Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Today's Saturday Classic is on the Regulator War,
Speaker 1: also called the Regulator Movement. It was inspired by the
Speaker 1: TV show Outlander, although I did not choose it as
Speaker 1: Today's Saturday Classic to align with last night's Outlander series finale.
Speaker 1: It is because today is the two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: fifth anniversary of the Battle of Alimance, which took place
Speaker 1: on May sixteenth, seventeen seventy one, and was the Regulator
Speaker 1: War's final and by some descriptions, only battle, because some
Speaker 1: people want to draw a distinction between battles and skirmishes.
Speaker 1: This originally came out on January twenty eighth, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. And if you
Speaker 1: have been watching the fourth season of the TV show Outlander,
Speaker 1: one of the things that keeps coming up is that
Speaker 1: there are some rebellious people in colonial North Carolina who
Speaker 1: are called the Regulators, and that they're mad about something
Speaker 1: about unfair taxes and corruption. The show doesn't really make
Speaker 1: it all that clear. This season of Outlander was roughly
Speaker 1: based on the novel Drums of Autumn, which, to be clear,
Speaker 1: I haven't read. I also haven't read the next novel
Speaker 1: after that one, which is called The Fiery Cross. And
Speaker 1: this episode is being recorded before the last episode of
Speaker 1: this season of the TV show, but it's gonna come
Speaker 1: out after, so I don't have any idea what's happening
Speaker 1: in the season finale. But it seemed like with all
Speaker 1: of this it would be a good time to do
Speaker 1: an episode on the Regulator War also known as the
Speaker 1: War of the Regulation, also known as the Regulator Movement,
Speaker 1: which is something that people started asking us to do
Speaker 1: all the way back during the last time we did
Speaker 1: an Outlander themed episode, and that was twenty sixteen, with
Speaker 1: our installment on the Jacobite Rising of seventeen forty five. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll confess that part of me wanted this to be
Speaker 1: some very weird steam punky because it does. The name
Speaker 1: sounds so good. It does, and one of the things
Speaker 1: that currently is a bit of a challenge this will
Speaker 1: all be sorted out by the time this episode comes out,
Speaker 1: is finding the artwork to go with it on our website,
Speaker 1: because I keep getting these strange I mean, they're beautiful,
Speaker 1: some of them, but they're definitely steampunk inspired watches and
Speaker 1: not not anything to do with the actual historical event. No,
Speaker 1: and I also do I do want to say right
Speaker 1: up here at the top, there is really a lot
Speaker 1: to unpack with this season of Outlander in terms of
Speaker 1: its representation of a number of people's and that is
Speaker 1: not what today's episode is about at all, But there's
Speaker 1: a lot there, so I just wanted to acknowledge that
Speaker 1: it exists. I have not been watching, so I have
Speaker 1: no idea. But to make sense of this whole series
Speaker 1: of events we're talking about, we first need to get
Speaker 1: into some North Carolina geography. North Carolina is divided into
Speaker 1: three geographical regions from west to east. They are the Mountains,
Speaker 1: the Piedmont, and the coastal Plain. Sometimes the coastal Plain
Speaker 1: is even further divided into the inner coastal Plain and
Speaker 1: the Tidewater. Naturally, when Europeans started colonizing this part of
Speaker 1: North America, they started out along the coastal plain, and
Speaker 1: it's not just because that's where they landed. Aside from
Speaker 1: the swampy bits, the coastal plains soil is really soft
Speaker 1: and flat and rich. It's not particularly rocky. This part
Speaker 1: of the continent has navigable rivers that are really good
Speaker 1: for carrying things back and forth to the ocean. And
Speaker 1: overall this was a lot of what would become North
Speaker 1: Carolina's best farmland, and it was a place where wealthy
Speaker 1: planters started establishing big plantations with enslaved workforces. The Coastal
Speaker 1: Plain is separated from the adjacent Piedmont by a geological
Speaker 1: boundary known as the fall line. This is basically a
Speaker 1: dividing line between the harder, rockier, more clay like Piedmont
Speaker 1: and the softer, sandy or coastal Plain. In addition to
Speaker 1: the differences in the soil and farming conditions on either
Speaker 1: side of the line, rivers crossing the line descend through
Speaker 1: waterfalls and rapids, making them impractical to impossible to use
Speaker 1: to transport people and goods. There are, of course fall
Speaker 1: lines all over the world, and in terms of the
Speaker 1: Atlantic Seaboard fall line, it runs from New York to Georgia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you could still certainly grow things in the Piedmont, but
Speaker 1: it was harder, and then it was harder to get
Speaker 1: them anywhere. It's a little bit of a disadvantage. It
Speaker 1: makes me think of the various stories we've done on
Speaker 1: things like I think Brook Farm had this problem the
Speaker 1: Brock Farm community where they were like, we're going to
Speaker 1: go start a thing where no one else is doing stuff,
Speaker 1: and we're going to farm here, and it's like no
Speaker 1: one else is farming here for a reason. It is
Speaker 1: made of rocks. Also, just to clear up a little
Speaker 1: geographical confusion or Outlander viewers who might be trying to
Speaker 1: imagine where all of this is happening in relation to
Speaker 1: the TV show, the fictional Fraser's Ridge is in the
Speaker 1: Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest North Carolina, somewhere near the
Speaker 1: real places of Boone and Blowing Rock, and that is
Speaker 1: on the opposite end of the state from Wilmington, which
Speaker 1: is out on the southeastern coast, roughly three hundred miles
Speaker 1: or four hundred and eighty kilometers away. Fraser's Ridge also
Speaker 1: would not be very close to Cross Creek or the
Speaker 1: Cape Beer River, which is home to the show's fictional
Speaker 1: plantation of River Run. That is roughly two hundred miles
Speaker 1: or three hundred twenty kilometers Today, you would measure it
Speaker 1: from roughly Boon to Fayetteville, which is what Cross Creek
Speaker 1: is known as today. The show kind of makes it
Speaker 1: look like these places are all next door to each other.
Speaker 1: They are not. This geography might seem like a weird
Speaker 1: thing to be spending all this much time on, but
Speaker 1: in colonial North Carolina, the division between the Piedmont and
Speaker 1: the coastal plain contributed to huge divisions among the colonists
Speaker 1: and between the colonists and the government. At first, the
Speaker 1: vast majority of colonial activity was happening out on the
Speaker 1: coastal plain, with mostly English colonists, and they were arriving
Speaker 1: by boat, either from Europe or from other colonies. But
Speaker 1: in the seventeen hundreds that really started to change. The
Speaker 1: western part of the colony experienced a huge population boom.
Speaker 1: Newcomers were arriving in the mountains and the Piedmont along
Speaker 1: the Great Wagon Road also known as the Great Philadelphia
Speaker 1: Wagon Road. This had started out as a trading route
Speaker 1: that was being used by eastern North America's native peoples,
Speaker 1: and it ran from Philadelphia down to Georgia. By the
Speaker 1: eighteenth century, it had been widened to accommodate wagons, and
Speaker 1: some places it had been shifted to Cross rivers and
Speaker 1: to get around obstacles more easily. Many of these new
Speaker 1: arrivals were Scot's, Irish or German, and while most of
Speaker 1: the English colonists out on the coast were Anglican, the Scots,
Speaker 1: Irish and German people arriving in North Carolina included a
Speaker 1: lot more Baptists, Byterians, Quakers, and Moravians. So from settlement
Speaker 1: to settlement, or even within settlements, people often didn't speak
Speaker 1: the same language or follow the same religious practices and observances,
Speaker 1: and as a general trend, the Piedmont was much poorer
Speaker 1: than the coast, with most people scratching out a living
Speaker 1: as subsistence farmers rather than running large plantations. This influx
Speaker 1: of Europeans to the Piedmont was huge. North Carolina's population
Speaker 1: more than doubled between seventeen thirty and seventeen fifty, and
Speaker 1: then nearly tripled in the twenty years after that. Most
Speaker 1: of these new arrivals were settling in what was known
Speaker 1: then as the back counties that was the Piedmont, which
Speaker 1: is at the time considered the North Carolina Frontier. This
Speaker 1: combination of geography and demographics led to many problems people
Speaker 1: in the Piedmont and the mountains, but our focus for
Speaker 1: this is really the Piedmont in this episode thought that
Speaker 1: they were being unfairly taxed because various taxes were levied
Speaker 1: at the same rate there as they were out on
Speaker 1: the coast, where people had more money. Settlers in the
Speaker 1: Piedmont were also represented in the Assembly, but those Assembly
Speaker 1: seats had not been reapportioned in light of the population boom,
Speaker 1: so the Piedmont settlers also felt that they weren't really
Speaker 1: being fairly represented in the Assembly either. A lot of
Speaker 1: local political and court offices were being filled by appointment,
Speaker 1: either by the monarch or by the governor or by
Speaker 1: the Assembly. A lot of these appointees were wealthy and
Speaker 1: powerful people from the coast or friends of theirs, so
Speaker 1: together with the tax issues, this really led to a
Speaker 1: perception that the Piedmont did not matter to the Assembly
Speaker 1: or to the governor except when it came to being taxed,
Speaker 1: and even when there was some local control over who
Speaker 1: was in charge. The government and courts were very cliquish. Technically,
Speaker 1: most officials were appointed by the governor, but in many
Speaker 1: cases the governor made these appointments based on the recommendations
Speaker 1: of the court itself, so those officers would recommend themselves
Speaker 1: and their friends, ultimately creating a courthouse ring where the
Speaker 1: same powerful people were always in control of local politics
Speaker 1: and the legal system. The existence of these courthouse rings
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily the biggest problem in people's minds. A bigger
Speaker 1: issue in the Piedmont was that those legal and political
Speaker 1: positions went from being held by farmers and planters to
Speaker 1: being held by lawyers and merchants. So it seemed like
Speaker 1: all the political power had increasingly moved toward these wealthy outsiders,
Speaker 1: a lot of them either from the coast or connected
Speaker 1: to people from the coast, and all of them in
Speaker 1: cahoots to stay in power, And it also seemed like
Speaker 1: they were in cahoots to take advantage of people. There
Speaker 1: were laws meant to keep officials from abusing their positions,
Speaker 1: but they were not consistently enforced, and people had to
Speaker 1: handle a lot of matters through the court, everything from
Speaker 1: filing deeds to trying to collect debts. The widespread perception
Speaker 1: was that everyone from lawyers to clerks, was making things
Speaker 1: take longer and running up fees just to line their
Speaker 1: own pockets. For example, if you were trying to file
Speaker 1: something with the Register of deeds, he might tax you
Speaker 1: three times, once for each of the forms necessary to
Speaker 1: finish the transaction, rather than just once for the whole
Speaker 1: transaction you were trying to do. As another example of
Speaker 1: all this, people did not trust the sheriffs at all.
Speaker 1: One of the sheriff's duties was to collect the taxes,
Speaker 1: and here's how people thought this process generally went down.
Speaker 1: It's clear that sometimes the process did go down this way,
Speaker 1: not clear whether it happened every time, but this was
Speaker 1: how when somebody said the sheriff's coming to collect the tax,
Speaker 1: people just sort of thought, Okay, this is how this
Speaker 1: is going to happen. The sheriff would show up and
Speaker 1: demand the tax, but the taxpayer would not have the
Speaker 1: cash on hand to actually pay it, because people didn't
Speaker 1: have a lot of need to carry cash, and there
Speaker 1: was also a serious shortage of actual physical currency to
Speaker 1: pay things with. But most communities did have somebody who
Speaker 1: would keep cash and basically acted like a banker. So
Speaker 1: the taxpayer would ask to go see that person to
Speaker 1: get some money, and the sheriff would refuse and seize
Speaker 1: some of their property instead. I love that people just
Speaker 1: presume this is how the process works, like there's a
Speaker 1: horrible flow chart that ends with property seized. People though,
Speaker 1: did not want to pay their taxes in property arbitrarily
Speaker 1: seized by the sheriff. If it had to be paid,
Speaker 1: they wanted to pay it with something of known value,
Speaker 1: like money. So then taxpayers would try to negotiate, asking
Speaker 1: if they could get their property back if they went
Speaker 1: and got some money and then caught up to the
Speaker 1: sheriff down the road, and the sheriff might even agree
Speaker 1: to this, but then disappear. Later on, the taxpayer might
Speaker 1: hear that his property had been sold off for much
Speaker 1: less than it was worth, so he would still owe money.
Speaker 1: But it was not just the taxpayers who thought that
Speaker 1: they were being ripped off by crooked sheriffs. And all this.
Speaker 1: In seventeen sixty seven, North Carolina Governor William Tryon said
Speaker 1: that he thought the sheriffs had embezzled half of the
Speaker 1: money that they had been charged with collecting. Another thing,
Speaker 1: Piedmont settlers were unhappy with Governor Tryon, And we're going
Speaker 1: to get to that after we first paused for a
Speaker 1: little sponsor break. So before the break, we talked about
Speaker 1: a lot of stresses happening in North Carolina. We did
Speaker 1: not even get into the tensions between the colonists and
Speaker 1: the native people already living there, or the tensions with
Speaker 1: the enslaved people that were also in North Carolina. Like
Speaker 1: there was really a lot going on. One of the
Speaker 1: biggest things, though, in the minds of the regulators, was
Speaker 1: the Governor William Tryon. He had been appointed Lieutenant Governor
Speaker 1: of North Carolina in seventeen sixty four under Governor Arthur Dobbs,
Speaker 1: but Dobbs retired really soon after that and then died
Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty five. When Tryon became governor, he represented
Speaker 1: the royal prerogative in the colony of North Carolina, and
Speaker 1: soon he established North Carolina's first permanent capital in Newbern,
Speaker 1: which is near the coast and connected to the Atlantic
Speaker 1: by the NEOs River. Tryon planned to build an extravagant
Speaker 1: seat of the government and governor's residence in Newbern. To
Speaker 1: that end, even before leaving England to become Lieutenant governor,
Speaker 1: he had convinced architect John Hawks to join him. Tryon
Speaker 1: made his first request for funding for this project, nicknamed
Speaker 1: Tryon's Palace, on November eight, seventeen sixty six, not long
Speaker 1: after the Assembly allotted five thousand pounds to both buy
Speaker 1: the land and get started on the building. A lot
Speaker 1: of people in the Piedmont thought this was extravagant, and then,
Speaker 1: to make things worse than just the fact that it
Speaker 1: was five thousand pounds to build something that was nicknamed
Speaker 1: a palace, the money to do it was taken from
Speaker 1: a fund that had been established for public schools, and
Speaker 1: then to restore the money back to that fund, the
Speaker 1: Assembly imposed a poll tax and, more importantly, in the
Speaker 1: minds of some people, a levy on alcoholic beverages. That
Speaker 1: was just the beginning, though another ten thousand pounds was
Speaker 1: earmarked for the project two years later, and then when
Speaker 1: it was finally time to open the palace in seventeen seventy,
Speaker 1: Governor Tryon planned a huge gala to celebrate. Tryon's palace
Speaker 1: wasn't the governor's only extravagance. In seventeen sixty seven, he
Speaker 1: mounted an expensive expedition that he personally went on to
Speaker 1: survey and negotiate a new border between North Carolina and
Speaker 1: the Cherokee Nation, and as had happened with Tryon's palace
Speaker 1: taxes were used to pay for this. Settlers who were
Speaker 1: on the wrong side of the line were required to
Speaker 1: move the following January, and the general perception among the
Speaker 1: people of the Piedmont was that Tryon had made this
Speaker 1: a whole lavish production just to draw attention to himself.
Speaker 1: It was described as quote making a splendid exhibition of
Speaker 1: himself to the Indians. The regulators also had a particular
Speaker 1: problem with one of the governor's friends. Edmund Fanning, was
Speaker 1: a great example of the way a small group of
Speaker 1: people were holding a huge amount of power, which we
Speaker 1: touched on before we had our commercial break. And born
Speaker 1: in New York, he was a lawyer, an assemblyman, the
Speaker 1: Register of Deeds of Orange County, and a colonel in
Speaker 1: the militia. He was not at all the only person
Speaker 1: who had multiple titles like this. That crossover among the
Speaker 1: Assembly and the courts and the militia was huge and
Speaker 1: was contributing to the perception that the Piedmont was being
Speaker 1: controlled by a few wealthy people. Fanning was just the
Speaker 1: one who raised the most iyro. There was even a
Speaker 1: song about him, more than one. This is the one
Speaker 1: we're going to read when fanning first to Orange came
Speaker 1: he looked both pale and wan, an old patched coat
Speaker 1: upon his back, an old mare, he wrote on Both
Speaker 1: man and mayor want worth five pounds, as I've been
Speaker 1: often told, but by his civil robberies, he's laced his
Speaker 1: coat with gold. On top of all of this, the
Speaker 1: geography and the taxes, and the representation, and the governor
Speaker 1: and the governor's friend, the colonists and settlers of North
Speaker 1: Carolina were just fractious. The colony went through numerous uprisings
Speaker 1: and rebellions in the decades leading up to this. In
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy seven, Culpeper's Rebellion was an armed uprising, largely
Speaker 1: in response to the Navigation Acts that restricted colonial trade.
Speaker 1: In sixteen eighty nine, colonists arrested corrupt Governor Cess Sothel,
Speaker 1: who was then put on trial and banished by the Assembly.
Speaker 1: The next year, John Gibbs, who replaced Governor Sothel, led
Speaker 1: an armed uprising against his successor and vowed to fight
Speaker 1: him to the death. Then there was Carrie's Rebellion in
Speaker 1: seventeen eleven, which is a lot harder to sum up
Speaker 1: in one sentence. It is named for former Governor Thomas Carey,
Speaker 1: who led an armed rebellion against his successor that was
Speaker 1: rooted in both religion and politics. The first seeds of
Speaker 1: the Regulator movement had started back before Governor Tryon asked
Speaker 1: for that five thousand pounds for his palace. It was
Speaker 1: August seventeen sixty six a group of Quakers met in
Speaker 1: Orange County to talk about all their various grievances, all
Speaker 1: those issues that were connected to taxation and corruption. One
Speaker 1: of them was a man named Hermann husband who's often
Speaker 1: described as one of the leaders of the Regulator movement,
Speaker 1: but it's a little more complicated than that. As a Quaker,
Speaker 1: he could not get behind some of the more violent
Speaker 1: acts that they took, and he really distanced himself from
Speaker 1: the movement as it became more violent. The people that
Speaker 1: met in August of seventeen sixty six called themselves the
Speaker 1: Sandy Creek Association, and they planned to go through the
Speaker 1: more typical, non violent means of trying to get things changed.
Speaker 1: They were going to file petitions, they were going to
Speaker 1: try to get representation in the Assembly, things like that.
Speaker 1: The Sandy Creek Association didn't make a lot of headway
Speaker 1: and escalated to things like refusing to pay taxes. And
Speaker 1: then a law was passed in seventeen sixty eight that
Speaker 1: required sheriffs to be at specific places on specific days
Speaker 1: to collect taxes is rather than just showing up in
Speaker 1: the Piedmont. This made things worse instead of better. Taxpayers
Speaker 1: felt like now the burden was on them to travel
Speaker 1: somewhere to pay taxes, and because the counties then were
Speaker 1: much larger than they are now, this could be a
Speaker 1: very time consuming and expensive inconvenience. The new law also
Speaker 1: didn't do anything to address the many other concerns with
Speaker 1: embezzlement and corruption. Yeah, it seems like having a person
Speaker 1: take their taxes to the sheriff at a specific time
Speaker 1: and place rather than having the sheriff show up and
Speaker 1: demand money, Like it seems like that would be an
Speaker 1: improvement was not really read as an improvement. In the
Speaker 1: early spring of seventeen sixty eight, the Orange County sheriff
Speaker 1: posted a list of all the places that he would
Speaker 1: be to collect the tax along with a fine for
Speaker 1: the people who did not make it to those places
Speaker 1: at the right time, and taxpayers were really angry about this,
Speaker 1: and they thought it might be illegal. By this point
Speaker 1: they had also heard about that additional money that had
Speaker 1: been allotted to build Triumphs Palace. So a group of
Speaker 1: Orange County residents got together. They drafted a letter which
Speaker 1: they sent to all of their various officials. And here
Speaker 1: is what it said. Whereas the taxes in the county
Speaker 1: are larger according to the number of taxables than adjacent counties,
Speaker 1: and continue so year after year, and as the jealousy
Speaker 1: still prevails among us that we are wronged, and having
Speaker 1: the more reason to think so, as we have been
Speaker 1: at the trouble of choosing men and sending them after
Speaker 1: the civilist manner, that we could to know what we
Speaker 1: paid our levee for, but could receive no satisfaction, we
Speaker 1: are obliged to seek redress by denying paying any more
Speaker 1: until we have a full settlement for what is passed
Speaker 1: and have a true regulation with our officers. As our
Speaker 1: grievances are too many to notify in a small piece
Speaker 1: of writing, we desire that you are assemblymen and vestrymen,
Speaker 1: may appoint a time before next court at the courthouse,
Speaker 1: and let us know by the bearer, and we will
Speaker 1: choose men to act for us. We desire that the
Speaker 1: sheriffs will not come this way to collect the levee,
Speaker 1: for we will pay none before there is a settlement
Speaker 1: to our satisfaction. And as the nature of an officer
Speaker 1: is a servant to the public, we are determined to
Speaker 1: have the officers of this county under a better and
Speaker 1: honester regulation than they have been for some time past.
Speaker 1: Think not to frighten us with rebellion in this case,
Speaker 1: For if the inhabitants of this province have not as
Speaker 1: good a right to inquire into the nature of our
Speaker 1: constitution and disbursement of our funds as those of our
Speaker 1: mother country, we think it is by arbitrary proceedings that
Speaker 1: we are debarred of that right. Therefore, to be plain
Speaker 1: with you, it is our intent to have a full
Speaker 1: settlement of yawn in every particular point that is matter
Speaker 1: of doubt with us. So fail not to send an
Speaker 1: answer by the bearer. They're basically refusing to pay any
Speaker 1: taxes until these things are settled. Some cooler headed people
Speaker 1: decided that the language in this initial letter was much
Speaker 1: too aggressive, so they are to have a second meeting,
Speaker 1: And at that second meeting they adopted this set of
Speaker 1: articles that I find to just be delightfully conciliatory. Here's
Speaker 1: what it says. We, the subscribers, do voluntarily agree to
Speaker 1: form ourselves into an association to assemble ourselves for conference
Speaker 1: for regulating public a grievances and abuses of power in
Speaker 1: the following particulars, with others of a like nature that
Speaker 1: may occur. One we will pay no more taxes until
Speaker 1: we are satisfied that they are agreeable to law and
Speaker 1: applied to the purposes therein mentioned, unless we cannot help
Speaker 1: it or are forced. Two we will pay no officer
Speaker 1: any more fees than the law allows, unless we are
Speaker 1: obliged to do it, and then to show our dislike
Speaker 1: and bear open testimony against it. Three we will attend
Speaker 1: all our meetings of conferences as often as we conveniently can,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Four we will contribute to collecs for defraying
Speaker 1: necessary expenses attending the work according to our abilities. Five
Speaker 1: in case of the difference in judgment, we will submit
Speaker 1: to the judgment of the majority of our body. So
Speaker 1: this is a lot more like we're not going to
Speaker 1: pay our taxes unless we have to, but then we
Speaker 1: will complain about it. Both of these documents talked about regulating,
Speaker 1: but the term regulators, as these men came to be known,
Speaker 1: was likely picked up from a similar movement in South
Speaker 1: Carolina that started the year before, although that particular movement
Speaker 1: was more about combating lawlessness than tax reform and government corruption.
Speaker 1: Even though the regulators had tried to walk back that
Speaker 1: first more aggressive statement, it was really too late. That
Speaker 1: statement had already been sent to Orange County's officers, who
Speaker 1: were affronted. But soon things really started to escalate, and
Speaker 1: we will get to that. After another quick sponsor break
Speaker 1: on April fourth, seventeen sixty eight, the regulators called for
Speaker 1: another meeting, this time to ask the sheriff to meet
Speaker 1: with the committee to talk about their grievances. But before
Speaker 1: that meeting could actually happen, one of the regulators Saddle
Speaker 1: and Bridle were seized to pay off a levy. A
Speaker 1: group of regulators went to try to get them back.
Speaker 1: That led to weapons being drawn, but apparently no physical violence.
Speaker 1: Authorities tried to deploy a militia to re seize the
Speaker 1: reclaimed Saddle and Bridle, but not enough people reported for
Speaker 1: duty to go and do this, presumably because they were
Speaker 1: sympathetic to the regulators and didn't want to go take
Speaker 1: up arms against them. Edmund Fanning, having read only that
Speaker 1: first Angrier document, wrote to the governor saying that these
Speaker 1: regulators were going to burn down the Orange County seat
Speaker 1: of Hillsborough. At first, the governor was at least somewhat conciliatory,
Speaker 1: and on April thirtieth, the regulators selected thirteen delegates to
Speaker 1: attend a meeting to discuss their grievances. But before that
Speaker 1: meeting could happen, Fanning had herman husband and a regulator
Speaker 1: named William Butler arrested and jailed, and this just inflamed
Speaker 1: tensions even further. What followed was months and a lot
Speaker 1: of confusion and miscommunication, which is not really surprising considering
Speaker 1: that now there have been two meetings that were thwarted
Speaker 1: by some other action. Local authorities were trying to prosecute
Speaker 1: the regulators, and the regulators were refusing to pay taxes
Speaker 1: and also trying to bring charges against the officials who
Speaker 1: they thought were corrupt. In July, Husband and Butler were
Speaker 1: tried and acquitted for inciting the populace to rebellion. In
Speaker 1: that same court session, Fanning was indicted for taking excessive fees.
Speaker 1: Tryon also traveled to Hillsborough himself during all this, hoping
Speaker 1: that his presence would calm things down, and one of
Speaker 1: the things he had to do was to dispel rumors
Speaker 1: that he was recruiting a Native American fighting force to
Speaker 1: go after the regulators. By August, a new sheriff had
Speaker 1: been appointed in Orange County, and he came bearing a
Speaker 1: letter from the governor condemning the regulators and calling their
Speaker 1: actions illegal. The next month, thirty seven hundred regulators, all
Speaker 1: of them farmers, sent a proposal to the governor. Quote
Speaker 1: desiring to know the terms on which their submission would
Speaker 1: be accepted, they were told that if they surrendered nine
Speaker 1: of their leaders from three counties, laid down their arms,
Speaker 1: and paid all their taxes, they would be pardoned. Only
Speaker 1: about thirty people accepted this agreement, and Tryon sent troops
Speaker 1: to try to track down and arrest some of the
Speaker 1: biggest ring leaders. After all of this, several people were
Speaker 1: put on trial for their involvement with the regulators, and
Speaker 1: those who were convicted paid fines and spent some time
Speaker 1: in prison. But later on the governor pardoned everybody who
Speaker 1: had been found guilty. That summer, he also dissolved the
Speaker 1: assembly and called for a new election with new representatives,
Speaker 1: at which point several men who had sympathies to the
Speaker 1: regulators or had been really involved in the movement were
Speaker 1: all to the assembly. The regulators had little success bringing
Speaker 1: corrupt officials to trial, though Edmund Fanning and another official
Speaker 1: named Francis Nash were both charged with taking illegal fees.
Speaker 1: Nash was ultimately acquitted, while Fanning was convicted but fined
Speaker 1: only one penny for each of the five offenses and
Speaker 1: resigned his post as register of deeds. That Register of
Speaker 1: deeds example we gave earlier in the show where he
Speaker 1: was collecting multiple fees on one transaction, was essentially what
Speaker 1: he was convicted of doing. Convicted, not really punished in
Speaker 1: a very meaningful way. Why penny Yeah, His argument was
Speaker 1: was misconstruction of the law, basically that he had misunderstood
Speaker 1: that this was not allowed, and for punishment he can
Speaker 1: join the Columbia Records Club. That one penny thing is
Speaker 1: a little too much. In November of seventeen sixty nine,
Speaker 1: regulators from multiple counties brought petitions before the Assembly in
Speaker 1: New bern A petition from Anson County called for changes
Speaker 1: to voting rights and taxation, for paper money to be
Speaker 1: issued and loaned on land, or the ability to sue
Speaker 1: for small debts without involving a lawyer. That was important
Speaker 1: to that whole idea that the courts were running up fees.
Speaker 1: If you could just handle small debts without getting a
Speaker 1: lawyer involved, there would be less of that. Reportedly, also
Speaker 1: some changes to how court officials were paid, in particular
Speaker 1: paying them salaries rather than having them paid out of
Speaker 1: the fees. This petition also called for all of the
Speaker 1: religious denominations to have the rights to conduct legal marriages.
Speaker 1: For a long time, only Anglican clergy had been able
Speaker 1: to legally perform marriages in North Carolina, and once Presbyterians
Speaker 1: were also allowed to do it, part of their fees
Speaker 1: were still going to the Anglican Church. The Anson County
Speaker 1: regulators also called for Benjamin Franklin or some other patriot
Speaker 1: to act as the colony's representative in life. London. Regulators
Speaker 1: from Orange and Rowan Counties submitted a very similar petition
Speaker 1: asking for a lot of the same reforms, along with
Speaker 1: calling for the assemblies yea and nay votes to be recorded.
Speaker 1: In response, the Assembly introduced a number of bills meant
Speaker 1: to do several of these very things, although the lower
Speaker 1: House did also pass a resolution that anyone who didn't
Speaker 1: pay taxes was an enemy of the country. But on
Speaker 1: November sixth, seventeen sixty nine, Governor Tryon got back to
Speaker 1: the Assembly after having been ill, he saw these bills
Speaker 1: that had been introduced. He dissolved the Assembly again and
Speaker 1: called for another new election. Once again, though several pro
Speaker 1: regulator people were either elected or reelected. This included Herman
Speaker 1: husband and John Pryor. But back in the Piedmont, many
Speaker 1: of the regulators were incredibly frustrated by this point. They
Speaker 1: had been trying to get issues with taxation and corruption
Speaker 1: resolved for roughly four years. They had no confidence that
Speaker 1: the Assembly was actually going to get new laws passed,
Speaker 1: and it felt like everything that they had tried to
Speaker 1: accomplish so far had been thwarted. So on Saturday September twentieth,
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy, a group of regulators took a petition to
Speaker 1: the Superior Court in Hillsborough. They felt that the juries
Speaker 1: were prejudiced. They wanted the corrupt officers fairly tried, and
Speaker 1: they wanted all these ongoing tax issues to be cleared
Speaker 1: up and fairly settled. They were told to come back
Speaker 1: on Monday, and when they did it was with one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty regulators armed with switches and sticks. They
Speaker 1: took over the courtroom and disrupted the court proceedings, and
Speaker 1: then they surrounded the courthouse, whipping a lawyer in the
Speaker 1: assistant district attorney when they tried to enter the building.
Speaker 1: Then they whipped Edmund Fanning until he finally convinced them
Speaker 1: to let him go home if he promised to come
Speaker 1: back in the morning. He did return in the morning,
Speaker 1: and the regulators ran him out of town and then
Speaker 1: tore down his house. But the judge did not return
Speaker 1: to the courthouse, having fled in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: So the regulators broke into the courtroom and started trying
Speaker 1: cases on the docket themselves. In the words of John
Speaker 1: Spencer Bassett, who wrote a history of all of this
Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety five, quote, whatever we may think of
Speaker 1: the justness of the cause of the regulators, we must
Speaker 1: readily agree that their conduct on this occasion was illegal.
Speaker 1: After these incidents in Hillsborough, Governor Tryon became understandably alarmed
Speaker 1: He asked whether the regulator's actions constituted treason and was
Speaker 1: told that no, they had not. Even so he started
Speaker 1: considering whether he could raise a militia to fight them. Then,
Speaker 1: on November twelfth, Judge Richard Henderson's barn was burned down,
Speaker 1: presumably by regulators. Governor Tryon convened the Assembly to determine
Speaker 1: a course of action. The Assembly expelled herman husband from
Speaker 1: his seat in the Assembly, and he was then put
Speaker 1: in jail. Even though he claimed he had no involvement
Speaker 1: with the regulators at this point and disabout all their actions.
Speaker 1: Regulators in the Piedmont started planning a march to New
Speaker 1: Bern Soon. Johnston's Riot Act was introduced to the Assembly
Speaker 1: and it passed on January fifteenth, seventeen seventy one. It
Speaker 1: was an act for preventing tumultuous and riotous assemblies, and
Speaker 1: for the more speedy and effectually punishing the rioters, and
Speaker 1: for restoring and preserving the public peace of this province.
Speaker 1: It made rioting a felony punishable by death, and it
Speaker 1: authorized the governor to raise a militia to deal with it.
Speaker 1: At the same time, the Assembly also passed several other
Speaker 1: bills relating to things like sheriff's appointments and attorney fees,
Speaker 1: and faster collections of small debts and salaries for the
Speaker 1: Chief Justice. They also divided several of the counties into smaller,
Speaker 1: more manageable ones. All of these reforms related to the
Speaker 1: things that the regulators had been advocating for for so long,
Speaker 1: but rather than waiting to see whether they resolved the situation,
Speaker 1: Governor Tryon took advantage of the Johnson's Riot Act and
Speaker 1: raised a militia. The regulators were outraged at this. The
Speaker 1: existence of the Johnston Riot Act had inflamed tensions even further,
Speaker 1: and the idea that the governor was actually raising a
Speaker 1: militia to come after them raised numerous questions about civil
Speaker 1: liberties and whether the governor was just going to resort
Speaker 1: to violence anytime someone disagreed with them. This militia left
Speaker 1: Newborn in April of seventeen seventy one and arrived in
Speaker 1: Hillsboro on May ninth to find that it was vastly
Speaker 1: outnumbered by the regulators. The militia was also short on ammunition.
Speaker 1: After a powder raid that had been undertaken by nine
Speaker 1: young men dressed as Native Americans. They were later nicknamed
Speaker 1: the Black Boys of Cabaris. Reinforcements arrived on May eleventh,
Speaker 1: which gave the militia a force of about one thousand men.
Speaker 1: They were still outnumbered by the regulators two to one,
Speaker 1: but the militia were much better trained and also better armed.
Speaker 1: On May sixteenth, the regulators were told to disarm themselves
Speaker 1: near Alamance Creek, but before the deadline given to do so,
Speaker 1: the Governor's militia opened fire. This came to be known
Speaker 1: as the Battle of Alimance, and it lasted a couple
Speaker 1: of hours before the regulators ran out of ammunition. Nine
Speaker 1: were killed on each side, although many more regulators were
Speaker 1: wounded than militiamen. This effectively ended the regulator movement, although
Speaker 1: Tryon's militia continued moving through the Piedmont rounding people up
Speaker 1: for some time afterward. One regulator named James Few was
Speaker 1: executed on the spot at the Battle of Alimance to
Speaker 1: set an example, twelve more people were arrested and put
Speaker 1: on trial. The six who were convicted were executed for
Speaker 1: treason on June nineteenth, seventeen seventy one. Here is the
Speaker 1: sentencing of one of them. A man named Benjamin Merrill. Quote.
Speaker 1: I must now close by afflicting duty by pronouncing upon
Speaker 1: you the awful sentence of law, which is that you,
Speaker 1: Benjamin Merrill, be carried to the place from whence you came.
Speaker 1: That you be drawn from thence to the place of execution,
Speaker 1: where you are to be hanged by the neck. That
Speaker 1: you be cut down, while yet alive, That your bowels
Speaker 1: be taken out and burnt before your face, That your
Speaker 1: head be cut off, that your body be divided into
Speaker 1: four quarters. And this to be at His Majesty's disposal.
Speaker 1: And the Lord have mercy on your soul. After all this,
Speaker 1: nearly sixty five hundred settlers in the Piedmont were made
Speaker 1: to swear allegiance to the government. This was about three
Speaker 1: quarters of the white men in the more remote parts
Speaker 1: of the colony, and afterward many former regulators left North Carolina,
Speaker 1: many of them settling near the Watauga River in what
Speaker 1: would become East Tennessee. Tryon got back to newbern in
Speaker 1: June of seventeen seventy one, but then he left the
Speaker 1: colony not long after that to become Governor of New York.
Speaker 1: Fanning went with him to be his personal secretary. Both
Speaker 1: Tryon and Fanning were on the Loyalist side in the
Speaker 1: Revolutionary War. Tryon died in London in seventeen eighty eight,
Speaker 1: and Fanning died in eighteen eighteen. Herman husband fled to Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: where he was part of the Wor Whiskey Rebellion, for
Speaker 1: which he was convicted and condemned to death, but then
Speaker 1: later freed. He died in seventeen ninety five. As for
Speaker 1: Tryon's palace, his successor, Josiah Martin, furnished it really extravagantly,
Speaker 1: but then he fled the capitol in May of seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy six out of fear of the Revolutionary War. The
Speaker 1: state government took control of the building in seventeen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: although it was again abandoned as the war went on.
Speaker 1: The building was also damaged when large amounts of lead
Speaker 1: that had been used in its construction were torn out
Speaker 1: of it and made it to musket balls. The state
Speaker 1: capitol was moved to Raleigh in seventeen ninety two, at
Speaker 1: which point Tryon's Palace had been damaged by vandals and squatters.
Speaker 1: It burned down on February twenty seventh, seventeen ninety eight.
Speaker 1: It was restored and rebuilt in the nineteen fifties and
Speaker 1: is now just known as Tryon Palace without the s.
Speaker 1: Some historians argue that the regulator movement was a precursor
Speaker 1: to the Revolutionary War, especially given in how much of
Speaker 1: the dispute was between ordinary farmers and the royal governor,
Speaker 1: and how many of the same or similar grievances were
Speaker 1: shared between the regulators and the patriots. In addition to
Speaker 1: taxation and representation and other issues that we discussed, Tryon
Speaker 1: supported the British government when it came to the Stamp
Speaker 1: Act of seventeen sixty five, and had refused to allow
Speaker 1: a delegation from North Carolina to attend the Stamp Act
Speaker 1: Congress that October. And this whole incident does seem to
Speaker 1: have inspired some of the patriots in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: but it does not appear that most of the regulators
Speaker 1: became involved in the revolution themselves. None of this is
Speaker 1: anything that I would have gleaned from watching Outlander, because
Speaker 1: as we all know, Outlander is not really a source
Speaker 1: of historical accuracy. That is not its mission. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining us on this Saturday if you'd like
Speaker 1: to send us a note, Our email addresses History Podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe to the
Speaker 1: show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.