fee-charging officials conspired together. 41 00:04:27.340 --> 00:04:33.480 For example, lawyers and officials of county and superior courts collaborated to delay 42 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:38.720 pay cases and thus collect increased fees. 43 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:43.860 Another major grievance of the people of the North Carolina backcountry stemmed from poll 44 00:04:43.860 --> 00:04:51.620 taxes, which constituted virtually the only tax and the bulk of the revenues in the province. 45 00:04:51.620 --> 00:04:55.580 The poll tax bore most heavily upon the poor. 46 00:04:55.580 --> 00:05:00.740 The settlers were plagued with quit rents and high fees and taxes. 47 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:07.360 To compound the evils, the people were plagued by dishonest and oppressive sheriffs. A common 48 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:13.540 practice of the sheriff was to call upon a farmer without advance warning and demand 49 00:05:13.540 --> 00:05:20.200 that he pay his poll tax immediately. Refusing to give the farmer a chance to borrow in order 50 00:05:20.200 --> 00:05:25.440 to pay the tax, the sheriff would promptly seize the property and then quickly sell it 51 00:05:25.440 --> 00:05:31.000 But cheaply to a friend of his before the farmer could come up with the money. 52 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:37.480 To add grave insult to grievous injury, the sheriff charged the farmer an extra fee for 53 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:41.200 the trouble of calling at the latter's house. 54 00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:47.480 As icing on the cake of the sheriff's calling, the lawmen generally embezzled the revenues 55 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:49.880 that they thus collected. 56 00:05:49.880 --> 00:05:56.080 Conditions, in short, were becoming ripe for rebellion in the North Carolina backcountry 57 00:05:56.080 --> 00:05:59.440 by the mid-1760s. 58 00:05:59.440 --> 00:06:05.360 The conflict reached the stage of definite organization in the Sandy Creek movement of 59 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:08.960 the late summer of 1766. 60 00:06:08.960 --> 00:06:14.900 In late August, the leaders of the Libertarian Reform Movement in Orange County concentrated 61 00:06:14.900 --> 00:06:21.260 in the County seat, called a county-wide meeting of the delegates from each neighborhood to 62 00:06:21.260 --> 00:06:30.260 meet at Maddox Mills at Sandy Creek on October 10. No county officials sanctioned the unauthorized 63 00:06:30.260 --> 00:06:36.000 meeting, which nevertheless went ahead and hailed the recent victory of the Sons of Liberty 64 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:43.500 against the Stamp Act and called for extension of this concept of liberty closer to home. 65 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:50.860 The meeting delivered a trenchant attack upon the corruption of power. Take this as a maxim, 66 00:06:50.860 --> 00:06:57.860 that while men are men, though you should see all those sons of liberty, who has, just 67 00:06:57.860 --> 00:07:05.980 now redeemed us from tyranny, set in offices and vested with power, they would soon corrupt 68 00:07:05.980 --> 00:07:12.740 again and oppress if they were not called upon to give an account of their stewardship. 69 00:07:12.740 --> 00:07:18.300 The Sandy Creek meeting called for annual meetings of such delegates in a continuing 70 00:07:18.300 --> 00:07:25.620 voluntary association of the people to keep check on the activities of their representatives 71 00:07:25.620 --> 00:07:28.020 and appointed rulers. 72 00:07:28.020 --> 00:07:33.860 Chief Officer of the county and chief enemy of the Sandy Creek Association was the roundly 73 00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:36.180 hated Edmund Fanning. 74 00:07:36.180 --> 00:07:42.580 Fanning, a native New Yorker and a graduate of Yale, was a prototype of the provincial 75 00:07:42.580 --> 00:07:49.060 bureaucrat and the leader of the courthouse ring in his county. A favorite of Governor 76 00:07:49.060 --> 00:07:55.920 William Tryon, young Fanning had managed to acquire a justice ship of the peace and numerous 77 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:03.300 important county offices, Judge of the Superior Court, Register of Deeds, Militia Colonel 78 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:10.300 and Member of the Assembly. Colonel Fanning denounced the Sandy Creek meeting as insurrectionary 79 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:15.660 and threatened its leaders with punishment. Yet the leaders of the North Carolina protest 80 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:22.080 movement were at this early stage far from revolutionary. The main leader of the Sandy 81 00:08:22.080 --> 00:08:28.000 Creek organization was Herman Husband, an intelligent and learned Quaker from Orange 82 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:20.000 The position to North Carolina government grew. Brunswick, Cumberland and other counties refused to pay their taxes, and petitions similar to Sandy Creek's were submitted and similarly ignored in Anson, Granville and Halifax counties, and in the Piedmont of North Carolina. 83 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:27.760 But Orange County remained the focus of conflict. In 1767, a justice of the county court found a 84 00:09:27.760 --> 00:09:34.640 very scarce copy of the laws of North Carolina and discovered that the extortionate court fees 85 00:09:34.640 --> 00:09:41.920 of the province were illegal. Rather than mend its illegal ways, the tight-knit bureaucratic oligarchy 86 00:09:41.920 --> 00:09:49.200 of Orange County threatened the judge with arrest for contempt of court. The judge quickly fell 87 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:26.480 at Sandy Creek and had suggested reforms. Their protests had been brusquely ignored. 88 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:32.640 It was now evident that stronger and more radical measures of protest were required. Leadership 89 00:10:32.640 --> 00:10:38.600 of the liberal protest movement of backcountry North Carolina now passed into more vigorous 90 00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:46.140 and determined hands, those of James Hunter, the general of the movement, of William Butler, 91 00:10:46.140 --> 00:10:59.020 The next phase of the protest movement was touched off in early 1768 when Sheriff Tyree 92 00:10:59.020 --> 00:11:05.420 Harris of Orange County posted the taxes for the coming year. Poll taxes had to be 93 00:11:05.420 --> 00:11:12.980 paid at a few centralized locations. Any tax paid at a different location would be automatically 94 00:11:12.980 --> 00:11:18.980 This penalty tax was soon raised even higher by Colonel Fanning. 95 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:24.500 Public opinion was further inflamed by an assembly appropriation of the large sum of 96 00:11:24.500 --> 00:11:32.000 five thousand pounds to build a palace for Governor Tryon, a boondoggle of which one 97 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:35.860 of the chief sponsors was Edmund Fanning. 98 00:11:35.860 --> 00:11:43.100 In ensuing years, 10,000 pounds more was appropriated for home for the governor. 99 00:11:43.100 --> 00:11:49.580 The higher taxes and the generous perquisites granted to the governor initiated the development 100 00:11:49.580 --> 00:11:56.700 of a new association in Orange County, first known informally as The Mob, and then borrowing 101 00:11:56.700 --> 00:12:01.240 the name of regulators from the successful South Carolina movement. 102 00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:07.240 The first thing that the mob did in Orange and other counties was to announce its refusal 103 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:15.080 to pay taxes until its grievances were redressed and government fees and taxes lowered. Similar 104 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:21.560 meetings were held in the spring of 1768 in counties west of the Hall River, and the various 105 00:12:21.560 --> 00:12:31.040 regulator associations took oaths to pay no taxes or illegal fees until redress was achieved. 106 00:12:31.040 --> 00:12:36.480 South and West of Orange County, sympathy for the movement was expressed in Anson and 107 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:43.360 Rowan Counties. The Sandy Creek Organization, incidentally, far from leading the new regulator 108 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:51.080 movement, lagged behind this new radicalization and refused to join the tax strike as too 109 00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:59.040 hot and rash and, in some respects, not legal. Orange County, however, remained the heart 110 00:12:59.040 --> 00:13:05.840 and Center of the Growing Regulator Movement. Once again, as has happened so often in history, 111 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:14.320 actual armed hostilities were opened by the men in power, by the panicky forces of counter-revolution. 112 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:20.480 On April 4, a meeting of Orange regulators asked the sheriff and vestrymen of the county 113 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:27.240 to meet with the regulator committee to give a full account of their use of public monies. 114 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:34.700 The reply of Sheriff Harris was typically swift and brutal. The horse and saddle of a regulator 115 00:13:34.700 --> 00:13:41.840 were seized and sold for non-payment of some governmental levy. Here was the spark of armed 116 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:48.040 rebellion in North Carolina. A crowd of nearly 100 armed regulators rode to the county seat 117 00:13:48.040 --> 00:13:54.320 of Hillsboro, seized the sheriff, rescued the horse and saddle, and returned them to 118 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:59.760 to their owner. After an official threatened to fire at the crowd, they shot up the roof 119 00:13:59.760 --> 00:14:03.720 of Colonel Fanning's house. 120 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:09.880 Colonel Fanning was not the sort of Tory oligarch to take such an incident lying down. First, 121 00:14:09.880 --> 00:14:15.180 he had to gain the wholehearted support of Governor Tryon. Hysterically, Fanning falsely 122 00:14:15.180 --> 00:14:21.280 claimed to Tryon that the regulators were insurrectionaries who had sworn to pay no 123 00:14:21.280 --> 00:14:28.840 no more taxes, to kill all tax collectors, to burn Hillsboro, and to become sovereign 124 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:31.600 arbiters of right and wrong. 125 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:36.840 Tryon and the Council then agreed to authorize Fanning to call out the militia to suppress 126 00:14:36.840 --> 00:14:38.880 the rebellion. 127 00:14:38.880 --> 00:14:44.180 Striking back with all the might of government, Fanning ordered the arrest of the three leaders 128 00:14:44.180 --> 00:14:49.820 Regulators of the Regulator Rescue Party, William Butler, Peter Craven and Norman Bell 129 00:14:49.820 --> 00:14:56.820 Hamilton. Seven companies of militia were now called up to suppress the regulation. Only 130 00:14:56.820 --> 00:15:02.700 120 people appeared, and very few of these could be relied upon to fight the people of 131 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:09.180 the county. About one-half of the people of Orange County were ardent regulators, and 132 00:15:09.180 --> 00:15:25.260 The regulators called a confederation of inhabitants throughout the county to maintain enforcement 133 00:15:25.260 --> 00:15:31.160 of their tax strike and to prepare for a march in force on Hillsboro. 134 00:15:31.160 --> 00:15:36.900 But the regulator resolved to press its advantage was tragically weakened by the advice of such 135 00:15:36.900 --> 00:16:06.900 The peace meeting was scheduled for May 11, but no officials deigned to appear, and while the bemused regulators peacefully elected delegates and waited for the peace meeting, Colonel Fanning seized the opportunity to swoop into the meeting room. 136 00:16:06.900 --> 00:16:14.100 Hoppe, down upon them, denouncing the regulators as traitorous dogs, Fanning seized the startled 137 00:16:14.100 --> 00:16:21.820 regulator leaders on May 2, arresting Butler and Husband. The two were given a quick kangaroo 138 00:16:21.820 --> 00:16:28.180 trial and promptly imprisoned at Hillsborough. The seizure of Husband and Butler was enough 139 00:16:28.180 --> 00:16:35.600 to rouse the ire of all the populace, regulator and non-regulator alike. Seven hundred men 140 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:41.260 and March to Hillsboro and forced Fanning to release the prisoners. Seeing the might 141 00:16:41.260 --> 00:16:47.460 of the regulator uprising, Governor Tryon used his wiles to lure the regulators again 142 00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:53.960 into passivity. He promised the regulators that if they behaved properly and returned 143 00:16:53.960 --> 00:17:00.040 to their homes to confine themselves to drawing up a petition, he would seek redress of their 144 00:17:00.040 --> 00:17:08.840 The Regulators naively agreed, forgetting the great principle of the English rebels 145 00:17:08.840 --> 00:17:15.900 of old, that grievances must be redressed before the keen edge of protest is allowed 146 00:17:15.900 --> 00:17:23.520 to soften. Once again the bemused regulators allowed their movement to retreat to the naive 147 00:17:23.520 --> 00:17:27.560 petitioning of Sandy Creek days. 148 00:17:27.560 --> 00:17:33.960 At the end of May, the Orange regulators drew up a petition signed by Hunter, Howell and 149 00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:41.440 450 others, and Hunter and Howell were selected to present it to the Governor and Council. 150 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:47.200 Meanwhile, Fanning had tried hard to split the regulators and to induce them to sign 151 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:53.920 a humble and contrite petition confessing their sins and errors and throwing themselves 152 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:56.120 upon the mercy of the Governor. 153 00:17:56.120 --> 00:18:02.120 Otherwise, he threatened the protesters. He would urge Tryon to regard them as traitors. 154 00:18:02.120 --> 00:18:09.120 Fanning's efforts were partly successful in weakening the timber of the regulator petition. 155 00:18:09.120 --> 00:18:18.120 But Governor Tryon and the council, sending weakness in the popular opposition and largely forgetting the governor's promises, 156 00:18:18.120 --> 00:18:24.480 replied on June 25 by hinting at treason and demanding total submission and contrition 157 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:30.960 by the regulators. All future meetings of regulators were banned, and they were ordered 158 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:37.560 to pay their taxes. At the same time, local governmental fees were raised still higher. 159 00:18:37.560 --> 00:18:43.460 Although the regulators had been lured again into dispersing their armed force, they did 160 00:18:43.460 --> 00:18:49.460 Hold a Trump Card Continued Refusal to Pay Taxes 161 00:18:49.460 --> 00:18:56.420 Though nonviolent, this step was far from passive. In fact, such refusal struck aggressively 162 00:18:56.420 --> 00:19:01.940 at the root of the oligarchic power structure of North Carolina. 163 00:19:01.940 --> 00:19:07.440 The regulators continued to meet and continued to refuse taxes. At a regulator meeting on 164 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:13.960 On August 1, Tryon sent a sheriff to demand submission and the payment of taxes, but the 165 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:20.000 people continued adamant. Four hundred men quickly met and unanimously resolved to refuse 166 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:27.100 tax payment and to kill any man who seized property for taxes due. Five hundred regulators 167 00:19:27.100 --> 00:19:32.760 gathered a week later at Peds, threatening to burn the county seat at Hillsboro, and 168 00:19:32.760 --> 00:19:35.460 and began to march on the town. 169 00:19:35.460 --> 00:19:38.520 Rapidly the confrontation escalated. 170 00:19:38.520 --> 00:19:45.480 Tryon called out the militia, and an armed populace gathered in a meeting of 1,000 regulators. 171 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:54.920 Cowed once again by force majeure, Tryon, on August 11, again turned wheedling and conciliating, 172 00:19:54.920 --> 00:20:01.260 and promised that the sheriffs would now satisfy the people and give them an accounting at 173 00:20:01.260 --> 00:20:10.260 and a general meeting on August 17, provided that the armed regulators would again disperse. 174 00:20:10.260 --> 00:20:18.180 And once again the regulators, at the brink of victory, gullibly gave credence to Tryon's 175 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:25.780 promises. Once again they weakened their pressure to shift suddenly to peaceful and passive 176 00:20:25.780 --> 00:20:33.460 of Tactics. Once again, when the naively confident regulators assembled on the 17th, they were 177 00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:42.460 stunned to find a severe condemnation by Tryon, denouncing them as criminal and illegal insurrectionaries 178 00:20:42.460 --> 00:20:48.980 and demanding a bond to ensure that no attempt would be made to rescue the imprisoned butler 179 00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:55.240 and husband. Tryon then proceeded to raise a mighty force of militia from all over the 180 00:20:55.240 --> 00:20:57.640 in North Carolina Backcountry. 181 00:20:57.640 --> 00:21:01.480 But while Trion was raising his counter-revolutionary forces 182 00:21:01.480 --> 00:21:04.840 far and wide, people from other counties 183 00:21:04.840 --> 00:21:09.840 were increasingly joining Orange in the regulator protest. 184 00:21:09.840 --> 00:21:12.640 For instance, people from Anson County 185 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:15.600 in southwest North Carolina. 186 00:21:15.600 --> 00:21:17.600 Anson County was tightly governed 187 00:21:17.600 --> 00:21:20.120 by a ruling clique of three men, 188 00:21:20.120 --> 00:21:23.720 Samuel Spencer, county clerk, assemblyman, 189 00:21:23.720 --> 00:21:30.860 and Colonel of the Militia, and two embezzling ex-sheriffs who had moved up to become county 190 00:21:30.860 --> 00:21:31.860 judges. 191 00:21:31.860 --> 00:21:39.360 A Citizens Association was formed in early 1768 to oppose this oligarchy. 192 00:21:39.360 --> 00:21:46.600 The Anson Association of Regulators, headed by Charles Robinson, pledged to refuse payment 193 00:21:46.600 --> 00:21:53.960 of Taxes, to rescue any imprisoned members and to retake any property seized for non-payment 194 00:21:53.960 --> 00:22:00.960 of taxes. In April, 100 Anson regulators gathered at the county court, drove the tyrannical 195 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:07.200 judges off the bench and made ready to run Robinson for assembly. Governor Tryon was 196 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:14.280 also moved to promise Anson County regulators redress of grievances if they would disperse. 197 00:22:14.280 --> 00:22:20.640 Turning to the Orange Regulation for advice, the regulators received counsel that sowed 198 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:28.200 dangerous illusions, disarmed the movement, and crippled its momentum. They were advised 199 00:22:28.200 --> 00:22:34.500 to abandon violence for a peaceful and friendly petition of grievances. One hundred and twenty 200 00:22:34.500 --> 00:22:40.360 people of Anson signed this petition during August, but Tryon's only acknowledgement 201 00:22:40.360 --> 00:22:46.320 was to hail Anson County's submission. When Anson County found the governor calling out 202 00:22:46.320 --> 00:22:53.040 the militia in force, five hundred men of the county resolved unarmed self-defense against 203 00:22:53.040 --> 00:22:58.220 the government forces. Moreover, in Johnston County, close to the 204 00:22:58.220 --> 00:23:05.680 Low Country, a mob of eighty regulators threatened to oust their judges. But here the judges 205 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:12.000 The Mises were able to mobilize governmental forces to defeat the rebels. Another regulator 206 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:18.360 failure occurred in near Lowland, Edgecombe County, where 30 men tried unsuccessfully 207 00:23:18.360 --> 00:23:24.400 to release an insurgent leader from jail. Throughout the latter part of August and September 208 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:32.820 of 1768, both sides gathered their forces in the rapidly polarizing conflict. Rowan 209 00:23:32.820 --> 00:23:39.660 in Mecklenburg Counties in the southwestern backcountry sent particularly ardent pro-government 210 00:23:39.660 --> 00:23:46.660 militia, which were all assembled at Hillsboro in the heart of the regulator rebellion. The 211 00:23:46.660 --> 00:23:52.240 counter-revolutionary militia were bolstered and egged on by four leading Presbyterian 212 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:59.240 ministers of the backcountry, who called for steadfast support of government on principle, 213 00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:05.480 And in this call they were backed up by Baptist and German ministers. All in all, Trion was 214 00:24:05.480 --> 00:24:12.240 able to gather by the beginning of September nearly 1,500 militia. The main clue to their 215 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:19.080 recruitment was the enormous proportion of top-ranking officers, largely politicians 216 00:24:19.080 --> 00:24:25.640 and bureaucrats. Fully one-quarter of the assembled militia were officers, and thirty-four 217 00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:55.440 The 34 leaders of the North Carolina oligarchy who headed the assembly at Hillsboro to defend 218 00:24:55.440 --> 00:25:12.440 One of their vested privileges against the regulators included John Rutherford, President of the Council, five other counselors, Edmund Fanning, Samuel Spencer, and a Superior Court Justice, Maurice Moore. 219 00:25:12.440 --> 00:25:22.200 ranged against the militia was a massive force of some 3,700 regulators, but the regulators, 220 00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:30.000 timorous and lacking determined and efficient revolutionary leadership, pleaded for negotiation. 221 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:37.000 The only terms that Governor Tryon would consider were that the regulators disarmed themselves, 222 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:51.000 The regulators did not agree to pay all taxes, swear oaths of loyalty and allegiance to their rulers, and surrender nine of their leaders for trial, in addition to the still incarcerated husband and butler. 223 00:25:51.000 --> 00:26:00.000 The regulators did not agree to these arrogant and insulting terms, but neither were they brave enough to use their overwhelming force. 224 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:06.000 The regulators disbursed, with 30 of them accepting the terms of submission. 225 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:12.000 Pressing his advantage, Tryon quickly sent troops to round up and arrest the regulator leaders. 226 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:20.000 They met with no resistance from the demoralized regulators, and 13 leaders were placed on trial. 227 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:25.000 The regulators, moreover, resumed payment of their taxes. 228 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:32.040 The second phase of the regulator protest movement had ended in total and abject failure. 229 00:26:32.040 --> 00:26:42.040 Governor Tryon's shrewd and cunning strategy had been met by bumbling confusion and ineptitude on the part of the popular opposition. 230 00:26:42.040 --> 00:26:53.040 Of the regulator leaders, William Butler was convicted for riot and rescue of confiscated property and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. 231 00:26:53.040 --> 00:26:58.040 John Philip Hartzow and Samuel Davini received three months. 232 00:26:58.040 --> 00:27:02.040 Herman Husband was acquitted on the charge of riot. 233 00:27:02.040 --> 00:27:05.040 James Hunter was convicted but freed at a new trial. 234 00:27:05.040 --> 00:27:09.040 The three convicted leaders had their sentences suspended 235 00:27:09.040 --> 00:27:15.040 and were finally pardoned at the King's instructions in September 1769. 236 00:27:15.040 --> 00:27:21.040 Meanwhile, Edmund Fanning was convicted of extorting illegal fees 237 00:27:51.040 --> 00:28:21.040 The Governor had promised to bring extortionate officials to trial. The trial of Fanning was, in particular, a mockery of that pledge. Other regulator charges against officials were systematically obstructed by the government. Complaining witnesses were driven away by the guards and ordered out of town and grand juries were systematically packed with government officials. 238 00:28:21.040 --> 00:28:31.040 The abject crumbling of the regulator movement did nothing, of course, to allay the grievances of the backcountry. 239 00:28:31.040 --> 00:28:36.040 After a lull of many months, regulator agitation welled up once more. 240 00:28:36.040 --> 00:28:45.040 In the spring of 1769, Orange County Sheriff John Lee, trying to arrest Ninian Hamilton and other regulator leaders, 241 00:28:45.040 --> 00:28:52.040 The legislature leaders was set upon and severely whipped by a mob led by Hamilton and Devaney. 242 00:28:52.360 --> 00:28:58.080 But this was an exceptional incident. The regulators generally turned to concentrate 243 00:28:58.080 --> 00:29:05.080 on political action, specifically to try to change assembly policies in the July elections. 244 00:29:05.280 --> 00:29:11.260 The regulators of Orange, Anson and Rowan counties formulated their political program 245 00:29:11.260 --> 00:29:19.980 in Petitions, Asking for an End to Poll Taxes, and a Shift to Property Taxes, Drastic Limitations 246 00:29:19.980 --> 00:29:28.260 on Legal Fees, Payment of Taxes in Kind, Lower Quit Rents, a Cutback of Land Grants to Counselors 247 00:29:28.260 --> 00:29:34.620 and Other Governmental Favorites, and a Secret Ballot for Assembly Elections. In contrast 248 00:29:34.620 --> 00:29:41.260 was the petition of 1,000 Presbyterians in backcountry Mecklenburg County. The petitioners 249 00:29:41.260 --> 00:29:47.900 proclaimed their loyalty to the government and requested repeal only of the Anglican establishment 250 00:29:47.900 --> 00:29:52.780 in their counties. The July elections did result in a general 251 00:29:52.780 --> 00:30:01.460 overturn of the North Carolina legislature. Of 77 assemblymen, 45 were new. Only a handful 252 00:30:01.460 --> 00:30:07.460 All of the new representatives were regulators, but regulators did sweep the elections in 253 00:30:07.460 --> 00:30:14.220 Orange, Granville, and Halifax counties in the northern back country and Anson County 254 00:30:14.220 --> 00:30:21.940 in the southwest. Rowan County also returned the ardent regulator Christopher Nation. Orange 255 00:30:21.940 --> 00:30:27.780 County for its part elected Herman Husband to the assembly, while Hyde-bound Mecklenburg 256 00:30:27.780 --> 00:30:31.340 County remained committed to the status quo. 257 00:30:31.340 --> 00:30:37.420 After the flush of enthusiasm over their political victory, the regulators found to their dismay 258 00:30:37.420 --> 00:30:41.260 that their victory had won them nothing. 259 00:30:41.260 --> 00:30:44.900 The assembly did nothing to redress their grievances. 260 00:30:44.900 --> 00:30:52.900 Indeed, the elections of the spring of 1770 only weakened regulator strength in the assembly. 261 00:30:52.900 --> 00:30:59.780 The regulators were neither the first nor the last revolutionary movement to become disillusioned 262 00:30:59.780 --> 00:31:06.900 with the Fruits of Political Action and defined that voting and politics were just another 263 00:31:06.900 --> 00:31:13.240 blind alley to blunt their effectiveness, deflect them from their course and weaken 264 00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:21.240 their purpose. The regulators, in fact, had tried every form of legal or nonviolent protest, 265 00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:29.200 petitioning, suits in court, tax strikes and political action. Each in its turn had totally 266 00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:35.240 failed. The regulators were finally learning that only one course of action remained to 267 00:31:35.240 --> 00:31:42.080 them, armed rebellion. Matters came to a head, inaugurating the fourth phase of the North 268 00:31:42.080 --> 00:31:50.440 Carolina Regulation in late September 1770. The incident began on September 24 when James 269 00:31:50.440 --> 00:31:57.800 Hunter and other orange regulators presented a petition at Hillsboro against the peculation 270 00:31:57.800 --> 00:32:03.480 and systematic bias of the county sheriffs, officers and juries. 271 00:32:03.480 --> 00:32:10.640 Backing up the petition was a determined crowd of 150 regulators led by Hunter, Butler and 272 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:14.560 Howell who invaded the county courtroom. 273 00:32:14.560 --> 00:32:22.360 The crowd threatened Judge Richard Henderson who fled town and began to set upon its enemies. 274 00:32:22.360 --> 00:32:27.720 The courthouse lawyer, John Williams, was beaten up and leading county bureaucrats were 275 00:32:27.720 --> 00:32:33.840 given a severe trouncing. The crowd also proceeded to the highly satisfactory whipping of their 276 00:32:33.840 --> 00:32:41.040 archenemy, Colonel Fanning. Fanning was generously permitted to flee town and his new pretentious 277 00:32:41.040 --> 00:32:48.040 house reviled as being built from illegal fees was thoroughly burned to the ground. 278 00:32:48.040 --> 00:32:54.600 The same treatment was meted out to Judge Henderson's house in Granville County some weeks later. 279 00:32:54.600 --> 00:32:59.400 Thus, the regulators followed the model of the Stamp Act rebels. 280 00:32:59.400 --> 00:33:02.840 The regulators were now feeling their oats. 281 00:33:02.840 --> 00:33:09.720 Determined violent action had redressed their grievances by forcibly stopping the machinery 282 00:33:09.720 --> 00:33:12.440 of government in the county. 283 00:33:12.440 --> 00:33:17.820 Although the two years delay had reduced the movement from several thousand to several 284 00:33:17.820 --> 00:33:23.940 hundred, the regulators, growing stronger by the day, threatened to storm the capital, 285 00:33:23.940 --> 00:33:30.420 New Bern, to be joined by the regulators of Butte and Johnston Counties to prevent the 286 00:33:30.420 --> 00:33:37.420 assembly from ceding Edmund Fanning from a newly created rotten borough of Hillsborough. 287 00:33:37.420 --> 00:33:43.260 The assembly, now genuinely alarmed, did a little to remedy the problems of the back 288 00:33:43.260 --> 00:33:50.020 country by increasing representation of the Piedmont in the assembly and limiting governmental 289 00:33:50.020 --> 00:33:56.780 fees. But most of its panicky reaction centered around savage repression of the regulator 290 00:33:56.780 --> 00:34:03.460 movement. Its resolve for repression was strengthened by a secret agreement with the Presbyterian 291 00:34:03.460 --> 00:34:13.460 In exchange for the assembly's permission to perform the marriage ceremony, Presbyterian ministers pledged their support against the regulation. 292 00:34:13.460 --> 00:34:26.460 With the back country thus split, the assembly passed a law on January 1771, sponsored by Samuel Johnston of Edenton, in the Lowcountry, for suppressing riots. 293 00:34:26.460 --> 00:34:34.460 The Death Penalty was decreed for any assemblage of ten or more people that refused to disperse. 294 00:34:34.460 --> 00:34:39.460 Anyone ignoring subpoenas for rioting would be declared an outlaw. 295 00:34:39.460 --> 00:34:43.460 The militia was authorized to enforce these decrees. 296 00:34:43.460 --> 00:34:48.460 Furthermore, any uplander could now be tried in low-country courts. 297 00:34:48.460 --> 00:34:53.460 And anyone opposing the militia would be deemed guilty of treason. 298 00:34:53.460 --> 00:34:59.860 Furthermore, the assembly arbitrarily expelled Hermann Husband for criticizing a reactionary 299 00:34:59.860 --> 00:35:04.740 assemblyman and then had Husband summarily arrested. 300 00:35:04.740 --> 00:35:10.220 The assembly finally released Husband after a couple of months when a grand jury refused 301 00:35:10.220 --> 00:35:11.880 to indict him. 302 00:35:11.880 --> 00:35:16.920 The release of Hermann Husband served to disperse a threatened regulator rescue march on New 303 00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:23.200 New Bern, but Tryon, furious at the release, determined to pursue a massive program of 304 00:35:23.200 --> 00:35:29.980 armed repression, there were several prongs to this campaign. First, Tryon called up the 305 00:35:29.980 --> 00:35:37.240 provincial militia, since the local back country militia was now ineffective. Second, the governor 306 00:35:37.240 --> 00:35:45.000 mobilized a private force of redressers, organized by Fanning, Thomas Hart and Alexander Martin, 307 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:51.120 who had all been beaten up at Hillsboro in an armed association against the regulators. 308 00:35:51.120 --> 00:35:57.160 Particularly formidable was the aristocratic armed association of Cape Fear loyalists headed 309 00:35:57.160 --> 00:35:59.560 by General Hugh Waddell. 310 00:35:59.560 --> 00:36:06.760 Third, Tryon brazenly ordered the packing of all juries for Tryon regulators, with aristocratic 311 00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:13.120 gentlemen of the first rank, property and property, who would take care to hear only 312 00:36:13.120 --> 00:36:15.620 Pro-Official Witnesses 313 00:36:15.620 --> 00:36:23.080 The regulators of 1771 were not the regulators of three years earlier. Disappointments at 314 00:36:23.080 --> 00:36:30.140 suppression had radicalized them, and particularly infuriating was Tryon's raising of the massive 315 00:36:30.140 --> 00:36:37.380 provincial force against them. The people were incensed. Redknapp Howell composed forty 316 00:36:37.380 --> 00:36:48.260 Edmund Fanning was declared an outlaw, who could therefore be shot on sight by the regulators. 317 00:36:48.260 --> 00:36:55.140 One gauge of the intensity of regulation feeling was the refusal of militiaman Jeremiah Pritchett 318 00:36:55.140 --> 00:37:02.380 to obey military orders and his attempt to breed a mutiny in support of the regulation. 319 00:37:02.380 --> 00:37:09.620 Pritchett was sentenced to the huge total of 150 lashes. At Pritchett's public flogging, 320 00:37:09.620 --> 00:37:15.420 one of the spectators tried to get the crowd to pelt the floggers with eggs. The man was 321 00:37:15.420 --> 00:37:20.100 immediately arrested, and the colonel in charge threatened to run through any other heckler 322 00:37:20.100 --> 00:37:27.260 with his sword. Regulator forces sprang up in Halifax, Edgecombe, Butte, and Northampton 323 00:37:27.260 --> 00:37:33.220 In Rowan County, the people refused to pay fees and threatened to kill every clerk and 324 00:37:33.220 --> 00:37:38.340 lawyer in the area. The court at the Rowan County seat of Salisbury was threatened with 325 00:37:38.340 --> 00:37:45.340 the same treatment as at Hillsboro. Rowan County and other regulators nevertheless proposed 326 00:37:45.340 --> 00:37:52.660 to arbitrate their disputes, but Governor Tryon adopted an implacably hard-line anti-appeasement 327 00:37:52.660 --> 00:37:59.700 View. No negotiations were possible with rebels, he declared, nor would there be arbitration 328 00:37:59.700 --> 00:38:05.380 by any organization but the government. At this rebuff, the regulators protested that 329 00:38:05.380 --> 00:38:11.200 every man would rise up and defend his just rights. Our civil liberties are certainly 330 00:38:11.200 --> 00:38:17.500 more dear to us than the good opinion of a ruler. Governor Tryon tried to raise an armed 331 00:38:17.500 --> 00:38:25.520 Trion's force of 2,500 men. Despite determined efforts, including a subsidy to each volunteer, 332 00:38:25.520 --> 00:38:32.280 he could only raise less than 1,100 men, who were supplemented by General Waddell's irregulars 333 00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:41.100 of less than 300 men. Trion's force had no fewer than 150 officers and Waddell's nearly 334 00:38:41.100 --> 00:38:47.100 50. Most of Trion's men came from Orange and Dobbs counties in the back country and 335 00:38:47.100 --> 00:39:17.100 Trion's and Waddell's forces were supposed to meet at Hillsborough, but Waddell's column was stopped by a large body of regulators on May 9 and forced to fall back to Salisbury. Waddell's ammunition had been destroyed by a heroic group of young rebels called the Black Boys of Cabarrus. Going to the rescue of his ally, Trion moved westward from Hillsborough to the Alamance River, reaching 336 00:39:17.100 --> 00:39:24.100 The regulators, though radicalized to the point of gathering an armed force, were still gravely undermined by the lack of firm and resolute leadership. There was no overall leader. The major leaders bickered among themselves and trepidated. 337 00:39:47.100 --> 00:40:11.100 Hermann Husband would not fight at all. The other leaders naively counseled a token fight to induce Tryon to negotiate. They did not realize the absurdity of threatening or beginning the use of force without being prepared to use it effectively. 338 00:40:11.100 --> 00:40:17.180 Moreover, it was incredibly naive of them to still believe Tryon would negotiate honestly. 339 00:40:18.060 --> 00:40:25.500 James Hunter, when asked to take command of the regulators, replied in a magnificently individualistic 340 00:40:25.500 --> 00:40:33.180 but militarily ineffectual vein, We are all free men, and everyone must command himself. 341 00:40:34.140 --> 00:40:40.620 As a result, each company of regulators had a captain, but there was no overall commander. 342 00:40:41.100 --> 00:40:48.280 Shorn of any effective leaders on or off the field, the regulator movement had therefore 343 00:40:48.280 --> 00:40:56.780 no effective field command and no theoreticians to define their goals and purpose, their strategy 344 00:40:56.780 --> 00:41:05.940 and tactics. In such a case only one outcome was possible. On May 16, Triance forces advanced, 345 00:41:05.940 --> 00:41:13.100 demanded unconditional surrender and then, after a two-hour fight, routed the disorganized 346 00:41:13.100 --> 00:41:20.620 regulators into wild disorder. Thus ended the Battle of Alamance. Nine regulators were 347 00:41:20.620 --> 00:41:28.160 killed and many wounded and captured. Surprisingly, the brief regulator resistance also took a 348 00:41:28.160 --> 00:41:34.860 toll of nine killed and several score injured. Tryon now had the opportunity to wreak his 349 00:41:34.860 --> 00:41:53.860 One leader, young James Few, a prisoner of the battle, was executed the next day on the ground that he had been made an outlaw for ignoring a court subpoena for burning Fanning's house. 350 00:41:53.860 --> 00:42:03.860 Tryon, then joined by Waddell, marched unresisted through the back country, looting and burning the houses and plantations of the regulator leaders, 351 00:42:03.860 --> 00:42:14.100 In the brutal Tryon Victory March, thousands of settlers were forced to take an oath of 352 00:42:14.100 --> 00:42:20.780 allegiance to him, promising to pay their taxes and obey the laws in exchange for the 353 00:42:20.780 --> 00:42:22.980 governor's pardon. 354 00:42:22.980 --> 00:42:27.820 Tryon's largess, however, was not at all extended to the prisoners taken in battle. 355 00:42:27.820 --> 00:42:33.460 Summary, court-martials were held in mid-June, and twelve prisoners were sentenced to death 356 00:42:33.460 --> 00:42:39.300 for High Treason. Six of the convicted were pardoned, but the other six were publicly 357 00:42:39.300 --> 00:42:45.420 executed on the spot. One of the executed regulators was Captain Benjamin Merrill of 358 00:42:45.420 --> 00:42:51.940 the Rowan County Militia, who died supposedly repenting in order to allow his family to 359 00:42:51.940 --> 00:42:59.440 inherit his property. But another of the executed, James Pugh, remained steadfast to the end 360 00:42:59.440 --> 00:43:05.440 and indeed was hanged in the middle of a rebuke that he was delivering to Edmund Fanning. 361 00:43:05.440 --> 00:43:11.600 Assemblyman Thomas Person, who had been sympathetic to the regulators, was arrested by Tryon on 362 00:43:11.600 --> 00:43:18.480 his march but was ultimately acquitted. All the major leaders of the regulation had managed 363 00:43:18.480 --> 00:43:24.060 to escape capture. Redknapp Howell fled north to Maryland and eventually settled in New 364 00:43:24.060 --> 00:43:30.740 New Jersey, Herman Husband fled north to western Pennsylvania, other leaders escaped to South 365 00:43:30.740 --> 00:43:37.520 Carolina and thousands of regulators soon trekked westward over the mountains. 366 00:43:37.520 --> 00:43:42.400 The government quickly moved toward pardon of the regulator leadership. The implacable 367 00:43:42.400 --> 00:43:48.500 enemies of the regulators, Governor Tryon and Edmund Fanning, both left in the summer 368 00:43:48.500 --> 00:43:56.340 The governor of 1771, trying to become governor of New York, and fanning to be his secretary. 369 00:43:56.340 --> 00:44:02.220 The new governor of North Carolina accelerated the pardoning of the wanted leaders. 370 00:44:02.220 --> 00:44:09.100 The latter petitioned for mercy, and when the riot act expired in 1772, they were allowed 371 00:44:09.100 --> 00:44:13.580 to surrender, come into court, and be pardoned. 372 00:44:13.580 --> 00:44:18.100 James Hunter returned from Maryland to general acclaim and remained free. 373 00:44:18.100 --> 00:44:23.960 The returning William Butler crawled to the authorities for claiming his utmost abhorrence 374 00:44:23.960 --> 00:44:29.780 of the regulation. Soon, in fact, the King had pardoned all the old leaders except Herman 375 00:44:29.780 --> 00:44:36.580 Husband, who remained in Pennsylvania. The North Carolina regulators, as we have seen, 376 00:44:36.580 --> 00:44:42.300 were far different from their namesakes to the South. The South Carolina group arose 377 00:44:42.300 --> 00:45:05.420 In North Carolina, however, the major grievance was too much government, specifically too 378 00:45:05.420 --> 00:45:10.300 much revenue extracted from the public in taxes and fees. 379 00:45:10.300 --> 00:45:16.580 Hence the conflict was much more sectional than in South Carolina, where the local courthouse 380 00:45:16.580 --> 00:45:23.420 oligarchies in the back countries were appointed by the royal provincial officials in Charleston. 381 00:45:23.420 --> 00:45:28.540 Within the back country, the bulk of the split was waged between the people and the oligarchy 382 00:45:28.540 --> 00:45:36.220 of bureaucrats. The regulator conflict cannot be properly interpreted as many historians 383 00:45:36.220 --> 00:45:44.440 Presbyterians have done in religious terms. For example, as Low Country Anglican versus 384 00:45:44.440 --> 00:45:51.040 Back Country Protestant. As we have seen, the Presbyterian Church was very active in 385 00:45:51.040 --> 00:45:57.940 opposing the movement. Its ministers wrote a circular letter urging Presbyterians not 386 00:45:57.940 --> 00:46:03.760 to join the regulators. And of course, the established Anglican Church was also opposed 387 00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:11.200 to the regulators, but so too with the Baptist, who were almost all opposed. Indeed, pro-regulator 388 00:46:11.200 --> 00:46:18.360 Baptists were excommunicated from the Church. The German and Quaker sects also opposed the 389 00:46:18.360 --> 00:46:19.080 regulation.