The War of the Regulation, also known as Regulator Movement,
was an uprising in the British North America's Carolina colonies, lasting from
about 1765 to 1771, in which citizens took up arms against colonial officials,
whom they viewed as corrupt. Though the rebellion did not change the power
structure, some historians consider it a catalyst to the American Revolutionary
War. Others like John Spencer Bassett take the view that the Regulators did not
wish to change the form or principle of their government, but simply wanted to
make the colony's political process more equal. They wanted better economic
conditions for everyone except slaves and Native Americans, instead of a system
that benefited the colonial officials. Bassett interprets the events of the late
1760s in Orange and surrounding counties as "a peasants' rising, a popular
upheaval.”
Causes of rebellion
Population increase
and new settlers arrive
The British colonial Provinces of North Carolina and South
Carolina experienced dramatic population growth in the 1760s, following the
increased migration of colonists arriving from the eastern cities seeking
greater opportunities in the emerging rural west. The inland section of the
colonies had once been predominantly composed of planters with an agricultural
economy. Merchants and lawyers began to move west, upsetting the social and
political structure. They were joined by new Scots-Irish immigrants, who
populated the backcountry.
Economic depression
At the same time, the local inland agricultural community
suffered from a deep economic depression because of severe droughts throughout
the previous decade. The loss of crops cost farmers their food source as well
as their primary means of income, which led many to rely on the goods being
brought by newly arrived merchants. As income was cut off, the local planters
often fell into debt. The merchants, in turn, relied on lawyers and the court
to settle disputes. Debts were common at the time, and from 1755 to 1765, the
cases brought to the docket increased nearly sixteen-fold, from seven annually
to 111 in Orange County, North Carolina, alone.
Class war and
political corruption
Such court cases could often lead to planters losing their
homes and property, so they grew to resent the presence of the newcomers. The
shift in population and politics eventually led to an imbalance within the
colony's courthouses, and the new and well-educated lawyers used their superior
knowledge of the law to their sometimes unjust advantage. A small clique of
wealthy officials formed and became an exclusive inner circle in charge of the
legal affairs of the area. The group was seen as a 'courthouse ring', or a
small bunch of officials who grabbed most of the political power for
themselves.
One early protest was the Nutbush Address, given by George
Sims on June 6, 1765. George was from Nutbush (later Williamsboro, North
Carolina). This address was a protest about provincial and county officials and
the fees they charged residents of Granville County. This later led to the
Regulator Movement in North Carolina.
Regulators organize
and arrival of Governor Tryon
In 1764, several thousand people from North Carolina, mainly
from Orange, Anson, and Granville counties in the western region, were
dissatisfied with the wealthy North Carolina officials, who they considered
cruel, arbitrary, tyrannical and corrupt. Local sheriffs collected taxes, as
supported by the courts; the sheriffs and courts had sole control over their
local regions. With the arrival of Royal Governor William Tryon in 1765,
volatile conditions in North Carolina increasingly worsened. Many of the
officers were greedy and often would band together with other local officials
for their own personal gain. The entire system depended on the integrity of
local officials, many of whom engaged in extortion; taxes collected often
enriched the tax collectors directly. At times, sheriffs would intentionally
remove records of their tax collection to go back to residents to ask for more
taxes. The system was endorsed by the colonial governor, who feared losing the
support of the various county officials.
The effort to eliminate the system of government became
known as the Regulator Uprising, War of the Regulation, or the Regulator War.
The most heavily affected areas were said to be those of Rowan, Anson, Orange,
Granville, and Cumberland counties. It was a struggle between mostly lower-class
citizens, who made up the majority of the backcountry population of North and
South Carolina, and the wealthy planter elite, who comprised about 5% of the
population but maintained almost total control of the government.
The stated primary aim of the Regulators was to form an
honest government and reduce taxation. The wealthy businessmen/politicians who
ruled North Carolina saw it as a threat to their power. Ultimately, they
brought in the militia to crush the rebellion and hanged its leaders. It is
estimated that out of the 8,000 people living in Orange County at the time,
some 6,000 to 7,000 supported the Regulators.
The War of the Regulation is considered a catalyst to the
American Revolutionary War, and it was waged against corrupt officials
representing king and crown. Almost 300 Regulators became part of the Patriot
Movement, and only about 30 claimed loyalty to the British Crown.
Regulator leadership
under Herman Husband
Herman Husband became one of the unofficial leaders of the
Regulators. Husband was from Maryland, born into a Quaker family. One of the
major flaws in Husband's campaign was he tried to invite good relations with
the eastern regions of North Carolina, mostly unaffected by the issues with
local sheriffs. Husband retained very little control over the Regulators, who
generally went against his policies of winning over public sentiment and
committed acts of minor violence at regular intervals.
Another Regulator leader was James Hunter. He refused to
take command of the Regulators after Husband's departure before the Battle of
Alamance. Captain Benjamin Merrill had about 300 men under his control and
would have assumed control over military leadership after James Hunter, but he
was unable to serve in the Battle of Alamance.
Anti-Regulator forces
Governor Arthur Dobbs, who wrote such popular works as Trade
and Improvement of H'elend and Captain Middleton's Defense, served as the Royal
Governor of North Carolina until his death in 1765. William Tryon succeeded
him. Tryon had a lavish home built in 1770 in New Bern. This was resented by
the Regulators, who were already paying substantial taxes. William (The
Regulator) Butler was quoted as saying, "We are determined not to pay the Tax
for the next three years, for the Edifice or Governor's House, nor will we pay
for it."
Governor Josiah Martin succeeded Governor Tryon in office
just after the end of the rebellion. His policies eased the burden on former
Regulators and allowed them to be assimilated back into society. Edmund Fanning
was the main opposition to the Regulators. A graduate of Yale College, he was
generally regarded by his friends as well disciplined and firm. He held many
political offices in Orange County. He was once found guilty of embezzling
money (along with Francis Nash) but was fined only one penny per charge.
Events
Breaking up the
provincial court
North Carolina's colonial court met in Hillsborough. In
1768, the Regulators entered Hillsborough, broke up the court, and dragged
those they saw as corrupt officials through the streets. The mob attempted to have the judge try the
cases that were pending against several Regulator leaders, including Husband.
The presiding Judge Richard Henderson quickly adjourned the court until the
next morning to avoid being forced to make a ruling in the presence of an angry
mob of Regulators, and escaped in the night. The Regulators rioted, destroying
public and private property alike. Fanning was among the lawyers beaten, found
after taking refuge in a shop neighboring the courthouse. According to Judge
Henderson, Fanning's beating was so severe that "one of his eyes was
almost beaten out." The courthouse
was systematically and symbolically vandalized. Human waste was placed on the
judge's seat, and the body of a long deceased slave was placed upon the
lawyers' bar. The mob continued to destroy shops and property in the town, and
ultimately brought their destruction to Fanning's personal residence. After
destroying all of the furniture and drinking all of his alcohol, they picked
apart his entire house. Henderson's barn, along with his stables and home, were
burned to the ground. They cracked the
church bell of the Church of England but stopped short of looting the church.
Documents
There were several different publications and petitions
circulated to promote the end of taxation and other issues. A number of
influential members of the area communities signed the Regulator Advertisement
and the Regulator Petition, of which there were several versions of each. Each
document identified concerns and issues relevant to the Regulator Movement. The
terms Regulation and Regulator were introduced in the Regulator Advertisement
in 1768.
Battle of Alamance
While small acts of violence had been taking place for some
time, mainly out of resentment, the first organized conflict was in Mecklenburg
County in 1765. Settlers in the region, who were there illegally, forced away
surveyors of the region assigned with designating land. Minor clashes followed
for the next several years in almost every western county, but the only true
battle of the war was the Battle of Alamance on May 16, 1771.
Governor Tryon and his forces, which numbered just over
1,000, with roughly 150 officers, arrived at Hillsborough on May 9. At the same
time, General Hugh Waddell, supporting the governor, en route with his
contingent of 236 men was met by a large contingent of Regulators under the
leadership of Captain Benjamin Merrill. Realizing his force was outnumbered, he
fell back to Salisbury. On May 11, having received word of the retreat from a
messenger, Tryon sent the force to support General Waddell. He intentionally
chose a path that would lead his forces through Regulator territory. He gave
strict orders that nothing was to be looted or damaged. By May 14, his troops
had reached Alamance and set up camp. Leaving about 70 men behind to guard the
position, he moved the remainder of his force, slightly under 1,000 men, to
find the Regulators.
About 10 miles (16 km) away, a force of approximately 2,000
Regulators (by some accounts, 6,000)[5] without any clear leadership or
supplies, was gathered mainly as a display of force and not a standing army.
The general Regulator strategy was to scare the governor with a show of
superior numbers in order to force the governor to give in to their demands.
The first clash of the battle was on May 15, when a rogue band of Regulators
captured two of the governor's militia soldiers. Governor Tryon had informed the
Regulators that they were displaying open arms and rebellion and that action
was to be taken if they did not disperse. The Regulators did not understand the
severity of the crisis they were in and ignored the warning. Despite hesitation
from his own forces, Governor Tryon allegedly initiated the main battle of
Alamance on May 16 by shooting Robert Thompson, who was the first death of the
battle. The Regulators resistance crumbled somewhat quickly. The battle was
over with nine deaths for the governor's forces and about the same for the
Regulators. Virtually everyone captured in the battle was fully pardoned in
exchange for an allegiance to the crown; however, six Regulators were hanged
for their part in the uprising, including some officers of the colonial militia
who had joined ranks with the Regulator's side. Those officers were Captain
Robert Messer, Captain Benjamin Merrill, and Captain Robert Matear.
Aftermath
Following the battle, Tryon's militia army traveled through
Regulator territory, where he had Regulators and Regulator sympathizers sign
loyalty oaths and destroyed the properties of the most active Regulators. He
also raised taxes to pay for his militia's defeat of the Regulators.
At the time of their defeat at Alamance, public opinion was
decidedly against the Regulators. They were seen as "lawless
desperadoes," and Governor Tryon was praised for his actions in stamping
out the rebellion.[8] As news articles spread the word of his victory, Tryon
was branded a hero of the colonies for defeating the larger group of Regulators
with his small, well prepared militia. However as the initial excitement over
the battle died down, many newsmen, especially in the Boston area, began to
question the reasons behind the rebellion and investigated further. Several
reasons were found to regard the destruction of the Regulators as an act of an
oppressive government. Most particularly admonished was the methods in which
Tryon had used to win the battle. The use of a riot act and the execution of
rebellion leaders after the battle was frowned upon. Reports also indicated
that battlefield misconduct had taken place on the governor's side, including
giving the farmers a two-hour warning period before the battle began, and
subsequently breaking that agreement to bombard them with artillery fire.
Many of the main leaders remained in hiding until 1772, when
they were no longer considered outlaws. Many Regulators moved further west into
places such as Tennessee, notably establishing both the Watauga Association in
1772 and the State of Franklin in 1784.
Regulation in South
Carolina
At the same time as the regulation in North Carolina, the
South Carolina colony had a group of men calling themselves regulators, albeit
with very different goals. The regulators of the south were also farming class,
landowning men who had grievances against officialdom. However their main
problems stemmed not from corruption, but a lack of representation and of
government-provided services such as courts and churches. These regulators found
an enemy in local groups of "hunters" (who were seen as undesirables)
and bandits. The South Carolina regulation helped catalyze the Revolutionary
War, as the residents found the distant authority of the Parliament of Great
Britain to be so late in responding to their demands.
The Regulators of South Carolina were formed during the
mid-1760s and were active mainly between 1767 and 1769. During the previous
decades, the population of the frontier had boomed, thanks to the planning of
Governor Robert Johnson. He supported sending yeomen out to the frontier en
masse to provide a buffer for the coastal cities from Cherokee attacks. The
slave population grew 19% as planters began to develop larger properties for
agriculture. (However, the slave population of the frontier accounted only for
8% of the total population of the colony.)
During this time, the inland settlers on the South Carolina
frontier suffered more from violent crimes, including organized bandit raids.
The disruption of the Cherokee war of 1760-1761 left many settlers without
homes, and native raids sometimes resulted in abandonment of settler children.
To sustain their families, the men went out hunting. In the colonial period on
the western frontier, this was not seen as an honorable profession, and hunters
were labeled as vagrants, bandits, and outlaws, and blamed for stealing
livestock. Their method of "fire hunting" at night used fire to blind
deer, and sometimes they mistook farmers' livestock for wild game. They left
unused animal corpses, which drew wolves and scavengers closer to populated
areas. Hunting also pushed well into the boundary of the local natives, the
Creek Indians, exacerbating their already tense relationship with colonists.
The bandits gathered until they numbered about 200. Eventually they were bold
enough to attack magistrates. They dragged James Mayson, a regulator, from his
home in the night. Originally made up of the hunting groups, the bandits also
accepted free mulattos and blacks, fugitive slaves, and any outlaw available.
Some members of the bandit network were well-established farmers.
In South Carolina, "regulators" were not rebels,
but a vigilante force of propertied elite men. They co-operated with their
colonial government for their entire active time. The South Carolina regulators
were a much smaller organization than the mass movement in North Carolina.
There were 100 known regulators, of whom 32 became justices of the peace, and
21 were militia leaders. Thirty-one owned slaves, and 14 owned 10 or more. Their
primary aim was to protect themselves and their assets from bandits; their
secondary purpose was to get courts, churches and schools established in their
quickly growing communities. The only court in the colony was in Charleston,
through which all legal documentation had to go. The inland settlers had the
sympathy of the coastal elite, but the circuit court act, which would establish
the jails, courts, sheriffs and 14 judicial districts, was held up by a dispute
with the Parliament of Great Britain concerning the tenure of judges.
The South Carolina regulation movement was a great success.
Their manifesto, written by Anglican missionary Rev. Charles Woodmason argued
their case. Eventually the colonial
legislature passed a series of acts that met the needs of the propertied
frontiersman. These included vagrancy acts, which restricted the hunters,
forbidding them to trespass on Native lands.
Coupled with the 1769 ordinance for the preservation of
deer, which forbade fire hunting, the new law resulted in many hunters being
whipped and banished from the area. In 1768, the Charleston grand jury began
urging the creation of new schools in the back country, as per regulator
request. In 1769 the circuit court act was passed, making way for the new courthouses
and jails, as well as setting up four new judicial districts. The cooperation
between frontier and coastal colonists was so effective that by 1771, Governor
Charles Montague had issued a full pardon for any actions taken by the
regulators in his state.
In popular culture
The Regulators are featured as important characters in Jimmy
Carter's historical novel The Hornet's Nest (2003).
Diana Gabaldon features the Battle of Alamance as a
significant event in her historical time-travel novel The Fiery Cross, the
fifth book in the Outlander series.
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