a royal colony struggles hmrsmartinklein.weebly.com/uploads/8/5/1/5/8515231/nc_chap-04.pdf ·...

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A Royal ColonyStruggles

Henry Weidner came to NorthCarolina from Pennsylvaniaat an early age. His wid-owed mother had joinedother Germans in a commu-

nity where everyone wore the same kindof clothes and slept on the floor with awooden block for a pillow. Henry, notwanting that life, ran away. As his motherlater complained, he “went from me andmade himself his own master.”

In 1734, Henry made for the southernwilderness to become a hunter and trap-per. He set up camp on what becameknown as the Henry River, near today’scity of Hickory. For ten winters, he huntedwith his six-foot-long rifle; each spring,he walked back all the way to Philadel-phia to sell his skins and pelts.

At age thirty, having saved his money,Henry decided to start a farm and afamily. He picked out a spot on theCatawba River near the Blue Ridge. How-ever, his hunting companion, a youngIrishman named John McDowell, wantedthe same land. So, the two wrestled forit. For more than an hour they tussled.Finally, McDowell threw Henry to theground and claimed the land for himself.Pleasant Gardens in McDowell County isstill one of the most beautiful places inthe state.

Terms: immigrant, boycott,Granville District, frontier, French andIndian War, ranger, backcountry,prairie, girdling, drover, grist mill,toll, capital, appropriate, Regulator,extortion, militiaPeople: Gabriel Johnston, ArthurDobbs, Scots-Irish, Germans,Moravians, Highland Scots, Saura,Reverend Alexander Craighead, DavidCaldwell, William Tryon, EdmundFanning, Herman Husband, JosiahMartinPlaces: Fort Dobbs, Cross Creek,Halifax, Hillsborough, Salisbury,Charlotte, Wachovia, Alamance Creek

A Royal ColonyStruggles

118 North Carolina: Land of Contrasts

Chapter 4: A Royal Colony Struggles 119

Henry went back to Pennsylvania and married sixteen-year-oldKatherine Mull. In 1750, he brought her to Henry River. They selected ahome site, built a log house with a huge stone chimney, and lived therefor the next forty years.

The Weidners, McDowells, and many others moved to North Caro-lina after it became a royal colony. The colony’s population doubled from1730 to 1750, then doubled again from 1750 to 1770. Most of theseimmigrants settled west of the fall line. The newcomers spoke differentlanguages and kept different customs than had the settlers of the Propri-etary period. These backcountry families tried to take their place in theaffairs of the colony, but they only partially succeeded. Coastal residentswere no better able to get along with anyone in the 1700s than they hadbeen in the 1600s. In fact, the resulting ruckus led to one of the momen-tous events in state history, the Regulation.

Opposite page, above: Thepediment (triangular area below theroof line) on Tryon Palace in NewBern displays the British royal coatof arms. Below: This is the mainstreet of Old Salem, a living historymuseum of the main Moraviansettlement in North Carolina.

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SIGNS OF THE T IMESSIGNS OF THE T IMES

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FOOD

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MUSIC

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SCIENCE

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RELIGION

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EDUCATION

120 Chapter 4: A Royal Colony Struggles

The thirteen colonies were caught up in agreat religious revival known as theGreat Awakening. From this movementcame the Methodist and Baptist denomi-nations that would later be popular inNorth Carolina. George Whitefield, theleading minister of the movement, wouldinspire Billy Graham, a North Carolinianwho became the world’s leadingpreacher in the twentieth century.

The religious movement known as theGreat Awakening created a need forministers. The College of New Jersey,created by Presbyterians in Princeton,became the college of choice for newsettlers in the Carolina backcountry.Princeton graduates became the leadingeducators of early North Carolina.

Electricity literally thrilled thousands inEurope and America. People lined up inhuman chains to “get a charge.” In1752, Benjamin Franklin’s kiteexperiment proved that lightning waselectricity. His fame later led theUniversity in Chapel Hill to name itsmain street in Chapel Hill after him.

The Earl of Sandwich in 1760 refusedto quit playing cards when he washungry. He ordered his servant to bringmeat and cheese stuffed betweentwo pieces of bread. Lovers of NorthCarolina barbecue sandwiches havebeen grateful ever since.

What North Carolinians would cometo know as classical music was at itspeak. George Frederick Handel’s“Messiah,” completed in 1741, laterbecame a favorite event in churchesacross North Carolina, includingDuke University Chapel.

Signs of the Times 121

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TECHNOLOGY______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

POPULATION

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Figure 7 Timeline: 1730–1775

1734Gabriel Johnston

became first royalgovernor

1744Granville District granted

1752Moravians arrived

in colony

1753Bethabara and Salisbury

established

1754Arthur Dobbs became royal governor;

Bethania established

1762Charlotte founded

1766First meeting of Regulators

1771Battle of Alamance

1770Tryon’s Palace completed

1732Colony of Georgiafounded

1741Captain Vitus Beringdiscovered Alaska

1754French and Indian War began

1757First street lights appeared in Philadelphia

1763French and Indian War ended

1765James Watt inventedthe steam engine

1730 1740 1750 1760 1770

North Carolina was the fastest growingof the thirteen colonies. The populationwas 50,000 in 1730. It doubled by1750, then doubled again by 1770.

“India rubber,” which was to be used foreverything from raincoats to erasers, wasbrought to Great Britain in 1736.Englishman James Watt invented a steamengine in 1764 and improved it in 1775.

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TARGET READING SKILLTARGET READING SKILL

Comparing and Contrasting


Defining the SkillComparing and contrasting is a reading strategy that en-ables you to identify similarities or differences between twoor more events, people, places, or periods of time. Whencomparing or contrasting, most often writers describe oneevent, person, place, or thing and then write about a sec-ond similar or different event, person, place, or thing. Some-times, however, you might see words like and, same as, aswell as, not only. . . but also, like, also, both and at the sametime used to describe two things that are similar. Whencontrasting two or more items, authors may use words like

Comparing and Contrasting

however, on the other hand, but, on the contrary, in contrast,as opposed to and different from.

Practicing the SkillAfter reading Section 3, make a list of characteristics of

life on the Carolina frontier. Then, draw a Venn diagramlike the one shown here. Under “Carolina Frontier,” list char-acteristics of the area during the period of early settlement.Under “Carolina Today,” list characteristics of life in NorthCarolina today. In the middle section, list common charac-teristics of then and now.

Carolina Frontier

Similarities

Carolina Today

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Continuing PoliticalTroubles

When the king of England bought North Carolina in 1729, thecolonists hoped life would get better in the colony. GabrielJohnston, sent by the king in 1734 to govern the colony, sawsome hopeful signs. For one, the first formally trained physicianto live in North Carolina, Armand de Rosset, had helped estab-lish Wilmington. However, Governor Johnston would not find

much peace during theeighteen years he was inNorth Carolina.

The handicaps of geog-raphy continued to plaguethe colony. Because it wasso difficult to navigate theOuter Banks, goods cost50 percent more to shipfrom North Carolina thanfrom ports like Philadel-

phia or Charles Town. Although the top 10 percent of North Caro-lina families were wealthy, they did not live as well as rich peopleelsewhere. For example, fewer of their sons went to college thanwas the case for the wealthy families of Virginia. Even NorthCarolina’s poor seemed poorer. Many of the farmers who pushed intothe richer areas of the Coastal Plain in the 1730s went there without plows.

Sectional ConflictsThe settlement of the Cape Fear continued to cause conflict. The

Albemarle resented the wealth and power that Cape Fear residentshad gotten selling naval stores. Albemarle residents wanted their area to

Continuing PoliticalTroubles

As you read, look for:• North Carolina’s first royal governors• the problems faced by the royal governors• vocabulary terms boycott, Granville District, frontier,

French and Indian War, ranger

Above: George II was king ofEngland when North Carolinabecame a royal colony.

Section 1: Continuing Political Troubles 123

Gabriel Johnston was thelongest-serving governor,

from colonial tocontemporary times.

This section will help you meet thefollowing objective:8.1.01 Assess the impact ofgeography on the settlement anddeveloping economy of the Carolinacolony.8.1.06 Identify reasons for thecreation of a distinct North Carolinacolony and evaluate the effects on itsgovernment and economics.

continue to rule the colony. Albe-marle leaders tried to stop the CapeFear planters from taking advan-tage of blank patents. Because theland deeds did not indicate howmuch land was being claimed,some planters got very rich veryfast. When the Cape Fear demand-ed equal representation in theGeneral Assembly, the Albemarleboycotted the Assembly from 1746 to 1754; nothing got done. (Toboycott is to refuse to participate in or to buy something until certainconditions are met.)

To make a bad situation worse, in 1744 the king finally figured outwhat to do with the claim of Lord Granville, the one Proprietor who hadrefused to sell his share in the colony. The king granted him whatamounted to the northern half of the colony.

Granville could sell this land and still collect the quit-rent each year.Since the Granville District was inside the colony, the colony was stillresponsible for its government. The people in the Cape Fear would betaxed to help the people in the Albemarle govern the Granville District.When it later turned out that Lord Granville’s agents demanded bribesfor their services, people all across North Carolina were angry.

A New Royal GovernorAfter the death of Governor Johnston, Arthur Dobbs was sent to gov-

ern the colony in 1754. He faced a dire situation. Only half the revenuethat could be collected was actually being put into the treasury. Publicexpenses were higher than ever, because there were so many new set-tlers west of the fall line. Settlement of the frontier (the area at the edgeor just beyond a settled area) was moving closer to the Cherokee. The

The Granville Districtbegan at the Virginiaborder and extendedsouth for 70 miles.

Map 13The GranvilleDistrict

Map Skill: Would present-dayRaleigh be located in theGranville District?

Lord Granville


Cherokee were beginning to threaten the settlers. They wouldkill cattle left in the woods or come to the doors of cabins andask for food or presents. They seemed to arrive most oftenwhen the father was not home, often frightening the rest ofthe family.

The French and Indian WarThe French and Indian War (1754-1763) made matters

worse in North Carolina. This war, which started in Americaand spread to Europe, was part of a long struggle betweenthe British and the French. This particular war was over whichEuropean kingdom would control North America. Becausethe French controlled the territory west of the Appalachians,they and their Indian allies could attack along the borders ofthe thirteen colonies. The Cherokee sided with the French.

To counter this threat, colonial leaders met in Albany, NewYork, to discuss how to protect themselves. Benjamin Franklinof Pennsylvania proposed the “Albany Plan of Union.” Un-der this plan, a central government, headed by a “president-general,” would provide defense for all the colonists. A majority of thecolonies, however, rejected the idea because it would weaken their au-thority. North Carolina did not even send a delegate to Albany.

Although North Carolina did not become part of a colonial union, itdid act to protect itself. Governor Dobbs got the feuding Cape Fear andAlbemarle to do a better job collecting taxes. The colony used the money

Above: Royal Governor ArthurDobbs. Below: North Carolinianswere part of the Braddock expedi-tion that invaded French territory inpresent-day Pennsylvania. GeneralBraddock was killed in this ambush.

Section 1: Continuing Political Troubles 125

It’s Your Turn

1. Who did the king appoint as royal governor in 1734?2. Why did the Albemarle boycott the General Assembly from 1746 to

1754?3. How did the Granville District come into being?

to erect Fort Dobbs near the present siteof Statesville. An elaborate log “block-house” that was both fort and barracks,Fort Dobbs served as headquarters fordefending the backcountry. From the fort,Captain Hugh Waddell of Wilmingtonpatrolled the frontier with companiesof rangers, forerunners of the NorthCarolina’s Highway Patrol in the twenti-eth century. The rangers quickly rode towherever trouble occurred. They oftencovered hundreds of miles each week.

The Treaty of Paris ended the war in1763. The French lost all their land inAmerica. This left Great Britain in con-trol of all the land east of the MississippiRiver.

Dobbs tried to unify the colony bysetting up a permanent place for the Gen-eral Assembly to meet, upriver from NewBern. No one, however, agreed to thatlocation. He did set up more courts, mak-ing it easier for citizens to settle their dis-putes without having to travel too far.

Dobbs’s policies put the colony indebt. There were other problems. He wasaccused of giving friends financial advan-tages. Dobbs tried to gain favor with theCape Fear faction by living in Brunswick,

but it only angered the Albemarle. He also angered the officials of theGranville District by giving away land within the district, even thoughhe had no right to do so. To hide what he had done, Dobbs accused theGranville agents of wrongdoing.

Dobbs kept the colony in an uproar. In the early 1760s, the leadersof the General Assembly sent the king fifteen different charges relatedto Dobbs’s leadership. Dobbs, however, held onto his office until hisdeath in 1765.

In Europe, during thesame time, the fightingwas referred to as the

Seven Years War.

Above: These are the survivingwalls of St. Philip’s Church inBrunswick. Arthur Dobbs wasmarried in the church while it wasthe colonial capital.


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Peopling the Backcountry

Below: The Britt-Sanders House inSouthern Pines gives a sense of thespace that families had to share inthe first houses built in the colonialbackcountry.

As you read, look for:• early towns in the backcountry• the different groups of immigrants who came to

North Carolina• vocabulary term backcountry

Until 1730, almost every resident of North Carolina, aside from the In-dians, lived east of the fall line. Only a few settlers had even venturedonto the Coastal Plain. The Battle family, for example, came to the fallsof the Tar River after Edgecombe County was formed in 1734. Their plan-tation was one of the first in the neighborhood called Rocky Mount. Inthe Cape Fear, most of the newcomers were black slaves, as the planterfamilies pushed up the river from Wilmington and continued to estab-lish tar pits. A Welsh settlement was established on the upper Cape Fear,

Peopling the Backcountry

Section 2: Peopling the Backcountry 127

This section will help you meet thefollowing objective:8.1.05 Describe the factors that ledto the founding and settlement of theAmerican colonies.8.1.07 Describe the contributionsof diverse groups to life in colonialNorth Carolina and other colonies.8.3.04 Describe the developmentand impact of slavery in the state andnation.

Map 14Early BackcountryTowns

Map Skill: In what year wasCharlotte founded?

bringing the first non-English group into the colony since the Swiss hadbuilt New Bern in 1710.

After 1730, however, settlers filled in the Coastal Plain and moved westof the fall line. By the 1750s, enough settlers had arrived so that backcountry

towns could be created to serve asmarket and government centers.Cross Creek (later to be namedFayetteville) on the Cape Fear andHalifax on the Roanoke served asriver ports near the fall line to helpfarmers get their products to theseacoast. Hillsborough, Salisbury,and Charlotte were founded prim-arily to be the seats of Orange,Rowan, and Mecklenburg counties.By 1766, a South Carolina resident

The Conestoga wagon,invented in Pennsylvania,

became the “coveredwagon” that thousands

of Americans usedto go west.

A Conestoga wagon.


reported, North Carolina had experi-enced as “rapid and sudden increase ofinhabitants” as any other place in thecolonies.

Most of the newcomers were fromthe northern colonies, particularlyPennsylvania. The lower cost of landin North Carolina drew them south.These people did not come into thecolony through the ports on the coast,but rather followed old Indian trailsthrough Virginia. The name back-country was new to the colony at thetime. The word referred to the land thatwas “back” of the real “country,” theland near the coast.

Many newcomers followed anIroquois warpath down the great val-ley along the Shenandoah River. This731-mile trail was gradually widenedand took the popular name the GreatWagon Road. As the name implies, thetrail soon was wide enough to fit aConestoga wagon in its ruts. Benjamin Franklin, the most famous jour-nalist in the colonies, estimated that a thousand wagons a month wentdown the Great Wagon Road after harvest in the fall. Travelers knew theyhad left Virginia and entered North Carolina when they could see thecraggy top of Pilot Mountain.

The Scots-IrishThe first people to settle the backcountry were the Scots-Irish. The people

who went by that name were actually descendants of Scots who had beentransplanted to northern Ireland during the 1600s. The Scots were Protes-tants and were sent as part of an English plan to conquer the Irish Catho-lics. Within a generation or two, the lands of Ulster became too crowded.When the English began to tell them how to worship, many left.

They looked for new land and religious freedom in Pennsylvania, whichwelcomed people of all types. Pennsylvania, however, was so popularthat it too grew crowded. Because the Iroquois to the north did not likeintruders, the Scots-Irish headed south.

The Scots-Irish scattered themselves from one end of the backcountryto the other. A few took up farms in what became known as OrangeCounty. Most settled between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers. They weremost concentrated in what is today the area bounded by the cities ofSalisbury, Statesville, and Charlotte. George Davidson, for example, ownedmuch of the creek valley that became a principal part of Lake Norman inthe 1960s.

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The Trading Path was the firstpath that actually crossed throughNorth Carolina. It likely dated toIndian trails that predated Colum-bus, but it was widened andstraightened in the 1670s whenVirginians came to trade with theCatawba and Cherokee Indians.Later, white settlers pushing intothe backcountry used it. There arefifteen historical markers tracing the routeof the Trading Path. This one is in Salisbury.

HISTORY BY THE HIGHWAYHISTORY BY THE HIGHWAY

Trading PathTrading Path


Above: John Haley, a blacksmith,sheriff, tax collector, and roadcommissioner, bult this brick houseon the Petersburg (Va.)-Salisburyroad, now in High Point, in 1786.The house is built on the Quakerplan, with three rooms and threeinterior chimneys, uncommoon inthe southern Piedmont at the time.

The GermansComing right on their heels were Germans from Pennsylvania. Since

their language was called “Deutsch” in German, they came to be called“Dutch,” even though few of them had ever been to Holland.

The Pennsylvania Dutch had first come to Philadelphia in 1690. Theyfilled up the hills to the north and west of the City of Brotherly Love inless than fifty years. Then great numbers of them, like Henry Weidner,headed south for new homes on the western edge of North Carolina.The largest “Dutch Settlement” was in what is today eastern Rowan andCabarrus counties. John Lippard, for example, left Pennsylvania with hisfather’s and his own household after the harvest of 1754. They had firstcome to Philadelphia in 1739 on a ship from Rotterdam on the RhineRiver. Their new home was on a branch of Dutch Buffalo Creek in whatbecame Cabarrus County.

English QuakersMixed into the backcountry by the 1760s were people who were En-

glish in their background. Many were Quakers. These families belongedto a religious movement started in England in the 1600s that challengedsome of the usual ways people worshipped and lived together. Becausethe Society of Friends, as they called themselves, rebelled against someEnglish customs, many took refuge in Pennsylvania. Some came to NorthCarolina. Some Quakers like the Boones settled among the Germans and


Today’s Wachovia Bankwas founded by a

Moravian family in the1900s.

became a part of that community. Others settled in the Uwharries south-west of Hillsborough.

African SlavesQuite a few of the early Scots-Irish households brought along one or

two slaves with them. Twins Paul and Saul, owned by Adam Sherrill,became the first backcountry settlers to cross the Catawba River in 1747.When their master told them to lead the oxen and wagons into the rockystream, they were the westernmost residents of North Carolina. Only afew Germans owned slaves, and Quakers had already begun to questionthe idea of humans as property within their faith.

The MoraviansThe most unusual group to come to the North Carolina backcountry

was the Moravians, a close-knit German-speaking community who firstarrived in 1752. The group originally came from Moravia, an area that istoday part of the Czech Republic in Europe. They continued to live intightly organized villages where they worked and worshipped with oneanother, just like back home. Their official name, the United Brethren,described their approach to living. They practiced brotherhood, and sis-terhood for that matter, every day, all day.

Like most other immigrants who sought religious freedom, theMoravians came first to Pennsylvania. As with all the other immigrants,

Below: Gemeinhaus is one of thebuildings at Historic Bethabara.Gemeinhaus is the last surviving18th-century Moravian church withattached minister’s living quarters.


Top: The annual Highland Gamesat Grandfather Mountain aresponsored by the McRae andMorton families, descendants ofsome of the original HighlandScots to come to the colony in the1770s. Above: The SchieleMuseum has a reconstructedCatawba home showing how theyadapted the log cabin style.

It’s Your Turn

1. Name three backcountry towns established in the early 1700s.2. Who were the “Pennsylvania Dutch”?

land grew scarce and expensive within a generation’s time. So, in 1752,the Moravians petitioned Governor Dobbs for permission to send someof their members to the backcountry. Dobbs, delighted that such an in-dustrious people would move there, quickly got Lord Granville to givethem a land grant of 100,000 acres. The area came to be called Wachovia,which means “little meadow” in German. Their first village wasBethabara, constructed in 1753. A second village, Bethania, was set upthe next year. By 1766, the Moravians had established their principal town,Salem.

The Highland ScotsThe last of the many ethnic groups to come to the backcountry were

the Highland Scots, who wedged themselves into the Sandhills. Mostwere victims of a rebellion against the British in 1745. To punish the Scots,the British laid waste to much of the Highlands, reducing thousands topoverty. Then British real estate agents tricked thousands into coming toNorth Carolina in the 1770s, promising fine land. The immigrants found

that the sandy slopes were not what theyhad been promised. Most stayed, however,for going home was not a better option.

Native AmericansFinally, a few remnants of Indian groups

were still to be found in the backcountryof the 1760s. North of Wachovia lived theSaura, part of the Siouan people who hadonce controlled the region. Settlers whocame down the Great Wagon Road nearthe Pilot Mountain passed both Upper andLower Saura Towns.

South of Irish Settlements, near theSouth Carolina line, lived the Catawba, the

largest native group left in the backcountry. By the 1750s, the Catawbahad only about 100 warriors, one-tenth their previous strength.

Periodically present, however, were the numerous Cherokee, whoresented any intrusion into their mountain hunting grounds. Most whitesdid not venture that far. An exception were Daniel and Rebecca BryanBoone, who built a house on the upper Yadkin, west of the present siteof Wilkesboro, about 1760.


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CAROLINA CELEBRIT IESCAROLINA CELEBRIT IES

Above: Flora MacDonald, famed for helping“Bonnie Prince Charlie” escape his pursuers,

lived for a time in Cross Creek.

One of the most remarkablewomen in North Carolina historywas only here for a couple ofyears. Flora MacDonald lived anadventurous life full of dangerand twists of fate. She is remem-bered as a hero of the AmericanRevolution, but she was on thewrong side. Although she twicecommitted treason, even herenemies adored her.

Flora grew up on the Heb-rides, the windy islands in thenorth of Scotland. When she wasin her early twenties, she metand befriended Charles Stuart.Stuart claimed that his ancestryentitled him to be king of bothScotland and England instead ofGerman George II who was thenon the throne. In 1746, Stuartstarted an armed rebellion tofree Scotland from English con-trol. The Scots were slaughteredat the Battle of Culloden, andStuart fled for his life.

At some point, he met the lovely Flora. Although shehesitated because of the danger, she helped him escape. Afterseveral near disasters—including one where she coolly en-tertained British officers while the prince hid in a nearbyroom—she got him out of Scotland disguised as her femaleservant. “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” as he was called, escapedto France, but Flora was imprisoned in the Tower of Londonand faced execution. Stories about her bravery created sym-pathy for her, and she was released. About 1750, she be-

came the most noted celebrity inLondon, the very place whereGeorge II lived.

After marrying Allan MacDon-ald, Flora moved with her familyto North Carolina in 1774. Allanand Flora and their six childrenjoined several thousand HighlandScots, some of them veterans ofthe Battle of Culloden, in the up-per Cape Fear. Great crowdsgreeted the MacDonalds whenthey arrived in Wilmington andCross Creek. They started a farmin present-day MontgomeryCounty. When the Revolution be-gan, Flora and her neighborssided with the king. They fearedthat a second act of rebellionwould lead to their deaths.

After her husband was cap-tured by Patriots and deported,Flora went back home to Scot-land. She was able to leave be-cause she charmed a NorthCarolina officer into getting her

to a British ship. But adventure followed her, even then. Onthe way back, the French attacked. Flora left her cabin andstood before the sailors urging them to fight with her. Shebroke her arm during the battle.

Once home, the sixty-year-old Flora retired to a quiet lifewith her children. Five sons later went into the British army.But she did not forget Prince Charlie. As she lay dying, sheasked to be buried wrapped in one of the sheets the Princeslept under in 1746.


Flora MacDonaldFlora MacDonald

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Life on theCarolina Frontier

Above: This one-room logcabin is typical of the first homesbuilt by settlers moving to NorthCarolina’s frontier.

As you read, look for:• reasons why immigrants came to North Carolina• the daily life on the North Carolina frontier• vocabulary terms prairie, girdling, drover, grist

mill, toll

Life on theCarolina Frontier

Why would anyone want to cometo the North Carolina backcountry?After all, North Carolina had a badreputation in the rest of the coloniesbecause it could not govern itselfwell. It was also costly to live here,since shipping was so expensive.

Land and liberty are the an-swers. The Appalachian Moun-tains angle close to Philadelphia,and the area was too small to holdall the people wanting to live there.For these colonists, access to landwas essential. Landowners couldbe their own bosses, and familiescould draw upon the land, in both

good times and bad, for fuel, food, and shelter. Those who lacked landhad to depend upon someone else for a job, a house, or tomorrow’s meal.So, many immigrants eagerly left crowded Pennsylvania.

Carving Out HomesThe earliest settlers to the Carolina backcountry found exactly what

they wanted. The land near the Great Wagon Road had long stretches ofprairie, meaning that there was more open grassland than there werewoods. The prairies had been managed by the Indians, who burned offthe grasses each hunting season. The prairie grass stood as high as fivefeet on some ridge tops. The woods in the bottomlands near the streamshad trees as wide across as a Conestoga wagon.


This section will help you meet thefollowing objective:

8.1.05 Describe the factors that ledto the founding and settlement of theAmerican colonies.

8.1.07 Describe the contributionsof diverse groups to life in colonialNorth Carolina and other colonies.

Removing the stump ofa tree was difficult, given

the tools of the time.It could take as much asa month to remove just

one stump. Frontierfarmers often plantedaround tree stumps.

All a backcountry farmer had to do wasfirst burn off the grass (which, of course,added valuable minerals back into the soil).Then came the backbreaking task of cuttinginto the roots and soil with a plow and ahoe. Everywhere there were trees, the set-tlers cut down enough for houses andfences, then practiced girdling on the rest.As Governor Dobbs described the process,“the others in the bounds of the field theybark for about two or three feet around thetree, so they die the next year.” Over time,the severing of the sap lines dried out thewood. When the dried trunks fell over, theywere easily chopped for firewood. Becauseof these practices, the area had dark, blacksoil, not the red clay that so many laterNorth Carolinians would be familiar with.One of the German families said that in theearly days, when it rained, “the streams ranblack,” an indication of the rich soil.

These open spaces provided the earliestsettlers with two ways to make a living,grazing cattle and growing grain. Cattlewere allowed to roam free in the openspaces. Each family registered a “mark,”actually a notch on the ear, that identifiedan animal as theirs. Cattle were free to grazeabout all summer. When summer drought dried up the prairie, the cattlecould eat the honeysuckle and other undergrowth in the shadier forest.Each fall, the younger sons of families gathered the cattle together. Thesedrovers then took surplus cows to the seaports and sold them for slaugh-ter. Some families did the same with hogs, which lived off acorns andgrubs in the woods. Since livestock had the run of the woods, even poorerfamilies could make some money without owning very much land.

Growing grain was just as important as raising livestock. The Germansin particular planted wheat and rye in the fall, let it grow slowly over thewinter, and reaped it in the spring. Herman Husband, one of the earlyQuaker settlers, had a 600-acre farm in the Uwharries. A visitor said it had“as fine a wheat as perhaps ever grew.” Farmers like Husband stored thekernels in barrels, then had them ground at a nearby grist mill as theyneeded them for bread. One of the first ways any settler could becomewealthy in the backcountry was to build such a mill. A miller took a toll (apayment of a portion of the grain) each time the mill was operated. Thesmart miller then sold his collected flour locally or loaded it on wagonsand shipped it to the coast. Husband operated a grist mill for himself andhis neighbors. So did Henry Weidner on a branch of Henry River.

Above: Girdling deprived the treesof nutrients. Over time, the treesdied, dried out, and fell over. Thesettlers could then cut them up.

Section 3: Life on the Carolina Frontier 135

Everyone planted corn, for it could be planted among the girdled treesin the bottomlands and left to grow on its own. Corn was left to dry onthe stalk in the fall, put in a crib in the winter, and shucked and shelledas needed. It could last for years, properly stored. Corn also fed both personand beast, from the green fodder of the shucks to the grits that makebreakfast easy to cook.

The Home FrontMost settlers quickly worked to improve their places. The smart ones

put up zigzag split rail fences around their grain fields, to keep out hogs,deer, and any other unwanted varmints. Almost all the families builtdouble pen barns. These log storage sheds had “pens” or stalls separatedby a passageway. The structure was roofed over with wooden shingles.John Lippard built a barn over sixty feet long not far from Dutch BuffaloCreek sometime about 1765.

Most backcountry families lived in log houses that resembled the sizeand shape of their barns. The Allens were Quakers who settled in SnowCamp in today’s Alamance County. Their large family squeezed into awindowless twenty-by-twenty space, where cooking, cleaning, and otheractivities all took place. The Allens had a wide fireplace, off center onthe side of the house, to allow a closet and stairwell to the loft above.

A few families came south with enough money to build large homesfor themselves. Michael Braun, a German, erected an immense stone housefor his family in 1764 right off the Great Wagon Road, not far from the newvillage of Salisbury. Hezekiah Alexander, a Scots-Irishman, built anotherto the east of the village of Charlotte, which he helped found in 1762.

Above: The Allens, a Quaker family,lived in this small, one-room loghouse for more than a century. Itwas originally located at SnowCamp, a Quaker settlement, butwas moved to the AlamanceBattleground to show the typicalhousing of backcountry families.


The Braun house had fireplaces in corners that sent heat into severalrooms at a time. It even had a square hollow box that ran from the cellarto the attic, allowing cooler air in summer to help vent hot spaces. Thekitchen was in a side room and had a fireplace that was six feet wide.The wide hearth allowed the cook to rake coals into different piles, al-most like a multiburner stove of today.

All families kept kitchen gardens not far from the door, where veg-etables, herbs, and flowers were grown inside a tall picket fence that keptthe animals out. The kitchen gardener, usually the mother of the family,could draw from it all year long. Even in winter, carrots and other rootvegetables were stored in the root cellar under the house. The Allens hadtheir cellar organized by shelves under their small cabin.

Building CommunitiesAll the settlers of the backcountry brought with them their culture.

Almost all valued religious expression, and most neighborhoods soonstarted to teach their values.

The Scots-Irish built both a church and a school everywhere they settled.The first resident Presbyterian minister, Reverend Alexander Craighead,settled at Sugar Creek Church in Mecklenburg County in 1755. He estab-lished the first two schools in the backcountry. Craighead’s assistant, DavidCaldwell, soon married Craighead’s daughter Rachel, became a minister,and moved up to Orange County to teach and preach there. In 1767, theCaldwells built a house and school near the new Guilford County court-house. David was said “to make the teachers, Rachel the preachers.” (AGreensboro park is now maintained on the Caldwell farm site.)

Five students at DavidCaldwell’s school became

governors of differentstates—including

John Motley Moreheadof North Carolina.

Above: Backcountry farmers usedlogs to build their barns. This onehas been rebuilt at the SchieleMuseum.


Germans often built union churches. In those churches, people of theirtwo principal denominations, the Lutherans and the Reformed, could wor-ship together whenever a minister who spoke their language came by.Henry and Katy Weidner and their neighbors started St. Paul’s UnionChurch in 1762.

The English Quakers who moved into the Uwharries started meetinghouses at Cane Creek in today’s Chatham County and at New Garden intoday’s Greensboro. Deeper into the Uwharries, a group of sixteen Bap-tists from New England settled on Sandy Creek. By 1756, they were

holding very enthusiastic church servicesled by two brothers-in-law, Shubal Stearnsand Daniel Marshall. Stearns and Marshalltook their religious message back and forthalong the paths and trails of the back-country. By 1765, they had establishedmore than a dozen new churches. Thou-sands of backcountry people became Bap-tists because of their work.

The most active religious community inthe backcountry was Wachovia. TheMoravians lived in a more organized andstructured environment than anyone else.They went about their daily chores in a veryset manner. Each Moravian belonged to achoir (a kind of grade or group) at differentstages of his or her life. One worked andworshipped daily within the choir. On spe-cial occasions, the whole community cametogether to celebrate their faith. Music wasalways part of each Moravian service. Ev-eryone in the congregation sang the hymns,and the musicians accompanied them withhorns and organ. Some visiting Cherokeewho heard the organ played for the first timein Bethabara went and looked behind it.They wanted to know where the singingchildren were hiding.

Wachovia’s dedication to hard work andreligious order paid off. It was the most

prosperous place in the backcountry. People journeyed as much as ahundred miles to go there to buy needed goods, including stoneware pot-tery made of the bright red clay of the area. One shopper referred toBethabara as “the pantry” of the backcountry. The Moravians, in turn,bought up farm goods from their neighbors, combined them with theirown produce, and shipped wagonloads of grain and other goods toWilmington or Charles Town. The Moravians did so well that many neigh-bors resented their prosperity and religion.

Above: The Moravians madechurches a central part of their life.When Home Moravian Church wascompleted in 1800, it held the townclock, which told the people of Salemwhen to rise, work, and worship.


The Moravians wereamong the first to create

a pottery industry inNorth Carolina.

It’s Your Turn

1. How had the Indians “managed” the prairies?2. How did girdling kill a tree?3. What were the two things that the Scots-Irish built in their

communities?

Above: Every Moravian learned acraft, a skill that helped the wholecommunity. At Salem, the WinklerBakery provided fresh bread daily,just as had been the case backin Europe. Old Salem still sellsMoravian favorites like sugar cake.

That jealousy was reported inthe Moravian records in 1772, theyear the colony was reeling fromthe effects of a political controversyknown as the Regulation. Strifeand anger were evident every-where in the backcountry afteryears of conflict between the newbackcountry settlers and the moreestablished areas on the coast. TheRegulation magnified some of the

colony’s old problems and created new ones, problems with which NorthCarolina struggled for a long time.


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GROWING UP. . .GROWING UP. . .

Moravian

Perhaps one of the first sounds a newborn baby heardin Wachovia was a song, for the Moravians were always mu-sical, and they used song to worship and celebrate their livestogether. Moravians were especially noted for their hymnsand their horns, a distinctive sound found nowhere else inNorth Carolina.

Moravians lived in communities that shared some prop-erty and many tasks. A person could only do a job approvedby the whole community, and advancement through life wasas much a group as an individual effort. Although Moraviansgenerally lived in families in their own houses, all believersbelonged to different choirs (social groups based upon ageand gender) at different stages of their lives.

This way of life was part of the Moravian childhood. Whenchildren reached the age of schooling, they were separatedinto boys and girls choirs. Both boys and girls went to schoolin Wachovia. At some point, they graduated into SingleBrothers and Single Sisters choirs in Salem, the central town.Each young person left his or her home and moved into newquarters with other unmarried people. As teenagers, eachMoravian acquired some sort of skill. A young man mightbecome a tanner or a brewer or a tinsmith. Most girls learnedspinning and weaving.

Choirs ate together and, during the week, held shortworship services together. Sometimes these services were“love feasts” where each worshiper drank coffee and atea special potato bun; the act of eating together was theirversion of traditional communion. Life in choirs helpedMoravians create a “general economy.” They shared theirworldly burdens to ease the way to religious celebration. Thewhole community came together for religious holidays likeChristmas Eve and Easter Morning.

Moravians also believed in the “lot.” They made majordecisions for the whole community and for individuals bydrawing one of two pieces of paper out of a box. They be-

Moravian

lieved that the color—white for yes, black for no—of thepaper directed them to take the right action. The membersof the community required that anyone wanting to marryhad to agree to what the lot said. Since the sexes were sepa-rated at an early age, most young men and women only sawone another at certain work and worship events, like snitzingbees—where apples were cut and dried in an oven. They

Above: Moravian girls were sent to school, then taughta skill like weaving or spinning.


seldom could talk to one another and were not allowed tobe alone together. The lot, then, determined if someoneshould marry another person he or she barely knew. Some-times a young man simply asked the male elders to select abride for him. If a black piece of paper was drawn, however,that marriage could not happen. The young people had towait for another person to come along. Young women couldrefuse the match even if the paper was white. But they hadto live in the Single Sisters house until the next lot deter-mined their marriage status.

Most Moravian marriages seemed to have been as happyas any in other communities. It was considered the best partof one’s life to have a home and family and continue thereligious ways of sharing and obeying the needs of the com-munity. When widowed, a man or women joined a new choir,where their needs were taken care of until their death.Moravians were buried in “God’s Acre” with identical stonesover their graves, a symbol of the equality they practicedwith one another.

Left: Young boys played on the village common untilthey were old enough to join the Single Brothers choir.Below: They then spent their teenaged years learninga craft like carpentry, shown here.


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William Tryon andthe Regulation

When Arthur Dobbs died in 1765, his assistant, WilliamTryon, was appointed the new royal governor. Tryon andhis wife (the former Margaret Wake for whom Wake Countywas named) were already influential residents of the CapeFear. Tryon had more of a military background than hadhis predecessors, Johnston and Dobbs. He soon combinedhis organizational skills with his professional ambitions tobring change to North Carolina. In fact, Tryon did more ina decade to alter life in the colony than anyone else haddone in the previous century.

Tryon’s goals for the colony were straightforward. Hewanted North Carolina to be better organized to take advan-tage of its economic resources. He also wanted the peopleof the colony to be more respectful of authority, particularlytoward the government officials in charge of the colony. Tryonwanted to please his boss, the king back in England, bymaking North Carolina finally pay its own way.

Tryon’s ReformsTryon quickly moved the colony toward his goals. First,

he convinced the General Assembly to have a permanentcapital (seat of government). The Assembly agreed uponNew Bern as the best central place along the coast. Itappropriated (set aside) a large sum of money for a build-

ing that would house both the royal government and its governor. Thecapitol—later in North Carolina history called Tryon Palace—was com-pleted in 1770. Its wide halls and impressive meeting rooms made it thefinest structure ever seen in the colony, one that rivaled the public build-ings in New York, Charles Town, or Williamsburg.

As you read, look for:• the reasons for the Regulator movement• vocabulary terms capital, appropriate, Regulator,

extortion, militia

William Tryon andthe Regulation

Above: This costumed guide playsthe part of Royal Governor WilliamTryon at Tryon Palace in New Bern.


This section will help you meet thefollowing objective:

8.1.06 Identify reasons for thecreation of a distinct North Carolinacolony and evaluate the effects on itsgovernment and economics.

8.2.01 Trace the events leading upto the Revolutionary War andevaluate their significance.

Above: St. Paul’s Episcopal Churchin Edenton is the second-oldestchurch still standing in NorthCarolina.

One of the new chapelswas New Hope Chapel ona hilltop about ten milessouth of Hillsborough. Itwould give name to thetown of Chapel Hill afterthe American Revolution.

Second, Tryon got the General Assembly to reorganize the Church ofEngland in North Carolina. He tried to make residents accept it as theestablished religion of the colony. At the time, only port towns likeEdenton, New Bern, Bath, and Wilmington had strong churches, andeven they had a problem keeping pastors. By 1769, Tryon had repairedold churches and built six new ones, including small chapels for wor-ship out in the farming areas.

Third, Tryon was able to stimulate growth in the economy. He increasedcustoms collections in the ports of the colony, despite the beginnings ofprotests about British taxation that would lead to the American Revolu-tion. He helped merchants like James Hogg, a Highland Scot, set up astore in Wilmington with branches in Cross Creek and Hillsborough. Heeven encouraged the expansion of the wharves on Portsmouth Island onthe Outer Banks to ease shipping through theOuter Banks.

Fourth, Tryon gained more control over thecolony by having his allies appointed to localoffices in the backcountry counties. He helpedwell-educated Englishmen get these positions,the most important of whom were EdmundFanning in Hillsborough and John Frohock inSalisbury.

The Regulator MovementAll of Tryon’s measures improved the orga-

nization of North Carolina, but each came witha cost that was borne by the average taxpayerin North Carolina. Residents near the coastcould easily see a return for their higher taxes,since town life in the ports improved duringTryon’s day. But the newcomers to thebackcountry were not so sure. They claimed,rightly, that a palace in New Bern was so faraway that few of them would ever see it. Whybuild such an extravagant building, especiallywhen the money could be used to improve theroads from the backcountry to the coast?

Few of the backcountry residents were An-glican, and they had little desire to pay taxesfor a minister they would not listen to. InSalisbury, the Anglican minister sent by Tryonnever got paid because the members electedto the church council (called the vestry) were Presbyterians. Since theseIrishmen never took an oath of allegiance to the Church of England, theycould not collect the taxes owed to the preacher.

Most of all, the backcountry settlers were angry that Tryon had donelittle to stop bad government. It was commonly believed that backcountry

Section 4: William Tryon and the Regulation 143

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CAROLINA PLACESCAROLINA PLACES

No one had ever seen a house like it in North Carolina.When the governor’s residence was completed in 1770 inthe newly designated capital of New Bern, it rivaled anygovernment building in the British Empire. The message wasclear: The British were in charge of the colony, and this housewas to be the seat of power. As Governor Tryon noted at theopening celebration, the building was to be “an honor toBritish America.”

Tryon brought to the colony his own architect, John Hawk.Hawk employed both North Carolinians and craftsmen fromother colonies for the fine interior woodwork. Some of thefinely carved features of the house came directly from En-gland. The most important decoration was the carved “armsof George III,” the official symbol of the king’s authority, thatwas put into place above the front door. That was one rea-son critics throughout the backcountry disliked the haughtyTryon and his “palace.”

The house had three floors. Servants worked in the base-ment storerooms. The official business of the colony was con-

Tryon’s Palace

Above: The heavy gates at Tryon Palace at New Bernwere intended to remind North Carolinians of theking’s authority over the colony.

ducted on the first floor. The governor had his office there,and the Provincial Council, made up of the leading men, metin the large room next to it. The governor also hosted officialceremonies in the council room. The governor and his familylived on the second floor. Two small buildings flanked the mainstructure. One building was a kitchen; the other, a stable.

Tryon moved into the house in 1770 and stayed therefor only a couple of years. While in residence, the Tryons gavevery popular receptions and parties for the members of theAssembly. After the Battle of Alamance, Tryon was namedgovernor of New York, and he went to live in Manhattan.Tryon’s successor, Josiah Martin, lived there until he had toflee the colony at the start of the American Revolution.

After the War for Independence, Richard Caswell, the firstgovernor of the state of North Carolina, lived and worked in

144 Chapter 4: A Royal Colony Struggles144 Chapter 4: A Royal Colony Struggles

Tryon’s Palace

the Palace. When state government was movedinland to cope with the war in 1779, the pal-ace lost its official status. For a while, it wasused as a school. When President George Wash-ington visited New Bern in 1791, he describedthe building as “hastening to ruins” because noone was keeping it up. The building burneddown to its foundations after hay stored in itcaught fire in 1798. Eventually, only one of theservice buildings remained. It was used as anapartment.

During the 1940s, North Carolina citizenswho wanted to reveal more about the state’shistory became determined to rebuild the pal-ace, using Hawk’s original plans. After WorldWar II, they raised enough money to pay forthe reconstruction. The Palace opened in 1959,and has been one of the leading tourist desti-nations in the state since then.

Right: The Tryons entertained quite a bit andhad one of the best kitchens in the colony.The slate floors were easier to clean up thanwood. Below right: The main meal ofthe day was served in the early afternoon.Below left: The Tryon family had their livingquarters on the upper floor.

Section 4: William Tryon and the Regulation 145Section 4: William Tryon and the Regulation 145

Above: To the Regulators, EdmundFanning represented the corruptionand unfairness of government. In1770, they beat him severely andwrecked his house.

In the backcountry, taxeswere supposed to be paid

in money, not in tradegoods. There was little

cash money in thebackcountry.

officials were just as corrupt as in the Proprietary period. One backcountryresident described court hearings as “more obscene than learned.” Theproblem had grown worse since 1763. When Lord Granville died, thou-sands of his land grants were involved in the settlement of his estate.People were not even sure that they owned their property. Moreover, manynewcomers to the Granville District who had surveyed their land claimed

that courthouse officials would only register the titleif they were paid a bribe. These bribes angered manypeople. Residents of Orange County believed thatEdmund Fanning, in particular, was guilty of lininghis pockets with unearned coins.

The backcountry residents began to protest thesame year Tryon became governor. In the summerof 1766, Uwharrie residents gathered at Quakermeeting houses to talk about their grievances. Hun-dreds signed petitions calling for “honester regula-tion.” The petitioners soon took the nameRegulators, and their principal spokesman wasHerman Husband. The Orange County miller hadcomplained about conditions as early as 1755. “Allwe want,” Husband claimed, “is to be governed bylaw, and not by the will of officers.” Despite thepromise by Governor Tryon to deal with the injus-tices, the Regulators were unable to get much re-lief. For example, the sheriff of Orange County no

longer went house to house to collect taxes, as was the custom. Instead,people had to pay their taxes at selected places that were often far fromhome. If they failed to come on time, the sheriff increased their tax bill.

Tensions MountMatters worsened in 1768. When one Regulator’s mare was seized

to pay off a debt, citizens marched on Hillsborough to get it back. Whilethere, some of them fired shots into Edmund Fanning’s house. OtherRegulators threw John Frohock out of the courtroom in Salisbury.

Fanning had Husband thrown in jail, accusing him of being behind allthe disorder. Hundreds of peoplefrom all walks of life marched onHillsborough to get him released.Fanning was forced to let Husbandgo and promise to have GovernorTryon deal with the problem.

Even though two Regulators,Rednap Belk, a schoolteacher, andJames Hunter, a small farmer,walked all the way to New Bernwith evidence of corruption, Tryondid little. Instead of trying to get the


Judge Richard Hendersonwas the man who laterfinanced Daniel Boone’ssettlement of Kentucky.

Assembly to take action, Tryon heldmilitary parades in Hillsborough,Salisbury, and Charlotte to show hewas the real power in the colony.Fanning was tried for extortion(charging illegal fees) and foundguilty, but he was fined only apenny. Husband, tried for incitinga riot, was found not guilty.

Frustrated backcountry settlerssaw little being done about their

grievances in 1769 and 1770. In September 1770, Regulators againmarched on Hillsborough. Some waved cow whips; others, pitchforks.They took over the courtroom and attacked a number of public officials.The next day, they learned that Judge Richard Henderson had fled town.Furious and frustrated, the Regulators dragged Fanning out of his houseand tore it down, board by board. Later, someone burned down JudgeHenderson’s farm in nearby Granville County.

The mayhem in Hillsborough prompted Governor Tryon to take strongmeasures. He got the Assembly to pass the Johnston Riot Act, namedfor Samuel Johnston, a nephew of former governor Gabriel Johnston.The new law called for strict punishment for all public acts of disorder.It was passed over the objections of Herman Husband, who was a rep-resentative from Orange County. Tryon then used the Riot Act to arrest

Above: In the fall of 1768,Governor Tryon confronted theRegulators at Hillsborough.He ordered them to disband,demanded payment of taxes,and warned public officialsagainst charging illegal fees.


Husband, and he called out the militia (citizen soldiers) to prevent theRegulators from rescuing him. Fearful that they too might be assaultedby angry backcountry residents, the Assembly passed several laws bet-ter regulating the collection of public fees. Later, a New Bern grand juryrefused to indict Husband under the Riot Act, and he was allowed toreturn home.

The Battle of AlamanceGovernor Tryon, assuming that the Regulators would rise again,

gathered militia from across the Coastal Plain and marched onHillsborough “against the insurgents.” Fanning joined him witha few Orange County soldiers. Hugh Waddell, who had been incommand at Fort Dobbs, tried to march from Charlotte with oth-ers in an effort to surround the Regulators. Thousands of shout-ing Regulators kept Waddell from crossing the Yadkin River. Tryoncontinued marching west from Hillsborough.

The Regulators gathered at Alamance Creek, about fifteen milessouthwest of Hillsborough. On May 16, 1771, Tryon ordered themto disperse. When they did not, he ordered the militia to fire uponthem. The Battle of Alamance lasted a couple of hours. The Regu-lators, who had no commander and no organization, ran out ofammunition and fled through the woods. At least 20 were killed

and another 150 wounded. Husband, at the first shot, fled all the way toPennsylvania.

Tryon made sure that every backcountry resident knew never to chal-lenge the authority of the Crown. He executed one Regulator even before


Above: General Hugh Waddelltried to march to Hillsborough, buthe was greatly outnumbered andturned back.

Above: This granite monumentmarks the site of the Battleof Alamance. Opposite page,below: This fanciful depiction ofthe Battle of Alamance showsRegulators hiding behind rocksthat are not on the battlefield. Itdoes show however, how muchbetter organized the Coastal Plainsmilitia (shown in the distance)were during the battle.

It’s Your Turn

1. North Carolina had no established capital until the 1760s. Where wasNorth Carolina’s first capital?

2. Who were the Regulators?3. Why did the General Assembly pass the Johnston Riot Act?

the battle, ordering him shot right in front of the other protest-ors. The day after the battle, he hanged another without a trial.Tryon then marched his small force toward Salisbury. His troopsdemanded loyalty oaths from everyone they met along the way.To show they meant business, Tryon’s troops dismantled HermanHusband’s farm down to the lowest fence railing. Eventually,more than six thousand backcountry men came into Salisburyand Bethabara to gain a pardon.

After returning to Hillsborough, twelve more Regulators weretried and condemned. Tryon pardoned six of them and hangedthe rest. By English tradition, all condemned people are en-titled to last words. When a Regulator with a noose around hisneck started to criticize Fanning, the villain knocked over thebarrel that held the man up, choking him in mid-sentence.

The end to the Regulation did not solve any of the prob-lems North Carolina faced in the 1770s. The king promotedTryon to governor of New York. Fanning went along as Tryon’ssecretary. He eventually became a general in the British Army.Herman Husband never returned to North Carolina. As an oldman, he helped lead a similar fight against unfair taxes in Penn-sylvania, the Whiskey Rebellion of 1792. He went to jail dur-ing that rebellion as well. Like Husband, many other Regulatorsfled. Some went to the westernmost part of South Carolina,others over the Blue Ridge to the upper tributaries of the Ten-nessee River. Those who stayed often faced poverty. JemimaMerrill, whose husband had been hanged at Hillsborough,stayed at her Abbot Creek farm, near today’s Lexington, witheight children and “a large barn . . . that is completely empty.” She tolda passing Moravian minister that she felt “hard-hearted and unbeliev-ing” about the promise of life.

Josiah Martin, who became royal governor after Tryon, was surprisedat Tryon’s reaction to the Regulation. Although he tried hard to makeamends and once again get North Carolina on the path to governmentand commerce, he could do little. The sheriffs of the various countiesstill owed the colony more than £66,000, equal to millions of dollars to-day. To make matters worse, within two years of Martin’s arrival, theAmerican Revolution broke out.


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CHAPTER REVIEWCHAPTER REVIEW

Summary• The Carolina colony continued to struggle in part

because of its geography. Sectionalism alsodeveloped between the Cape Fear and theAlbemarle.

• The king settled with Lord Granville by giving himwhat was most of northern North Carolina.

• The French and Indian War took place while ArthurDobbs was the royal governor.

• Those who settled the backcountry included theScots-Irish, Germans, English Quakers, Moravians,and Highland Scots. Some of the Scots-Irishbrought along their African slaves. Native Americangroups in North Carolina at this time were theSaura, the Catawba, and the Cherokee.

• Many immigrants left crowded Pennsylvania for theplentiful land and personal freedom available inNorth Carolina.

• The earliest settlers of North Carolina’s backcountryused the prairie to make a living in two ways:grazing cattle and growing grain.

• Wachovia was the most prosperous place in thebackcountry due to the hard work and religiousorder of its residents.

• William Tryon did more in ten years to change lifein the colony than anyone else had done in theprevious one hundred years.

• The Regulation was the backcountry rebellionagainst increased taxes and corrupt government.The Battle of Alamance brought an end to thefighting but did not solve many of the problems.

Reviewing People, Places, and TermsOn a separate sheet of paper, write the word or words

that best complete each of the following sentences.

1. ____, forerunners of North Carolina’s twentieth-century Highway Patrol, patrolled the frontierduring the French and Indian War.

2. The ____ was a 731-mile trail down the greatvalley along the Shenadoah River that settlers fromthe north followed to North Carolina.

3. The open grassland, or ____, near the GreatWagon Road was exactly what the earliest settlersto the Carolina backcountry wanted.

4. The settlers cut down trees for their houses andfences and then practiced ___ on the rest of thetrees.

5. The ____ took surplus cows to the seaports andsold them for slaughter.

6. Farmers stored their grain kernels and later hadthem ground at a ____ when they needed flour forbread.

7. Petitioners for “honester regulation” becameknown as ____.

Understanding the Facts1. How did geography affect the shipment of goods

from the Carolina colony?

2. Which group of residents wanted their area tocontinue to rule the colony?

3. After 1730, where did new settlers in NorthCarolina live?

4. Who were the first people to settle thebackcountry?

5. Name two reasons why people wanted to settle inthe North Carolina backcountry.


Chapter Review 151

6. From which state did most of the immigrants toNorth Carolina come?

7. Which grain did all of the settlers plant?

8. Which religious group settled Wachovia? Describethe environment in which this group lived.

9. What were William Tryon’s goals for the Carolinacolony?

10. What was the main reason that the backcountrysettlers were angry at Governor Tryon?

11. What happened as a result of the Battle ofAlamance? Were North Carolina’s problems solved?

Developing Critical Thinking1. List some things that Arthur Dobbs did that were

helpful to North Carolina during his service asgovernor. List some things that Dobbs did that hurtNorth Carolina during his service as governor.

2. Governor Tryon had a Regulator executed in front ofthe protestors and another Regulator hangedwithout a trial in an effort to defeat the Regulators.Do you think his actions were appropriate underthe circumstances? Under what circumstances, ifany, would those actions be appropriate today?

Applying Your Skills1. Using whatever resources you have available to you

(library, Internet, textbook, etc.), plan a functional,year-round kitchen garden for a colonial NorthCarolina backcountry family.

2. Draw a picture of the scene in Hillsborough whenenraged citizens marched to the town to regain themare that had been seized to pay off a debt.

Exploring Technology1. Use your favorite search engine to research the

French and Indian War. Prepare a chart that showsthe leaders on both sides and the major battles andtheir importance.

2. Look up the web site library.thinkquest.org/6400/wagon.htm. Click on each letter to learnabout the parts of the Conestoga wagon. Then,determine whether each of the following state-ments is true or false.

a. The wagon is stopped by a steel hand brake thatthe driver can pull with his right arm.

b. The arch that holds up the wagon cover is madefrom hickory trees.

c. There is a box on the back of the wagon to carryfood for the animals.

d. There are footrests below the seat for the driverand the passengers to place their feet.

e. There is a seat in the front for the driver and aseat in the rear for the children.

f. A wooden tongue in the back of the wagon wasused to tie animals to.

Writing Across the Curriculum1. You learned that after 1730 settlers began moving

west of the fall line. Pretend that you are a womanor man in a family making such a move in 1731.Write a journal page describing your first experi-ences as you see your new land and meet your newneighbors.

2. Imagine that you and your classmates are Regula-tors and are writing to Governor Tryon. Make a listof your complaints about your colonial governmentand put all of those together into a petition.Describe the problems you are experiencing withtaxes and royal officials.

Encountering Diversity1. During colonial North Carolina, many groups of

people moved to the backcountry. What do youthink these groups did to try to make living nearone another more agreeable, and what kind ofconflicts do you think that these early groupsencountered?

2. Find out how many different ethnic groups arerepresented in your school. Then compare thevariety of ethnicities in your school with those incolonial North Carolina.

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