Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina

by Kars, Marjoleine

• ISBN13: 9780807826720
• ISBN10: 0807826723
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

Ten years before the start of the American Revolution, backcountry settlers in the North Carolina Piedmont launched their own defiant bid for economic independence and political liberty. The Regulator Rebellion of 1766-71 pitted thousands of farmers, many of them religious radicals inspired by the Great Awakening, against political and economic elites who opposed the Regulators' proposed reforms. The conflict culminated on May 16, 1771, when a colonial militia defeated more than 2,000 armed farmers in a pitched battle near Hillsborough. At least 6,000 Regulators and sympathizers were forced to swear their allegiance to the government as the victorious troops undertook a punitive march through Regulator settlements. Seven farmers were hanged. Using sources that include diaries, church minutes, legal papers, and the richly detailed accounts of the Regulators themselves, Marjoleine Kars delves deeply into the world and ideology of free rural colonists. She examines the rebellion's economic, religious, and political roots and explores its legacy in North Carolina and beyond. The compelling story of the Regulator Rebellion reveals just how sharply elite and popular notions of independence differed on the eve of the Revolution.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(6)
PART I. ECONOMICS	7	(70)
Breaking the Way: Colonizing the North Carolina Piedmont	9	(18)
Robed of It All by a Few Roguish Individuals: Land Grievances	27	(28)
It Would Be Enough to Make Us Turn Rebels: Debt, Taxes, and the Courts	55	(22)
PART II. RELIGION	77	(54)
The Spirit Within: Protestant Radicalism from the Reformation to the Great Awakening in the South	79	(15)
Fashioning Christ's Coat: Beyond Denomination	94	(17)
Into a Ranting Spirit: Religious Radicalism and Agrarian Activism	111	(20)
PART III. POLITICS	131	(46)
Liberty to Make Our Grievances Known: Organizing Popular Protest, August 1766-May 1768	133	(15)
But by a Due Course of Law: Petitioning the Governor, May 1768-September 1768	148	(13)
Debarr'd of Justice: Legal Means Fail, November 1768-December 1769	161	(16)
PART IV. WAR	177	(38)
Coming to See Justice Done: Growing Exasperation, January 1770-December 1770	179	(13)
To Force Us to Submit to Tyranny: The Battle of Alamance, January 1771-June 1771	192	(14)
Whipped Twice: Consequences	206	(9)
Epilogue	215	(4)
Notes	219	(44)
Bibliography of Sources Cited	263	(16)
Index	279