WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Regulator War 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:06.720 Happy Saturday. Today's Saturday Classic is on the Regulator War, 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:10.480 also called the Regulator Movement. It was inspired by the 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:13.200 TV show Outlander, although I did not choose it as 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:17.960 Today's Saturday Classic to align with last night's Outlander series finale. 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:21.320 It is because today is the two hundred and fifty 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.880 fifth anniversary of the Battle of Alimance, which took place 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:28.800 on May sixteenth, seventeen seventy one, and was the Regulator 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:33.559 War's final and by some descriptions, only battle, because some 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:36.640 people want to draw a distinction between battles and skirmishes. 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.959 This originally came out on January twenty eighth, twenty nineteen. 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:47.080 Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:57.240 production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.280 Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. And if you 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:04.319 have been watching the fourth season of the TV show Outlander, 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:07.640 one of the things that keeps coming up is that 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.680 there are some rebellious people in colonial North Carolina who 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.200 are called the Regulators, and that they're mad about something 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.039 about unfair taxes and corruption. The show doesn't really make 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.000 it all that clear. This season of Outlander was roughly 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.679 based on the novel Drums of Autumn, which, to be clear, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.760 I haven't read. I also haven't read the next novel 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:31.200 after that one, which is called The Fiery Cross. And 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.959 this episode is being recorded before the last episode of 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:36.640 this season of the TV show, but it's gonna come 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.319 out after, so I don't have any idea what's happening 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.640 in the season finale. But it seemed like with all 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.560 of this it would be a good time to do 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.600 an episode on the Regulator War also known as the 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.000 War of the Regulation, also known as the Regulator Movement, 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:55.600 which is something that people started asking us to do 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.160 all the way back during the last time we did 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.600 an Outlander themed episode, and that was twenty sixteen, with 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:06.440 our installment on the Jacobite Rising of seventeen forty five. Yeah, 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.520 I'll confess that part of me wanted this to be 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:13.240 some very weird steam punky because it does. The name 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.800 sounds so good. It does, and one of the things 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.359 that currently is a bit of a challenge this will 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:21.959 all be sorted out by the time this episode comes out, 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.040 is finding the artwork to go with it on our website, 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:30.520 because I keep getting these strange I mean, they're beautiful, 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.200 some of them, but they're definitely steampunk inspired watches and 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:38.720 not not anything to do with the actual historical event. No, 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:40.960 and I also do I do want to say right 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.519 up here at the top, there is really a lot 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.920 to unpack with this season of Outlander in terms of 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.400 its representation of a number of people's and that is 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.079 not what today's episode is about at all, But there's 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.200 a lot there, so I just wanted to acknowledge that 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.160 it exists. I have not been watching, so I have 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.840 no idea. But to make sense of this whole series 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.280 of events we're talking about, we first need to get 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:09.560 into some North Carolina geography. North Carolina is divided into 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.119 three geographical regions from west to east. They are the Mountains, 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:17.240 the Piedmont, and the coastal Plain. Sometimes the coastal Plain 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.240 is even further divided into the inner coastal Plain and 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:24.840 the Tidewater. Naturally, when Europeans started colonizing this part of 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.680 North America, they started out along the coastal plain, and 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.119 it's not just because that's where they landed. Aside from 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.720 the swampy bits, the coastal plains soil is really soft 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.680 and flat and rich. It's not particularly rocky. This part 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.160 of the continent has navigable rivers that are really good 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.640 for carrying things back and forth to the ocean. And 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.800 overall this was a lot of what would become North 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.200 Carolina's best farmland, and it was a place where wealthy 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:56.320 planters started establishing big plantations with enslaved workforces. The Coastal 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.960 Plain is separated from the adjacent Piedmont by a geological 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.160 boundary known as the fall line. This is basically a 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:06.800 dividing line between the harder, rockier, more clay like Piedmont 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.480 and the softer, sandy or coastal Plain. In addition to 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:13.240 the differences in the soil and farming conditions on either 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.400 side of the line, rivers crossing the line descend through 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:20.520 waterfalls and rapids, making them impractical to impossible to use 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.320 to transport people and goods. There are, of course fall 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.240 lines all over the world, and in terms of the 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:30.560 Atlantic Seaboard fall line, it runs from New York to Georgia. Yeah, 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.440 you could still certainly grow things in the Piedmont, but 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:35.520 it was harder, and then it was harder to get 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.440 them anywhere. It's a little bit of a disadvantage. It 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:40.560 makes me think of the various stories we've done on 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.240 things like I think Brook Farm had this problem the 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:45.920 Brock Farm community where they were like, we're going to 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:48.360 go start a thing where no one else is doing stuff, 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:50.039 and we're going to farm here, and it's like no 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.600 one else is farming here for a reason. It is 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:58.159 made of rocks. Also, just to clear up a little 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.159 geographical confusion or Outlander viewers who might be trying to 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:04.520 imagine where all of this is happening in relation to 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.440 the TV show, the fictional Fraser's Ridge is in the 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.560 Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest North Carolina, somewhere near the 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.880 real places of Boone and Blowing Rock, and that is 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.920 on the opposite end of the state from Wilmington, which 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.040 is out on the southeastern coast, roughly three hundred miles 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.640 or four hundred and eighty kilometers away. Fraser's Ridge also 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.520 would not be very close to Cross Creek or the 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.120 Cape Beer River, which is home to the show's fictional 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.800 plantation of River Run. That is roughly two hundred miles 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.920 or three hundred twenty kilometers Today, you would measure it 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.560 from roughly Boon to Fayetteville, which is what Cross Creek 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:43.920 is known as today. The show kind of makes it 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.159 look like these places are all next door to each other. 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:51.400 They are not. This geography might seem like a weird 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.479 thing to be spending all this much time on, but 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:57.200 in colonial North Carolina, the division between the Piedmont and 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.200 the coastal plain contributed to huge divisions among the colonists 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.440 and between the colonists and the government. At first, the 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.560 vast majority of colonial activity was happening out on the 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.560 coastal plain, with mostly English colonists, and they were arriving 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.760 by boat, either from Europe or from other colonies. But 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.760 in the seventeen hundreds that really started to change. The 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:23.000 western part of the colony experienced a huge population boom. 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.760 Newcomers were arriving in the mountains and the Piedmont along 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.040 the Great Wagon Road also known as the Great Philadelphia 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.320 Wagon Road. This had started out as a trading route 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.360 that was being used by eastern North America's native peoples, 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.039 and it ran from Philadelphia down to Georgia. By the 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.680 eighteenth century, it had been widened to accommodate wagons, and 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.359 some places it had been shifted to Cross rivers and 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.560 to get around obstacles more easily. Many of these new 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:52.080 arrivals were Scot's, Irish or German, and while most of 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.240 the English colonists out on the coast were Anglican, the Scots, 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.640 Irish and German people arriving in North Carolina included a 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:04.040 lot more Baptists, Byterians, Quakers, and Moravians. So from settlement 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.559 to settlement, or even within settlements, people often didn't speak 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.160 the same language or follow the same religious practices and observances, 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.680 and as a general trend, the Piedmont was much poorer 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.480 than the coast, with most people scratching out a living 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:22.720 as subsistence farmers rather than running large plantations. This influx 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:27.200 of Europeans to the Piedmont was huge. North Carolina's population 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.840 more than doubled between seventeen thirty and seventeen fifty, and 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.400 then nearly tripled in the twenty years after that. Most 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.000 of these new arrivals were settling in what was known 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.600 then as the back counties that was the Piedmont, which 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:43.440 is at the time considered the North Carolina Frontier. This 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:48.840 combination of geography and demographics led to many problems people 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.560 in the Piedmont and the mountains, but our focus for 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.720 this is really the Piedmont in this episode thought that 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.200 they were being unfairly taxed because various taxes were levied 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.440 at the same rate there as they were out on 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.880 the coast, where people had more money. Settlers in the 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:07.440 Piedmont were also represented in the Assembly, but those Assembly 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:11.120 seats had not been reapportioned in light of the population boom, 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.400 so the Piedmont settlers also felt that they weren't really 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.080 being fairly represented in the Assembly either. A lot of 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.520 local political and court offices were being filled by appointment, 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.240 either by the monarch or by the governor or by 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.640 the Assembly. A lot of these appointees were wealthy and 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.280 powerful people from the coast or friends of theirs, so 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.840 together with the tax issues, this really led to a 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.960 perception that the Piedmont did not matter to the Assembly 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.680 or to the governor except when it came to being taxed, 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.000 and even when there was some local control over who 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:48.679 was in charge. The government and courts were very cliquish. Technically, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:51.360 most officials were appointed by the governor, but in many 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.960 cases the governor made these appointments based on the recommendations 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:59.400 of the court itself, so those officers would recommend themselves 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:03.040 and their friends, ultimately creating a courthouse ring where the 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.640 same powerful people were always in control of local politics 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.640 and the legal system. The existence of these courthouse rings 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.200 wasn't necessarily the biggest problem in people's minds. A bigger 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.520 issue in the Piedmont was that those legal and political 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.720 positions went from being held by farmers and planters to 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.920 being held by lawyers and merchants. So it seemed like 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:28.359 all the political power had increasingly moved toward these wealthy outsiders, 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:30.920 a lot of them either from the coast or connected 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.079 to people from the coast, and all of them in 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.160 cahoots to stay in power, And it also seemed like 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.360 they were in cahoots to take advantage of people. There 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.480 were laws meant to keep officials from abusing their positions, 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.760 but they were not consistently enforced, and people had to 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:48.640 handle a lot of matters through the court, everything from 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:53.240 filing deeds to trying to collect debts. The widespread perception 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.520 was that everyone from lawyers to clerks, was making things 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.040 take longer and running up fees just to line their 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.160 own pockets. For example, if you were trying to file 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.160 something with the Register of deeds, he might tax you 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.680 three times, once for each of the forms necessary to 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.319 finish the transaction, rather than just once for the whole 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.400 transaction you were trying to do. As another example of 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:18.520 all this, people did not trust the sheriffs at all. 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.760 One of the sheriff's duties was to collect the taxes, 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:25.959 and here's how people thought this process generally went down. 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.720 It's clear that sometimes the process did go down this way, 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:31.920 not clear whether it happened every time, but this was 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.319 how when somebody said the sheriff's coming to collect the tax, 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:36.160 people just sort of thought, Okay, this is how this 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.760 is going to happen. The sheriff would show up and 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.600 demand the tax, but the taxpayer would not have the 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.400 cash on hand to actually pay it, because people didn't 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.920 have a lot of need to carry cash, and there 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.960 was also a serious shortage of actual physical currency to 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.160 pay things with. But most communities did have somebody who 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.040 would keep cash and basically acted like a banker. So 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.160 the taxpayer would ask to go see that person to 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.600 get some money, and the sheriff would refuse and seize 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:06.840 some of their property instead. I love that people just 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.120 presume this is how the process works, like there's a 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:14.120 horrible flow chart that ends with property seized. People though, 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.760 did not want to pay their taxes in property arbitrarily 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.319 seized by the sheriff. If it had to be paid, 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:22.640 they wanted to pay it with something of known value, 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.280 like money. So then taxpayers would try to negotiate, asking 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:28.320 if they could get their property back if they went 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.440 and got some money and then caught up to the 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.640 sheriff down the road, and the sheriff might even agree 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.439 to this, but then disappear. Later on, the taxpayer might 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.920 hear that his property had been sold off for much 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.880 less than it was worth, so he would still owe money. 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.800 But it was not just the taxpayers who thought that 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.600 they were being ripped off by crooked sheriffs. And all this. 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:53.160 In seventeen sixty seven, North Carolina Governor William Tryon said 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.360 that he thought the sheriffs had embezzled half of the 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.800 money that they had been charged with collecting. Another thing, 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.360 Piedmont settlers were unhappy with Governor Tryon, And we're going 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:06.160 to get to that after we first paused for a 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:18.920 little sponsor break. So before the break, we talked about 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.480 a lot of stresses happening in North Carolina. We did 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:26.120 not even get into the tensions between the colonists and 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:29.760 the native people already living there, or the tensions with 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:33.040 the enslaved people that were also in North Carolina. Like 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.160 there was really a lot going on. One of the 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.760 biggest things, though, in the minds of the regulators, was 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.800 the Governor William Tryon. He had been appointed Lieutenant Governor 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.560 of North Carolina in seventeen sixty four under Governor Arthur Dobbs, 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:48.560 but Dobbs retired really soon after that and then died 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.920 in seventeen sixty five. When Tryon became governor, he represented 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.880 the royal prerogative in the colony of North Carolina, and 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:00.600 soon he established North Carolina's first permanent capital in Newbern, 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.480 which is near the coast and connected to the Atlantic 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.640 by the NEOs River. Tryon planned to build an extravagant 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.320 seat of the government and governor's residence in Newbern. To 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.480 that end, even before leaving England to become Lieutenant governor, 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.439 he had convinced architect John Hawks to join him. Tryon 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:21.560 made his first request for funding for this project, nicknamed 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:26.440 Tryon's Palace, on November eight, seventeen sixty six, not long 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.880 after the Assembly allotted five thousand pounds to both buy 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.760 the land and get started on the building. A lot 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.120 of people in the Piedmont thought this was extravagant, and then, 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.640 to make things worse than just the fact that it 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.760 was five thousand pounds to build something that was nicknamed 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.160 a palace, the money to do it was taken from 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.680 a fund that had been established for public schools, and 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.280 then to restore the money back to that fund, the 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.880 Assembly imposed a poll tax and, more importantly, in the 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:59.079 minds of some people, a levy on alcoholic beverages. That 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:04.160 was just the beginning, though another ten thousand pounds was 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.400 earmarked for the project two years later, and then when 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.600 it was finally time to open the palace in seventeen seventy, 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:15.720 Governor Tryon planned a huge gala to celebrate. Tryon's palace 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:19.800 wasn't the governor's only extravagance. In seventeen sixty seven, he 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:24.480 mounted an expensive expedition that he personally went on to 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:28.240 survey and negotiate a new border between North Carolina and 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:32.160 the Cherokee Nation, and as had happened with Tryon's palace 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.160 taxes were used to pay for this. Settlers who were 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.520 on the wrong side of the line were required to 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:41.840 move the following January, and the general perception among the 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.200 people of the Piedmont was that Tryon had made this 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.960 a whole lavish production just to draw attention to himself. 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.680 It was described as quote making a splendid exhibition of 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.480 himself to the Indians. The regulators also had a particular 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.800 problem with one of the governor's friends. Edmund Fanning, was 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:04.120 a great example of the way a small group of 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.760 people were holding a huge amount of power, which we 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.160 touched on before we had our commercial break. And born 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.840 in New York, he was a lawyer, an assemblyman, the 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.600 Register of Deeds of Orange County, and a colonel in 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:18.840 the militia. He was not at all the only person 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.240 who had multiple titles like this. That crossover among the 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.120 Assembly and the courts and the militia was huge and 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:28.280 was contributing to the perception that the Piedmont was being 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:32.040 controlled by a few wealthy people. Fanning was just the 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:34.800 one who raised the most iyro. There was even a 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.480 song about him, more than one. This is the one 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.800 we're going to read when fanning first to Orange came 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.040 he looked both pale and wan, an old patched coat 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.360 upon his back, an old mare, he wrote on Both 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.320 man and mayor want worth five pounds, as I've been 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.480 often told, but by his civil robberies, he's laced his 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.360 coat with gold. On top of all of this, the 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.760 geography and the taxes, and the representation, and the governor 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.320 and the governor's friend, the colonists and settlers of North 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.600 Carolina were just fractious. The colony went through numerous uprisings 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.520 and rebellions in the decades leading up to this. In 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:16.720 sixteen seventy seven, Culpeper's Rebellion was an armed uprising, largely 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:21.280 in response to the Navigation Acts that restricted colonial trade. 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:25.400 In sixteen eighty nine, colonists arrested corrupt Governor Cess Sothel, 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.280 who was then put on trial and banished by the Assembly. 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:32.720 The next year, John Gibbs, who replaced Governor Sothel, led 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.000 an armed uprising against his successor and vowed to fight 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.160 him to the death. Then there was Carrie's Rebellion in 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.600 seventeen eleven, which is a lot harder to sum up 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.520 in one sentence. It is named for former Governor Thomas Carey, 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.680 who led an armed rebellion against his successor that was 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.640 rooted in both religion and politics. The first seeds of 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.640 the Regulator movement had started back before Governor Tryon asked 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.480 for that five thousand pounds for his palace. It was 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:03.640 August seventeen sixty six a group of Quakers met in 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.959 Orange County to talk about all their various grievances, all 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:10.800 those issues that were connected to taxation and corruption. One 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.600 of them was a man named Hermann husband who's often 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.399 described as one of the leaders of the Regulator movement, 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.760 but it's a little more complicated than that. As a Quaker, 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:22.240 he could not get behind some of the more violent 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.280 acts that they took, and he really distanced himself from 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.359 the movement as it became more violent. The people that 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.320 met in August of seventeen sixty six called themselves the 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.919 Sandy Creek Association, and they planned to go through the 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.680 more typical, non violent means of trying to get things changed. 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.280 They were going to file petitions, they were going to 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.600 try to get representation in the Assembly, things like that. 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.080 The Sandy Creek Association didn't make a lot of headway 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:52.399 and escalated to things like refusing to pay taxes. And 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.960 then a law was passed in seventeen sixty eight that 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:59.200 required sheriffs to be at specific places on specific days 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.879 to collect taxes is rather than just showing up in 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:07.120 the Piedmont. This made things worse instead of better. Taxpayers 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.560 felt like now the burden was on them to travel 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.880 somewhere to pay taxes, and because the counties then were 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.320 much larger than they are now, this could be a 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:19.800 very time consuming and expensive inconvenience. The new law also 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:23.240 didn't do anything to address the many other concerns with 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:27.919 embezzlement and corruption. Yeah, it seems like having a person 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:30.520 take their taxes to the sheriff at a specific time 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.040 and place rather than having the sheriff show up and 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:34.919 demand money, Like it seems like that would be an 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:39.359 improvement was not really read as an improvement. In the 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:43.080 early spring of seventeen sixty eight, the Orange County sheriff 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:45.160 posted a list of all the places that he would 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.040 be to collect the tax along with a fine for 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.360 the people who did not make it to those places 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.320 at the right time, and taxpayers were really angry about this, 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.240 and they thought it might be illegal. By this point 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.280 they had also heard about that additional money that had 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.760 been allotted to build Triumphs Palace. So a group of 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.720 Orange County residents got together. They drafted a letter which 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.160 they sent to all of their various officials. And here 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.840 is what it said. Whereas the taxes in the county 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.840 are larger according to the number of taxables than adjacent counties, 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:21.200 and continue so year after year, and as the jealousy 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:24.399 still prevails among us that we are wronged, and having 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:26.440 the more reason to think so, as we have been 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.359 at the trouble of choosing men and sending them after 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.760 the civilist manner, that we could to know what we 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:36.000 paid our levee for, but could receive no satisfaction, we 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.320 are obliged to seek redress by denying paying any more 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.160 until we have a full settlement for what is passed 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:45.320 and have a true regulation with our officers. As our 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.400 grievances are too many to notify in a small piece 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:52.800 of writing, we desire that you are assemblymen and vestrymen, 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:56.359 may appoint a time before next court at the courthouse, 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:58.560 and let us know by the bearer, and we will 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.840 choose men to act for us. We desire that the 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.439 sheriffs will not come this way to collect the levee, 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.000 for we will pay none before there is a settlement 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.480 to our satisfaction. And as the nature of an officer 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:13.119 is a servant to the public, we are determined to 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.119 have the officers of this county under a better and 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.320 honester regulation than they have been for some time past. 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.800 Think not to frighten us with rebellion in this case, 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:25.760 For if the inhabitants of this province have not as 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:27.959 good a right to inquire into the nature of our 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:31.679 constitution and disbursement of our funds as those of our 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.080 mother country, we think it is by arbitrary proceedings that 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.200 we are debarred of that right. Therefore, to be plain 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.640 with you, it is our intent to have a full 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:44.119 settlement of yawn in every particular point that is matter 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:46.760 of doubt with us. So fail not to send an 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.160 answer by the bearer. They're basically refusing to pay any 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:55.040 taxes until these things are settled. Some cooler headed people 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:58.480 decided that the language in this initial letter was much 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:01.399 too aggressive, so they are to have a second meeting, 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:05.399 And at that second meeting they adopted this set of 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:10.639 articles that I find to just be delightfully conciliatory. Here's 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:15.480 what it says. We, the subscribers, do voluntarily agree to 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:20.200 form ourselves into an association to assemble ourselves for conference 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:24.240 for regulating public a grievances and abuses of power in 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.439 the following particulars, with others of a like nature that 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.920 may occur. One we will pay no more taxes until 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.600 we are satisfied that they are agreeable to law and 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.280 applied to the purposes therein mentioned, unless we cannot help 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:41.640 it or are forced. Two we will pay no officer 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.920 any more fees than the law allows, unless we are 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:48.200 obliged to do it, and then to show our dislike 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:52.840 and bear open testimony against it. Three we will attend 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:56.560 all our meetings of conferences as often as we conveniently can, 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:01.200 et cetera. Four we will contribute to collecs for defraying 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:05.840 necessary expenses attending the work according to our abilities. Five 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:08.760 in case of the difference in judgment, we will submit 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.000 to the judgment of the majority of our body. So 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:13.680 this is a lot more like we're not going to 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.560 pay our taxes unless we have to, but then we 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:21.480 will complain about it. Both of these documents talked about regulating, 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:25.040 but the term regulators, as these men came to be known, 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:27.800 was likely picked up from a similar movement in South 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:31.960 Carolina that started the year before, although that particular movement 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:36.080 was more about combating lawlessness than tax reform and government corruption. 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:39.360 Even though the regulators had tried to walk back that 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:43.080 first more aggressive statement, it was really too late. That 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:46.200 statement had already been sent to Orange County's officers, who 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:50.600 were affronted. But soon things really started to escalate, and 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:53.439 we will get to that. After another quick sponsor break 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:06.159