|
Blood
Shed on the Alamance -
The
First Blood Shed in the Revolution, May 16th, 1771
- From
Sketches of North Carolina by Reverend William Henry Foote;
1846 (Chapter II, 46 - 67)
In
the year 1759 a town was established by the legislature of the province
of North Carolina, on the Eno, a branch of the Neuse, near its head
waters, in the county of Orange, which might have received its name,
Hillsborough, from the beautiful eminences by which it is surrounded,
as well as from the Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of State for
American affairs, from whom it is called. Its first name was Childsborough,
in honor of the Attorney-General, but the change speedily took place
on account of the odium attached to the attorney for his exorbitant
fees.
This
little village, the county seat of Orange, has claims upon our attention,
for events enacted within its precincts and its neighborhood, in
times gone by. It was the seat of the first provincial congress
in North Carolina, 1775;—the head-quarters of Gates after his
sad defeat at Camden;—and of his adversary, Lord Cornwallis,
on his invasion of Carolina in his pursuit of Greene (the residence
of his Lordship, then one of the most sightly buildings in the village,
is now kept as a tavern of no splendid appearance); but more particularly
noted as the place of the first outbreaking of those discontents,
which had shown themselves in complaints and remonstrances, but
here assumed form and consistence, first heard of in Orange and
Granville, and ultimately spreading over all that section of the
State west of a line drawn from the point of entrance of the Roanoke,
from Virginia, to the point of egress of the Yadkin to South Carolina;—discontents,
and complaints, and outbreakings, that eventuated in the first blood
shed in Carolina, in the contest of freedom,of opinion and property
with the tyranny and misrule of the British government: and the
first contest that had any appearance of a regular predetermined
battle, in the provinces in North America.
This
spirit of discontent was at first confined to that part of the province
granted and set off to Lord Granville, which was bounded by the
Virginia line on the north, by the line of latitude of 35' 34' on
the south, and extending from the Atlantic Ocean indefinitely west;
but more particularly, that part of his Lordship's domain lying
west of the line from the Roanoke to the Catawba, at the points
specified above. It might have been quieted, had the governor been
as ready to require the agents of Granville and his own officers
to do justice, as he was to issue his proclamations, filled with
promises, and vain orders, to a people irritated by oppression,
but not desirous of rebellion.
On the
24th of April, 1771, Governor Tryon marched from Newbern with a
small force, on his way, according to the recommendation of the
council, to check a rebellion in the upper country, which had received
the name of the
Regulators, or the Regulation; the militia of the several counties,
in answer to the governor's demand upon the constituted authorities,
joined him on his march, and on the 4th of May he encamped at Hunter's
lodge in Wake county. Here being joined by a detachment of militia
under Col. John Hinton, he found himself at the head of an armed
force sufficient to alarm, if not subdue, the undisciplined country
in which the dissatisfaction prevailed. He left the palace in Newbern
accompanied by about three hundrod men, a small train of artillery,
and a number of baggage wagons; on the way he had been joined by
the detachment of militia from New Hanover county, under Col. John
Ashe; of the county of Craven, under Col. Joseph Leech; of the county
of Dobbs (now called Lenoir), under Col. Richard Caswell; of the
county of Onslow, under Col. Craig; of the county of Carteret, under
Col. William Thompson; of the county of Johnson, under Col. Needham
Bryan; of the county of Beaufort, a company of artillery, under
Captain Moore, and a company of Rangers under Capt. Neale; and a
company of light horsemen from Duplin, under Capt. Bullock.
Froin
this place he sent out some detachments to assist the sheriffs in
collecting their taxes and various fees due to the government and
its officers, with the hope of overawing the community by his military
parade; and on the 9th instant marched to the Eno, and encamped
within a few miles of Hillsborough, the centre of the infected district,
and the residence of the most hated and oppressive officer of the
crown, Col. Edmund Fanning, who joined his camp at this place with
a detachment of the militia of Orange, whom by various means he
had prevailed upon to unite with the governor in putting down their
distressed and rebellious neighbors.
This
was the second visit paid by the governor to the county of Orange
on account of the agitation of the public mind, and the disturbances
in the community, and the difficulty attending the collection of
taxes and the fees of the public officers. In the early part of
July, 1768, he came as governor, unattended with any armed force,
and used the authority of the chief magistrate, and the address
of a practised politician, to restore order, under promises of redress.
The apparent quiet gave place to redoubled confusion after his departure,
as the promises of protection from illegal exactions all proved
vain. He now came with an armed detachment of the colonial militia,
to quell by power what he would not control by justice.
The whole
inhabited region of Carolina, west of the line mentioned above,
inhabited, as Martin says,"—by several thousand families,
removed from the mother country, settled in the frontier counties
of the province, exposed to the dangers of savage Indians, and subject
to all the hardships and difficulties of cultivating a desolate
wilderness, under the expectation of enjoying to their fullest extent
the exercise of their religious privileges as a people," —and
with their religious were joined inseparably the civil and domestic
rights of an enterprising race accustomed to endure hardship and
resist oppression; —all this region of country was agitated,
and in some parts in open rebellion; without a single military leader
of experience; with few men of much wealth or political eminence,
or polished of scattered neighborhoods, and or any preparations
of the rifle and powder and ball of the hunter.
Mr. Wirt,
in his Life of Patrick Henry, says, "the spirit of revolution
in Virginia began in the highest circles in the community, and worked
its way down to the lower, the bone and sinew of the country."
Wherever it may have begun in the eastern part of Carolina, it is
certain that in the western division, the people, feeling that their
interests were neglected by the governor, and misunderstood or overlooked
by the seaboard counties, and not protected, or even consulted,
by the parliament or court of England, or any of their executive
officers, were moved as one great, excited, undisciplined mass of
shrewd, hardy, enterprising men, that acknowledged the dominion
of law, and held "opposition to tyrants" to be "obedience
to God."
The men
on the seaboard of Carolina, with Colonels Ashe and Waddel at their
head, had nobly opposed the Stamp Act, and prevented its execution
in North Carolina; and in their patriotic movements the people of
Orange sustained them; and called them "The Sons
of Liberty." Col. Ashe, in Wilmington, ventured to lead
the excited populace against the wishes and even the hospitality
of the governor, and in 1766 his party had thrown the governor's
orasted ox, provided for a barbecue feast, into the river. Now they
were marching with this very governor, to subdue the disciples of
Liberty in the west; perhaps, through a misunderstanding of the
true nature of the case, they were willing to convince the governor
that they were, all supporters of the laws and of the authority
of the British crown, by uniting with him and subduing those who
were reported to the council and provincial legislature as an ignorant
and restless multitude, to be reclaimed, by severity, to the government
of the laws. The eastern men looked for evils from across the waters;
and were prepared to resist oppression on their shores before it
should step upon the soil of their State. The western men were seeking
redress from evils that pressed them at home, under the misrule
of the officers of the province, evils unknown in the eastern counties,
and misunderstood when reported there. Had Ashe, and Waddel, and
Caswell, understood their case, they would have acted like Thomas
Person, of Granville, and favored the distressed, even though they
might have felt under obligations to maintain the peace of the province,
and the due subordination to the laws. While the rest of this province,
and the other provinces, were resisting by resolutions and remonstrances,
and making preparations for distant and coming evils; these western
men, in defence of their rights, boldly made resistance to the constituted
authorities, unto blood. While the eastern men stopped the stamped
paper on their shore, contended with an enemy in their own bosom,
and sought deliverance at home in the wilderness.
The disturbances
Governor Tryon came to quell were no sudden outbreaks of a discontented
and excitable people. As early as the year 1759, the attention of
the legislature of the province was called to the illegal fees exacted
by the officers of government, producing great and alarming discontents;
and a law proposed for redress failed in meeting the approbation
of the legislature, though the discontent of persons living on Lord
Granville's land had been manifested by the seizure of his lordship's
agent, in Edenton, Francis Corbin, and his purchase of liberty by
his bond, for future better behavior, in 8,000 [pounds sterling],
with eight securities. This exhibition of popular frenzy was rot
noticed by the governor, because one of his favorite counsellors,
M'Culloch, was engaged in it. In 1760, the people of Orange, finding
themselves "defrauded by the clerks of the several courts,
by the recorders of deeds, by entry takers, by surveyors, and by
the lawyers, every man demanding twice or three times his legal
fees," violently prevented the sheriff from holding an election
according to proclamation of the governor, in expectation of some
new oppression by the office-holders, in the form of taxes and fees.
In June, 1765, a paper entitled, "A
serious address to the people of Granville county, containing
a brief narrative of our situation, and the wrongs we suffer, with
some necessary hints with respect to a reformation," was circulated
in that county, with great effect, being written with much clearness
and force. The wrongs complained of in Orange, and Granville, and
Anson, and the other counties, were essentially, and for the most
part, individually the same.
The people
complained that illegal and exorbitant fees were extorted by officers
of government; that oppressive taxes were exacted by the sheriffs,
where they had a right to exact some; and that the manner of their
collection at all times was oppressive, especially when the right
to exact any was denied. As early as the years 1752 or 1753, Childs
and Corbin, the agents for Lord Granville, and successors of Mosely
and Holton, began to oppress the people who had been induced, by
fair promises, to settle on his lordship's reservation, by declaring
the patents issued by their predecessors null and void, because
the words, "Right Honorable Earl," had been left out from
the signature, which had been simply, "Granville, by his Attorneys."
They next demanded a larger fee for the patents they issued, than
had been given to their predecessors—next, a fee for a device
which they had invented to be affixed to the papers;—also,
by granting over and over again, knowingly, the same lands to different
persons, and in no case returning illegal fees; and in various ways
rendering titles to land uncertain and insecure in a large part
of Orange. In all these extortions the people complained that the
high officers of the province were so interested, there was little
prospect of justice but by some strong appeals and exhibitions of
powerful dislike, that could not be frowned down.
The governor's
proclamation, issued from time to time, requiring that copies of
the legal fees should be exhibited to the people, and no others
demanded, were disregarded by his officers; and it was more than
hinted that the judges were, indirectly at least, in many cases,
partakers of the crime, by sharing the fees of office with the inferior
officers. This gave weight and impunity to the oppressive exactions.
The people were poor, living on productive land as most of them
did, they were far from market, and had scarcely surmounted the
labors and exposures of a new settlement. One of them who was engaged
in the opposition, declared that when he had gone with his father
to Fayetteville to market, with a load of wheat, he could get a
bushel of salt for a bushel of wheat; or if money was demanded,
they could get five shillings a bushel for wheat, of which only
one was in money, and the rest in trade. And if they could go home
with forty shillings, or five dollars from a load of forty bushels,
they thought they had done well. In these circumstances double fees
and double taxes were exceedingly oppressive,—and to men of
their principles these exactions were sufficient cause of open and
persevering resistance.
In 1766,
the Stamp Act was repealed, and the governor issued two proclamations
on the 25th of June, one making known that desirable fact, the other
requiring of the officers of government strict adherence to the
graduated table of fees; expecting of consequence that both the
east and the west would be gratified, and make no further resistance
to the collection of the lawful taxes, and range themselves on the
side of the government. The peace and tranquillity were far greater
in the eastern counties than in the western. During the session
of the county court of Orange, a number of persons entered the court-house
in Hillsborough, and presented to the magistrates a written complaint,
drawn up by Harmon Husbands, which they requested the clerk to read,
setting forth the views of the people respecting their wrongs,—"that
there were many evils complained of in the county of Orange that
ought to be redressed, "—and proposing that there should
be a meeting in each company of militia, for the purpose of appointing
delegates for a general meeting to be held at some suitable place"
where there was no liquor, —"judiciously to inquire whether
the freemen of this county labor under any abuse of power."—"that
the opinions of the deputies be committed to writing, freely conversed
upon,—and measures taken for amendment." The proposition
was considered reasonable, a a meeting was appointed to be held
at Maddock's Mill, two or three miles west of Hillsborough, on the
10th of October, to inquire into the acts of the government—"for
while men were men, if even the Sons of Liberty were put in office
they would become corrupt and oppressive, unless they were called
upon to give an account of their stewardship."
The company
meetings were held, and the delegates were appointed; in some cases,
with written commissions, viz.:—"At a meeting in the neighborhood
of Deep River, 20th August, 1766, it was unanimously agreed to appoint
W. C. and W. M. to attend a general meeting on the 10th of October,
at Maddock's Mill, where they are judiciously to examine whether
the freemen in this county labor under any abuses of power; and
in particular to examine into the public tax, and inform themselves
of every particular thereof, by what laws, and for what use it is
laid, in order to remove some jealousies out of our minds."
"And the representatives, vestrymen, and other officers, are
requested to give the members what information and satisfaction
they can, so far as they value the good will of every honest freeholder,
and the executing public offices pleasant and delightsome."
(For more information, see Regulator's
Advertisement No. 1, August 1766.)
On the
appointed day, the 10th of October, 1766, the delegates assembled;
after some time, James Watson, a friend of Col. Fanning, the most
odious officer in the county, came, and as a reason for his not
appearing to give account as their representative, read a message
from Fanning, that, "It had been his intention of attending
them till a few days ago, when he observed in the notice from Deep
River, the word judiciously, which signified the authority of a
court; and that he considered the meeting an insurrection."
The meeting had full and free discussion on a variety of topics;
and finally resolved that such meetings as the present were necessary,
annually, or oftener, to hear from their representatives and officers,
in order to have the benefits of their constitution and the choice
of their rulers; and that as their representatives, sheriffs, vestry
and other officers had not met them here, with but one exception,
they should have another opportunity of conferring with their constituents.
It is impossible to conceive what fairer mode of ascertaining the
truth could be devised by men situated as they were, without a printing
press and without newspapers. Such proceedings might, in the colonial
days, be rebellion to be put down; in these days of liberty, a man
would lose his hold on the community were he to refuse compliance
with such commands from his constituents, or the community at large.
In April,
1767, another meeting was held at the same place Maddock's Mills,
and the following preamble and resolutions were discussed and adopted,
by which these men passed the Rubicon; and from being called a mob,
or insurgents, were known by the name of Regulator,
or The Regulation, and were considered as having some continued
existence:
"We,
the subscribers, do voluntarily agree to form ourselves into an
association, to assemble ourselves for conference for regulating
public grievances and abuses of power, in the following particulars,
with others of the like nature that may occur, viz.:
"1st.
That we will pay no more taxes until we are satisfied they are
agreeable to law, and applied to the purposes therein mentioned,
unless we cannot help it, or are forced.
"
2d. That we will pay no officer any more fees than the law allows,
and unless we are obliged to it; and then to show our dislike,
and bear an open testimony against it.
"
3d. That we will attend our meetings of conference as often as
we conveniently can, and is necessary in order to consult our
representatives on the amendment of such laws as may be found
grievous or unnecessary; and to choose more suitable men than
we have done heretofore for burgesses and vestrymen; and to petition
the houses of assembly, governor, council, king, and parliament,
&c., for redress in such grievances as in the course of the
undertaking may occur; and to inform one another, learn, know,
and enjoy all the privileges and liberties that are allowed, and
were settled on us by our worthy ancestors, the founders of our
present constitution, in order to preserve it on its ancient foundation,
that it may stand firm and unshaken.
"4th.
That we will contribute to collections for defraying necessary
expenses attending the work, according to our abilities.
"5th.
That in case of difference in judgment, we will submit to the
judgment of the majority of our body.
"To
all of which we solemnly swear, or being a Quaker, or otherwise
scrupulous in conscience of the common oath, do solemnly affirm,
that we will stand true and faithful to this cause, till we bring
things to a true regulation, according to the true intent and
meaning hereof, in the judgment of a majority of us."
These
resolutions were drawn up by Harmon Husbands.
A subscription
was set on foot, and fifty pounds were collected for the purpose
of defraying the expenses of such suits as might arise in seeking
redress of their grievances. During this year, 1767, the governor
commenced his palace at Newbern, for which, with great difficulty,
he had obtained an appropriation of 5,000 [pounds sterling] by the
last legislature; and proceeded in a tasteful and expensive style
of building, to expend the whole sum upon the foundation and a small
part of the superstructure. At the meeting of the two houses in
December of this year, the governor laid before them the condition
of the building. The legislature with reluctance gave, as the only
alternative, 10,000 [pounds] more to complete the palace. When finished
it was pronounced the most superb building in the United Provinces.
The governor was gratified, and the people incensed. The taxes had
been burdensome—the palace rendered them intolerable.
On the
21st of May, 1768, the Regulators had another meeting, and determined
to petition the governor direct, and prepared their address; which,
with a copy of their proceedings at this and the previous meetings,
was sent to His Excellency, by James Hunter and Rednap Howell. In
the month of June, these gentlemen waited upon the governor at Brunswick;
and in reply to their petition, received a written document from
which the following extracts are made:
"The
grievances complained of by no means warrant the extraordinary
steps you have taken in consideration of a determination to abide
by my decision in council, it is my direction, by the unanimous
advice of that board, that you do, from henceforward, desist from
any further meetings, either by verbal appointments or advertisement.
That all titles of Regulators or Associators cease among you.
As you want to be satisfied what is the amount of the tax for
the public service for 1767, I am to inform you it is seven shillings
a taxable, besides the county and parish taxes, the particulars
of which I will give to Mr. Hunter. I have only to add, I shall
be up at Hillsborough the beginning of next month."
In all
these public and documentary proceedings of the Regulators, we see
nothing to blame, and much to admire. On these principles, and to
this extent of opposition, the whole western counties were agreed.
The most sober and sedate in the community were united in resisting
the tyranny, of unjust and exorbitant taxes; and had been aroused
to a degree of violence and opposition difficult to manage and hard
to quell. And the more restless and turbulent and unprincipled parts
of society, equally aggrieved, and more ungovernable, cast themselves
in as a part of the resisting mass of population, with little to
gain, but greater license for their unprincipled passions, and little
to lose, could they escape confinement and personal punishment.
These persons were guilty of lynching the sheriffs, that is, seizing
those they found in the exercise of their office, tying them to
a black-jack, or other small trees, beating them severely with rods,
laughing and shouting to see their contortions; they would rescue
property which had been seized for taxes, often with great violence;
and on one occasion, in April, 1768, proceeded to fire a few shots
upon the house of Edmund Fanning in Hillsborough. These unjustifiable
acts were charged upon the party; and the Regulators were made accountable
for all the ill that wicked men chose to perpetrate under the name
of struggling for liberty; while it is well known that the leaders
of this oppressed party never expressed a desire to be free from
law or equitable taxation. The governor's palace, double and treble
fees and taxes without reason, drove the sober to resistance, and
the passionate and unprincipled to outrage. But there were cases
of injustice most foul and crying that might palliate, where they
could not justify, the violence that followed; such as taking advantage
of the quietness of the Regulators to seize a man's horse with the
bridle and saddle, and selling them for four or five dollars to
an officer, to pay taxes resisted as illegal.
The sheriff
had taken advantage of a peculiar conjuncture of events to seize
two of the leading men. A meeting had been agreed upon to be held
on the 20th of May, 1768, when the sheriff and vestrymen would meet
a deputation from the Regulators, and give them satisfaction. Previous
to that day a messenger came from the governor with a proclamation
against the Regulation as an insurrection; the sheriff immediately,
with a party of thirty horsemen, rode some fifty miles, and seizing
Harmon Husbands and William Hunter, confined them in Hillsborough
jail. The whole country arose, and making an old Scotchman of some
seventy years of age, Ninian Bell Hamilton, their leader, marched
towards Hillsborough to the rescue. When they reached the Eno, they
found the prisoners set free, with this condition laid upon them
among others—"nor show any jealousies of the officers
taking extraordinary fees. "When the Regulators reached the
Eno, Fanning went down to meet them with a bottle of rum in one
hand and of wine in the other, and called for a horse to take him
over "ye're nane too gude to wade," replied the old Scotchman.
Fanning waded the river, but no one would partake of his refreshments,
or listen to his statements. The governor's messenger, who had just
then returned, rode up to them, read the governor's message, and
assured them that, on application to the governor, he would redress
their grievances and protect them from extortion and oppression
of any officer, provided they would disperse and go home. The whole
company cried out, "agreed! agreed!" and immediately dispersed.
This event preceded the visit made by Hunter and Howell to the governor.
Early
in July, 1768, the governor arrived in Hillsborough, and issuing
a proclamation, as he had promised Hunter and Howell, excited the
expectations of the country that some redress would be granted.
But sending the sheriff to collect the taxes, and with him a letter
addressed to the people of a similar import with his proclamations
and previous letters, these fond expectations were all broken, and
the excited people drove off the sheriff with threats of his life
if he persisted in his efforts, and sent a reply to the governor.
On a false alarm "a large body of the Regulators assembled
in arms, on the night of the 11th of August, near Hillsborough.
The nearest companies of militia were called upon; and a large body
assembled to defend the governor from injury or insult. The better
part of the community were averse to the irregularities of those
lawless spirits who, attaching themselves to the cause of liberty,
greatly impeded its progress; and desired to govern themselves and
persuade their neighbors, by reason, to gain the justice they demanded.
Frequent communications passed between the governor and the leaders
of the Regulators before the session of the superior court, Sept.
22d, at which Husband and Butler were to be tried; and the demands
of His Excellency always implied absolute submission; while the
Regulators insisted on protection. On the day of trial, between
three and four thousand people assembled near the town, but no violence
was committed; the court proceeded; Husbands was acquitted; Hunter
and two others were found guilty of riot, fined heavily and committed
to jail, from which two soon found the means of escape, and all
soon received the pardon of the governor. A number of indictments
were found against Fanning; he was pronounced guilty on all, and
fined one penny each.
After
this display of justice, the governor issued a proclamation of a
general pardon to all who had been engaged in the late riotous movements,
except thirteen individuals designated by name. These were probably
esteemed by the governor as principal men among the Regulators in
Orange county, and their names are preserved, James Hunter, Ninian
Hamilton, Peter Craven, Isaac Jackson, Harmon Husbands, Matthew
Hamilton, William Payne, Ninian Bell Hamilton, Malachy Tyke, William
Moffat, Christopher Nation, Solomon Goff, and John O'Neil. Supposing
the country sufficiently pacified, the governor returned to his
palace, soon to find that the people were neither deceived nor dispirited.
The course of events in the upper country flowed on in a disturbed
channel, during the remaining part of the year 1768, the whole of
1769 and 1770. The Regulators held their meetings, often in an excited,
but never in a dissipated manner, and continued to throw more and
more difficulties in the way of the sheriffs and other officers,
whose exactions increased by impunity. All classes felt the evil,
and a greater number than formerly determined on resistance. In
March, 1770, Maurice Moore reported to the governor from Salisbury,
where he had gone to hold the superior court,—"that the
sheriffs of the several counties of that district, complained heavily
of the opposition made to them in the exercise of their duties,
by the Regulators; that it was impossible to collect a tax or levy
an execution; plain proofs, among others, that their designs have
even extended farther than to promote a public inquiry into the
conduct of public officers:" and he prayed that it might not
be found necessary to redress the evil " by means equal to
the obstinacy of the people."
On the
records of the superior court in Hillsborough, under date of Sept.
24th, 1770, is the following entry, which requires no comment.
"Several
persons styling themselves Regulators, assembled together in the
court-yard under the conduct of Husbands, James Hunter, Rednap
Howell, William Butler, Samuel Divinny, and many others, insulted
some of the gentlemen of the bar, and in a riotous manner went
into the court-house, and forcibly carried out some of the attorneys,
and in a cruel manner, beat them. They then insisted that the
judge (Richard Henderson being the only one on the bench) should
proceed to trial of their leaders, who had been indicted at a
former court, and that the jury should be taken out of their party.
Therefore, the judge finding it impossible to proceed with honor
to himself and justice to his country, adjourned the court until
tomorrow at 10 o'clock; and took advantage of the night and made
his escape, and the court adjourned to meet in course."
The next
entry is as follows, viz.:
"March
term, 1771. The persons styling themselves Regulators, under the
conduct of Harmon Husbands, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William
Butler, and Samuel Divinny, still continuing their riotous meetings,
and severely threatening the judges, lawyers, and other officers
of the court, prevented any of the judges or lawyers attending.
Therefore, the court adjourned till the next September term."
So it
appears there was no superior court in Orange for a year; and in
Rowan the course of justice was greatly impeded.
To these
acts of rebellion, unfortunately, were added acts of personal violence
that called the governor from his palace, with his armed force to
revenge. Immediately after the adjournment of the court, a lawyer,
Mr. John Williams, on his way to the court-house, was met by a number
of individuals, who seized and beat him severely in the streets.
Edmund Fanning, the person most obnoxious to the community, was
seized in the courthouse, dragged out by his heels, severely beaten,
and kept in confinement during the night. In the morning, when it
was discovered there would be no court, he was beaten again; his
fine house, which occupied the site of the present Masonic Hall,
was torn down, and his elegant furniture destroyed. While the buildings
on the premises were falling under the hands of the Regulators,
a bell, which had been procured for the Episcopal church, and deposited
with Fanning for safe keeping was discovered. The cry was raised,
"it's a spice mortar;" and in a twinkling, Fanning's spice
mortar was scattered in fragments.
The excited
multitude then proceeded to the court-house; appointed a man by
the name of Yorke as clerk; set up a mock judge; called over the
cases; directed Fanning to plead law; and pronounced judgment in
mock gravity and ridicule of the court, and law, and officers, by
whom they felt themselves aggrieved. Henderson informed the governor,
and urged his special attendance, and proposed the calling of the
Assembly. Soon after, the house, barn, and out-buildings of the
judge, were burned to the ground. The governor postponed the calling
of the legislature till the usual time; and received them in the
palace, which had just been completed, amidst the confusion of the
upper country, so greatly aggravated by its erection. Vigorous measures
were proposed to restore peace to the upper country; four new counties
were set off—Guilford, Chatham, Surry, and Wake. With the hopes
of dividing the attention of the people, a proclamation was issued
forbidding merchants, traders, or others, to supply any person with
powder and shot, or lead, till further notice and finally it was
determined to proceed to extremities, and on the 19th March, 1771,
the governor issued his circular to the colonels and commanding
officers of the regiments, stating the grievances the government
was suffering; he adds—"You are to take fifty volunteers
from your regiment, to form one company," &c., offering,
at the same time, liberal rations, bounty and pay. No little difficulty
was found in collecting the necessary forces, from the great unwillingness
of the militia to march against men, in whose doings there was so
much to justify, and so little to condemn and punish.
On the
9th of May, after many delays, he was encamped, as we have said,
on the banks of the Eno, near Hillsborough. General Hugh Waddel
had been directed to march with the forces of Bladen and Cumberland,
and to rendezvous in Salisbury, and collect the forces from the
western counties, and join the governor in Orange, now Guilford.
While he was encamped at Salisbury, waiting for the arrival of ammunition
from Charleston, the exploit known in tradition as the Black Boys
was performed by a company of men in Cabarrus county, who, lying
in wait in disguise, with blackened faces, intercepted the convoy
of ammunition between Charlotte and Salisbury, routed the guard,
blew up the powder, and escaped unhurt.
Having
crossed the Yadkin, Waddel found a large company of Regulators assembled
to prevent his advance; his own men were many of them averse to
violence, and others strongly in favor of the insurgents, and were
falling away from his ranks. Upon receiving threats of violence
if he continued to advance, in a council of officers, he determined
to retreat across the Yadkin.
GENERAL
WADDEL'S CAMP, Pott's Creek, 10th May, 1771. By a Council of Officers
of the Western Detachment: "Considering the great superiority
of the insurgents in number, and the resolution of a great part
of their own men not to fight, it was resolved that they should
retreat across the Yadkin. William Lindsay, Griffith Rutherford,
Ad' Alexander, Saml. Spencer, Thos. Neel, Robert Harris, Fr. Ross,
Saml. Snead, Robt. Schaw, Win. Luckie.
"May
11th, Capt. Alexander made oath before Griffith Rutherford, that
he had passed along the lines of the Regulators in arms, drawn
up on ground he was acquainted with. The foot appeared to him,
to extend a quarter of a mile, seven or eight deep, and the horse
to extend one hundred and twenty yards, twelve or fourteen deep."
On Waddel's
retreat the Regulators pressed on him, and many of his men deserting,
he reached Salisbury with a greatly diminished force, and immediately
dispatched a messenger to Tryon to warn him of the common danger.
The governor, already alarmed at the reports that came in, of forces
gathering on the Alamance, on the route to Salisbury, raised his
camp immediately, and on the 13th of May crossed Haw River; and
on the evening of the 14th, encamped within six miles of the Regulators,
on the Alamance. On the 15th, the Regulators sent a message to the
governor making propositions of accommodation, and asking an answer
in four hours. He promised them one by noon the next day. In the
evening, Captain Ashe and Captain John Walker being caught out of
camp, by the Regulators, were tied to trees, severely whipped, and
made prisoners. On this, as on the preceding night, one-third of
the forces was under arms all night. On the 16th, Tryon began his
march at daybreak, and moved on silently within half a mile of the
insurgents, and there proceeded to form his line, the discharge
of two cannon being the signal. Here Rev. David Caldwell, who, at
the solicitations of his parishioners and acquaintances, some of
whom were with the Regulators, had visited Tryon's camp on the 15th,
in company with Alexander Martin, afterwards governor of the State,
to persuade the governor to mild measures, again visited the camp,
and it is said obtained a promise from the governor that he would
not fire until he had tried negotiation. Tryon sent in his reply
to the Regulators, demanding unconditional submission, and gave
an hour for consideration: they, heard with great impatience a first
and second reading.
Both
parties advanced to within about three hundred yards of each other;
Tryon sent a magistrate to the insurgents with proclamation to disperse
within an hour, and also commenced negotiation for an exchange of
Captains Ashe and Walker. Robert Thompson, who had with some others
come into the camp to negotiate with the governor, was detained
as a prisoner, and attempting to leave camp without liberty, the
governor seized a gun and shot him dead with his own hand. A flag
of truce sent out by him was immediately fired on by the excited
people, many of whom were near enough to witness the circumstances
of Thompson's death. The parties had gradually been drawing nearer
and nearer to each other, the insurgents somewhat irregularly, till
their lines in places almost met. The governor gave the word "fire,"
his men hesitated, and the Regulators, many of them with rude antics,
dared them to " fire." " Fire!" cried the governor,
rising in his stirrups; " fire! on them or on me!" and
the action began. The cannon were discharged, and the military commenced
firing by platoons; the Regulators in an irregular manner from behind
trees. Some stout young men of the Regulators rushed forward and
seized the cannon of the governor, but not knowing how to use them,
speedily gave them up and retreated. A flag of truce was sent out
by the governor to stop the battle; an old Scotchman cried out to
the Regulators, "it's a flag, don't fire;" but almost
immediately three or four rifles were discharged, and the flag fell.
The firing was renewed with fresh vigor by the military, and the
Regulators in the general fled, leaving a few posted behind trees,
who continued their fatal aim till their ammunition was exhausted,
or they were in danger of being surrounded.
Some
of the Regulators had wished and expected to fight; but the greater
part that had assembled expected that the governor, seeing their
numbers, would parley with thein, and ultimately grant their demands.
Rev. Mr. Caldwell, just from Tryon's camp, was riding along the
lines urging the men to go home without violence, when the command
to fire was given, and with difficulty escaped from the conflict.
They had no commander to regulate their motions, they had none with
them used to camps and wars to give them advice; there had of late
been no expeditions against the savages, and the military life,
further than to shoot a rifle and live on short rations, was all
new. "O," said an old man, who was in the battle, to Mr.
Caruthers, "O, if John and Daniel Gillespie had only known
as much about military discipline then as they knew a few years
after that, the bloody Tryon would never have slept in his palace
again!" Many that were defeated in that bloodshed, in a few
years showed Cornwallis they had learned to fight better than in
the day of Tryon's victory on the Alamance. It is the unvarying
tradition among the people of the country that the Regulators had
but little ammunition, and did not flee till it was all expended.
Nine
of the Regulators, and twenty-seven of the militia were left dead
on the field; a great number were wounded on both sides in this
skirmish, or battle—in this first blood shed for the enjoyment
of liberty. We cannot but admire the principles that led to the
result, how much soever we may deplore the excesses that preceded,
and the bloodshed itself. The excesses of the Regulators had been
great, as has been recorded, but the barbarities of the governor
upon his prisoners, after his victory, make these lamented deeds
dwindle into harmless sport. On the evening of the battle, he proceeded
to hang, without trial or form, James Few (whom he had taken prisoner),
a young man, a carpenter, that owned a little spot of land near
Hillsborough, where Mr. Kirkham's house now stands, of quiet and
industrious habits, goaded on to rebellion by the exactions of Fanning;
and at last, driven to madness by the dishonor done by that man
to his intended bride, he joined the Regulators, and proclaimed
himself "sent by heaven to release the world of oppression,
and to begin in Carolina." And not content with this, the governor's
vengeance followed his aged parents, and having executed their son,
Tryon proceeded to destroy the little provision made for their helplessness
and age.
Captain
Messer was condemned to be hung the next day. His wife, hearing
of his captivity and intended fate, came with her oldest child,
a lad of about ten years, to visit and intercede for her husband.
Her kindness comforted but could not redeem her husband, the father
of her children; the governor was inflexible. While the preparations
were making for the execution, she lay upon the ground weeping,
her face covered with her hands, and the weeping boy by her side.
When the fatal moment, as he supposed, had arrived, the boy, stepping
up to Tryon, says: "Sir, hang me and let my father live!"
"Who told you to say that?" said the governor. "
Nobody!" replied the lad. "And why," said the governor,
"do you ask that?" "Because," said the boy,
"if you hang my father my mother will die, and the children
will perish." "Well!" said the governor, deeply moved
by the earnestness and affecting simplicity of the lad, "your
father shall not be hung to-day." On suggestion of Fanning,
Messer was offered his liberty on condition that he would bring
in Harmon Husbands, his wife and child being kept as hostages. After
an absence of some days he returned, saying he had overtaken him
in Virginia, but could not bring him back; he was put in chains
and taken along as prisoner.
After
resting a few days on Sandy River, the governor passed on as far
as the Yadkin, and having issued a proclamation, that all those
who had been engaged in these disturbances, excepting the prisoners
in camp, the company called the Black Boys, and sixteen others,
that should come into camp, lay down their arms, and take the oath
of allegiance before the 10th of July, should receive a free pardon:
and having sent General Waddel with a company of twenty-five light
horse, one field-piece, and a respectable corps of militia to visit
the counties to the west and south, and return home, himself took
a circuit round through Stokes, Rockingham, Guilford to Hillsborough.
In all his circuit, after the bloodshed, he exhibited his prisoners
in chains, particularly in the villages he passed. He exacted the
oath of allegiance from all the inhabitants that could be found;
levied contributions of provisions with a lavish hand upon the suspected
and the absent; he seized one Johnson, who was reported to have
spoken disrespectfully of Lady Wake, from whom one of the counties
lately forcibly set off had been called, a beautiful and accomplished
lady; and for his want of gallantry to this sister of the governor's
wife, condemned him to five hundred lashes on his bare back, two
hundred and fifty of which were inflicted; and offered a reward
of a thousand acres of land, and one hundred pounds in money, for
Harmon Husbands, James Butler, Rednap Howell, and others of the
Regulators; and filled his measure of tyrannical glory by burning
houses, destroying crops, and holding courts-martial for civil crimes.
On reaching Hillsborough, he held a special court for the trial
of his prisoners, twelve of whom were condemned to death on his
urgent statements, and six were actually executed. The real leaders
had all escaped, but a sacrifice must be made; the court hesitated
and delayed; he sent his aide-de-camp to Aide and threaten their
delay; the soldier and governor were lost in the tyrant and the
savage.
On the
19th of June, six prisoners were publicly executed near Hillsborough,
of whom the unfortunate Messer was one, reprieved a few days by
the spirit of his child, only to be carried about in chains, and
hung ignominiously at last. The governor, in person, grave orders
for the parade at the execution, and, as Maurice Moore said, "left
a ridiculous idea of his character behind, bearing a strong resemblance
to that of an undertaker at a funeral."
Robert
Mateer, one of the victims, was a quiet, inoffensive, upright man,
who had never joined the Regulators. On the morning of the bloodshed
he visited Tryon's camp with Robert Thompson, and was detained with
him a prisoner; being recognized as the person who had, some time
before, grievously offended the governor in the matter of a letter
entrusted to his care, he was condemned, and made one of six that
were executed; beloved while living, and lamented when dead.
Captain
Merrill, from the Jersey Settlement, or, as others say, from Mecklenburg
county, was on his way to join the Regulators—probably had
been engaged in intercepting Waddel—with three hundred men
under his command. Hearing of the defeat and dispersion of the Regulators
on the Alamance, when within a day's march, his men dispersed, and
he returned home, but was afterwards taken prisoner, and was made
one of the six that were executed. A pious man, he professed his
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and declared himself ready to die,
and died like a soldier and a Christian, singing very devoutly,
with his dying breath, a Psalm of David, like the Covenanters in
the Grass Market in Edinburgh.
James
Pugh, an ingenious gunsmith, had, during the firing at Alamance,
killed with his rifle some fifteen of those who served the cannon,
and delaying his escape too long was taken prisoner, and made one
for this day's sacrifice. When placed under the gallows he asked
and obtained leave from the governor to address the people for half
an hour. He justified his course, professed his readiness to meet
God, inveighed against the oppression of the public officers, and
particularly against Fanning. This dastardly man, unable to bear
the reproaches of his victim, made the suggestion, and the barrel,
on which the prisoner stood, was overturned, and the young man launched
into eternity, his speech unfinished and his half hour unexpired.
These
men may have been rash, but they were not cowards: they may have
been imprudent, but they were suffering under wrong and outrage,
and the withholding justice, and the proper exercise of law. "And
if oppression will make a wise man mad," the ten years of such
oppression as these suffered, would have proved them fit for subjection
had they been submissive.
Tryon
returned to his costly palace in Newbern, only to bid it farewell,
and make room for Josiah Martin, who knew better how to appreciate
these people and their complaints. Edmund Fanning, the cause of
so much trouble, gathered a company and met the governor on his
first approach to Orange; went with him to Alamance, and as the
firing commenced, found it indispensable to take his post many miles
in the rear, whether through fear of his life, or of shedding the
Regulators' blood. Harmon Husbands, also, on the other side, rode
faster and farther on that day. He had been active for years in
exciting the people to resistance, making speeches, circulating
information, drawing up memorials and papers of a political cast,
and taking the lead in measures that brought on the bloodshed in
Alamance. He had been once put in prison while a member of the legislature,
for his principles and connection with the disturbances in Orange;
but when the cannon began to roar at Tryon's command, on the 16th
of May, on the Alamance, he mounted his horse and rode rapidly away
to the more quiet State of Pennsylvania, and was not seen again
in Carolina till after the Revolution —professing that his
principles as a Quaker forbade him to fight, though they impelled
him to resistance. When the time of trial came, that men must submit
or flee, or bleed, he escaped, while others poured out their blood.
He and all like him are passed over in the inquiries we make about
the people who bore the burden of the Revolution and its previous
struggles.
The question
now arises, who were these people?—and whence did They come?
They could discuss the rights and privileges of men; they could
write in a manner that has been pronounced "the style of the
Revolution;" and they were men that feared an oath, the oath
of allegiance exacted by Tryon, from multitudes, as the condition
of their lives and property, hung on their consciences through life,
and no reasoning could convince them they were free from its awful
sanctions, though the king could afford them no protection. One
of these, who was in the bloodshed of Alamance, and afterwards had
borne ams for the king, as he considered himself bound to do, said
sorrowfully at the close of the Revolution—"I have fought
for my country, and fought for my king; and have been whipped both
times." Still his oath bound his conscience, while he rejoiced
it did not reach his children.
The descendants
of these people, who were at the time treated as rebels, and stigmatized
in government papers as ignorant and headstrong and unprincipled,
hold the first rank in their own country for probity and intelligence;
have held the first offices in their own and the two younger and
neighboring States; and have not been debarred the highest offices
in the Union. In less than four years from this period, those who
were not crushed by the solemnities of the oath Tryon forced on
them, united with their brethren of Mecklenburg of the same stock,
and kindred faith, in maintaining the first declaration of independence
made in North America—a declaration sealed with blood in North
Carolina, but never, like the Regulation, put down. The principles
of the Regulators never were put down; and in the contest with the
governor, there is little doubt on which side the victory would
have declared itself had there been a military man at the head of
the undisciplined people, or had they been fully convinced the governor
would fire upon them. Repeatedly had these men gathered at Hillsborough,
and dispersed without violence, on promise of redress; and Waddel
had been met and turned back without bloodshed a few days before.
The greater
part expected some terms of reconciliation, while some wished for
the contest, and many were ready to fight. The address sent in to
Tryon the day before the bloodshed, in which they promised to disperse
and go home if he would redress their grievances, shows they were
not expecting the governor to proceed to violence. The feelings
of a great part of the western counties were united in the object
of their efforts; and many of the inhabitants of the seaboard were
on their side. The militia of Duplin refused to march against them,
with the exception of a company of light horse under Capt. Bullock,
and also refused the oath of allegiance the governor offered them
on his return. In Halifax there were many supporters of their principles;
in Newbern itself many, in fact, the majority of the militia assembled,
declared in their favor. Not a few men of eminence favored them
more or less openly, advocating the principles, but greatly disapproving
the excesses of the violent. Of these were such men as Maurice Moore,
judge of the Superior Court; Thomas Person, the founder of Person
Hall, at Chapel Hill; and Alexander Martin, afterwards governor
of the State.
Martin,
the historian, who appears to know so little about the principles
and habits of the persons engaged, says that there were "several
thousand families" scattered through the upper counties: and
so there were—and these gathered into congregations of religious
worshippers all along from the Virginia to the South Carolina line.
It is the origin of these that is now inquired after; and the nature
of their religion, so favorable to mental exercise and improvement,
to civil freedom and the rights of man, that is to be delineated,
—a religion the same now as in the days of the American Revolution,
—and the great English Revolution of 1688, —and the same
in spirit and substantial forms as when the great Apostle plead
his cause, in chains, at Rome.
There
has been as yet no monument erected to the memory of those who fell
on the Alamance, in this first bloodshed in the cause of oppressed
freemen seeking their rights: they sleep in unhonored graves, as
also do those who were publicly executed in the same glorious cause
near Hillsborough, June 19th, 1771. [Note: A memorial monument
was erected on the battlefield in 1880, and in 1963, a plaque was
installed to mark the site of the hangings. —LKA] But you
can find the battleground and graves of the slain, on the old road
from Hillsborough to Salisbury by Martinville, or Guilford old courthouse.
It is a locality to be remembered, for the event must always fill
an honorable page in any full and fair history of North Carolina,
or of the United States, as the first resistance to blood, in which
resistance was determined upon, even should resistance end in wounds
and death.
The Regulators
may have been rude; they certainly were unpolished; but they were
not ignorant, neither did they lack intelligence, nor exhibit as
a people any lack of religious or moral principle. On the contrary,
their estimation of an oath far transcended the expectation of the
governor, who anticipated much from a people taught by McAden, Caldwell,
Pattillo, and Craighead, all eminent in their vocation as gospel
ministers.
Differing
from the governor in their religious principles as much as in their
political creed, they were condemned by the king's officers to fines
and plunder and confiscation and death, and by the ministers of
the State religion to endless perdition. There is extant a sermon
preached before the governor at Hillsborough, on Sunday, the 25th
of September, 1768, by George Mieklejohn, from Romans, chapter XIII,
1st and 2d verses in which the preacher avows that the governor
ought to have executed at least twenty on that his first visit;
and that the rebels could not escape the damnation of hell on account
of their resistance to the existing government. But these outraged
men sought deliverance from the oppression of man, and hoped in
the mercy of Almighty God. And they found from heaven what was denied
by earth.
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