Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. 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, uh, it would be a good time to
Speaker 1: do an episode on the Regulator War also known as
Speaker 1: the 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 in with our
Speaker 1: installment on the Jacobite Rising of seventy. Yeah, I'll confess
Speaker 1: that part of me wanted this to be some very
Speaker 1: weird steampunky because it does. The name sounds so good.
Speaker 1: It does. And one of the things that currently is
Speaker 1: a bit of a challenge this will all be sorted
Speaker 1: out by the time this episode comes out, is finding
Speaker 1: the artwork to go with it on our website, because
Speaker 1: I keep getting these strange uh not. I mean, they're beautiful,
Speaker 1: some of them, but they're definitely steampunk inspired watches and
Speaker 1: not and not anything to do with the actual historical
Speaker 1: event now. And I also do I do want to
Speaker 1: say right up here at the top that there is
Speaker 1: really a lot to unpack with this season of Outlander
Speaker 1: in terms of its representation of a number of people's
Speaker 1: and that is not what today's episode is about at all,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot there, so I just wanted to
Speaker 1: acknowledge that it exists. I have not been watching, so
Speaker 1: I have no idea, but to make sense of this
Speaker 1: whole series of events we're talking about, we first need
Speaker 1: to get into some North Carolina geography. North Carolina is
Speaker 1: divided into three geographical regions from west to east. They
Speaker 1: are the Mountains, the Piedmont, and the coastal Plain. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the coastal plain is even further divided into the inner
Speaker 1: coastal plain and the tide water. Naturally, when Europeans started
Speaker 1: colonizing this part of North America, they started out along
Speaker 1: the coastal plain. And it's not just because that's where
Speaker 1: they landed. Aside from the swampy bits, the coastal plains
Speaker 1: soil is really soft and flat and rich. It's not
Speaker 1: particularly rocky. This part of the continent has navigable rivers
Speaker 1: that are really good for carrying things can force to
Speaker 1: the ocean. And overall, this was a lot of what
Speaker 1: would become North Carolina's best farmland, and it was a
Speaker 1: place where wealthy planters started establishing big plantations with enslaved workforces.
Speaker 1: The coastal Plain is separated from the adjacent Piedmont by
Speaker 1: a geological boundary known as the fall line. This is
Speaker 1: basically a dividing line between the harder, rockier, more clay
Speaker 1: like Piedmont and the softer, sandy or coastal plaine. In
Speaker 1: addition to the differences in the soil and farming conditions
Speaker 1: on either side of the line. Rivers crossing the line
Speaker 1: descend through waterfalls and rapids, making them impractical too impossible
Speaker 1: to use to transport people and goods. There are of
Speaker 1: course fall lines all over the world, and in terms
Speaker 1: of the Atlantic Seaboard fall Line, it runs from New
Speaker 1: York to Georgia. Yeah, you could still certainly grow things
Speaker 1: in the Piedmont, but it was harder, and then it
Speaker 1: was harder to get them anywhere, a little bit of
Speaker 1: a disadvantage. It makes me think of the various stories
Speaker 1: we've done on on things like, um, I think Brook
Speaker 1: Farm had this problem the brook Farm community where they
Speaker 1: were like, we're going to go start a thing where
Speaker 1: no one else is doing stuff. We're gonna farm here,
Speaker 1: and it's like, no one else is farming here for
Speaker 1: a reason. It is made of rocks. Also, just to
Speaker 1: clear up a little geographical confusion for Outlander viewers who
Speaker 1: might be trying to imagine where all of this is
Speaker 1: happening in relation to the TV show, the fictional Fraser's
Speaker 1: Ridge is in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest North Carolina,
Speaker 1: somewhere near the real places of Boone and blowing Rock,
Speaker 1: and that is on the opposite end of the state
Speaker 1: from Wilmington's which is out on the southeastern coast, roughly
Speaker 1: three hundred miles or four eighty kilometers away. Fraser's Ridge
Speaker 1: also would not be very close to Cross Creek or
Speaker 1: the Cape Beer River, which is home to the show's
Speaker 1: fictional plantation of River Run. That is roughly two hundred
Speaker 1: miles or three kilometers. Today, you would measure it from
Speaker 1: roughly Boone to Fayetteville, which is what Cross Creek is
Speaker 1: known as today. The kind of makes it look like
Speaker 1: these places are all next door to each other. They
Speaker 1: are not. This geography might seem like a weird thing
Speaker 1: to be spending all this much time on, but in
Speaker 1: colonial North Carolina, the division between the Piedmont and the
Speaker 1: coastal plain contributed to huge divisions among the colonists and
Speaker 1: between the colonists and the government. At first, the vast
Speaker 1: majority of colonial activity was happening out on the coastal plain,
Speaker 1: with mostly English colonists, and they were arriving by boat,
Speaker 1: either from Europe or from other colonies. But in the
Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds that really started to change. The western part
Speaker 1: of the colony experienced a huge population boom. Newcomers were
Speaker 1: arriving in the mountains and the Piedmont along the Great
Speaker 1: Wagon Road also known as the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road.
Speaker 1: This had started out as a trading route that was
Speaker 1: being used by eastern North America's native peoples, and it
Speaker 1: ran from Philadelphia down to Georgia. By the eighteenth century,
Speaker 1: it had been widened to accommodate wagons in some places
Speaker 1: had been shifted to cross rivers and to get around
Speaker 1: obstacles more easily. Many of these new arrivals were Scots,
Speaker 1: Irish or German, and while most of the English colonists
Speaker 1: out on the coast were Anglican, the Scots, Irish and
Speaker 1: German people arriving in North Carolina included a lot more Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers,
Speaker 1: and Moravians. So from settlement to settlement, or even within settlements,
Speaker 1: people often didn't speak the same language or follow the
Speaker 1: same religious practices and observances, and as a general trend,
Speaker 1: the Piedmont was much poorer than the coast, with most
Speaker 1: people scratching out a living as subsistence farmers rather than
Speaker 1: running large plantations. The influx of Europeans to the Piedmont
Speaker 1: was huge. North Carolina's population more than doubled between seventeen
Speaker 1: thirty and seventeen fifty, and then nearly tripled in the
Speaker 1: twenty years after that. Most of these new arrivals were
Speaker 1: settling in what was known then as the back counties.
Speaker 1: That was the Piedmont, which is at the time considered
Speaker 1: the North Carolina Frontier. This combination of geography and demographics
Speaker 1: led to many problems people in the Piedmont and the mountains,
Speaker 1: but our focus for this is really the Piedmont. In
Speaker 1: this episode, uh thought that they were being unfairly taxed
Speaker 1: because various taxes were levied at the same rate there
Speaker 1: as they were out on the coast, where people had
Speaker 1: more money. Settlers in the Piedmont were also represented in
Speaker 1: the Assembly, but those Assembly seats had not been reapportioned
Speaker 1: in light of the population boom, so the Piedmont settlers
Speaker 1: also felt that they weren't really being fairly represented in
Speaker 1: the Assembly either. A lot of local political and court
Speaker 1: offices were being filled by appointment, either by the monarch
Speaker 1: or by the governor or by the Assembly. A lot
Speaker 1: of these appointees were wealthy and powerful people from the
Speaker 1: coast or friends of theirs. So, together with the tax issues,
Speaker 1: that really led to a perception that the Piedmont did
Speaker 1: not matter to the Assembly or to the governor except
Speaker 1: when it came to being taxed, and even when there
Speaker 1: was some local control roll over who was in charge.
Speaker 1: The government and courts were very cliquish. Technically, most officials
Speaker 1: were appointed by the governor, but in many cases the
Speaker 1: governor made these appointments based on the recommendations of the
Speaker 1: court itself, so those officers would recommend themselves and their friends,
Speaker 1: ultimately creating a courthouse ring where the same powerful people
Speaker 1: were always in control of local politics and the legal system.
Speaker 1: The existence of these courthouse rings wasn't necessarily the biggest
Speaker 1: problem in people's minds. A bigger issue in the Piedmont
Speaker 1: was that those legal and political positions went from being
Speaker 1: held by farmers and planters to being held by lawyers
Speaker 1: and merchants. So it seems like all the political power
Speaker 1: had increasingly moved toward these wealthy outsiders, a lot of
Speaker 1: them either from the coast or connected to people from
Speaker 1: the coast, and all of them in cahoots to stay
Speaker 1: in power. And it also seemed like they were in
Speaker 1: cahoots to take advantage of people. There were laws meant
Speaker 1: to keep officials from abusing their positions, but they were
Speaker 1: not consistently enforced, and people had to handle a lot
Speaker 1: of matters through the court, everything from filing deeds to
Speaker 1: trying to collect debts. The widespread perception was that everyone
Speaker 1: from lawyers to clerks was making things take longer and
Speaker 1: running up fees just to line their own pockets. For example,
Speaker 1: if you were trying to file something with the Register
Speaker 1: of Deeds, he might tax you three times, once for
Speaker 1: each of the forms necessary to finish the transaction, rather
Speaker 1: than just once for the whole transaction you were trying
Speaker 1: to do. As another example of all this, people did
Speaker 1: not trust the sheriffs at all. One of the sheriff's
Speaker 1: duties was to collect the taxes, and here's how people
Speaker 1: thought this process generally went down. It's clear that sometimes
Speaker 1: the process did go down this way. Not clear whether
Speaker 1: it happened every time, but this was how when somebody
Speaker 1: said the sheriff's coming to collect the tax people just
Speaker 1: sort of thought, Okay, this is how this is going
Speaker 1: to happen. The sheriff would show up and demand the
Speaker 1: tax but the taxpayer would not have the cash on
Speaker 1: hand to actually pay it, because people didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of need to carry cash, and there was also
Speaker 1: a serious shortage of actual physical currency to pay things with.
Speaker 1: But most communities did have somebody who would keep cash
Speaker 1: and basically acted like a banker, So the taxpayer would
Speaker 1: ask to go see that person to get some money,
Speaker 1: and the sheriff would refuse and seize some of their
Speaker 1: property instead. I love that people just presume this is
Speaker 1: how the process works, like there's a horrible flow chart
Speaker 1: that ends with property seized. Um. People, though, did not
Speaker 1: want to pay their taxes in property arbitrarily seized by
Speaker 1: the sheriff. If it had to be paid, they wanted
Speaker 1: to pay it with something of known value, like money.
Speaker 1: So then taxpayers would try to negotiate, asking if they
Speaker 1: could get their property back if they went and got
Speaker 1: some money and then caught up to the sheriff down
Speaker 1: the road, and the sheriff might even agree to this,
Speaker 1: but then disappear. Later on, the taxpayer might hear that
Speaker 1: his property had been sold off for much less than
Speaker 1: it was worth, so he would still owe money. And
Speaker 1: it was not just the taxpayers who thought that they
Speaker 1: 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 sheriff's had embezzled half of the
Speaker 1: money that they had been charged with collecting. Another thing,
Speaker 1: the Piedmont settlers were unhappy with Governor Tryon. And we're
Speaker 1: gonna 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 Dobs,
Speaker 1: but Dobbs retired really soon after that and then died
Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty five. When Trion 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 New Bern.
Speaker 1: To 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 a, seventeen sixty six. Not long
Speaker 1: after the Assembly allotted five thousand pounds to both by
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 one 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: five thousand pounds was just the beginning, though another ten
Speaker 1: thousand pounds was earmarked for the project two years later,
Speaker 1: and then when it was finally time to open the
Speaker 1: palace in seventeen seventy, Governor Tryon planned a huge gala
Speaker 1: to celebrate. Tryon's palace wasn't the governor's only extravagance. In
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty seven, he mounted an expensive expedition that he
Speaker 1: personally went on to survey and negotiate a new border
Speaker 1: between North Carolina and the Cherokee Nation, and as had
Speaker 1: happened with Triump's Palace, taxes were used to pay for this.
Speaker 1: Settlers who were on the wrong side of the line
Speaker 1: were required to move the following January, and the general
Speaker 1: perception among the people of the Piedmont was that Tryon
Speaker 1: had made this a whole lavish production just to draw
Speaker 1: attention to himself. That was described as quote making a
Speaker 1: splendid exhibition of himself to the Indians. The regulators also
Speaker 1: had a particular problem with one of the governor's friends,
Speaker 1: Edmund Fanning. Fanning was a great example of the way
Speaker 1: a small group of people were holding a huge amount
Speaker 1: of power, which we touched on before we had our
Speaker 1: commercial break and born in New York, he was a lawyer,
Speaker 1: an assemblyman, the Register of Deeds of Orange County, and
Speaker 1: a colonel in the militia. He was not at all
Speaker 1: the only person who had multiple titles like this. That
Speaker 1: crossover among the Assembly and the courts and the militia
Speaker 1: was huge and was contributing to the perception that the
Speaker 1: Piedmont was being controlled by a few wealthy people. Fanning
Speaker 1: was just the one who raised the most ire. There
Speaker 1: was even a song about him, more than one. This
Speaker 1: is the one we're going to read. When Fanning first
Speaker 1: to Orange came, he looked both pale and wan, an
Speaker 1: old patched coat upon his back, an old mayor. He
Speaker 1: wrote on both man and mayor want worth five pounds,
Speaker 1: as I've been offense hold, but by his civil robberies,
Speaker 1: He's laced his coat with gold. On top of all
Speaker 1: of this, the geography and the taxes, and the representation,
Speaker 1: and the governor and the governor's friend, the colonists and
Speaker 1: settlers of North Carolina were just fractious. The colony went
Speaker 1: through numerous uprisings and rebellions in the decades leading up
Speaker 1: to this. In sixteen seventy seven, Culpepper's rebellion was an
Speaker 1: armed uprising largely in response to the Navigation Acts that
Speaker 1: restricted colonial trade. In sixteen eighty nine, colonists arrested corrupt
Speaker 1: Governor Says Sawthel, who was then put on trial and
Speaker 1: banished by the Assembly. The next year, John Gibbs, who
Speaker 1: replaced Governor Sauthel, led an armed uprising against his successor
Speaker 1: and vowed to fight him to the death. Then there
Speaker 1: was Carrie's Rebellion in seventeen eleven, which is a lot
Speaker 1: harder to sum up in one sentence. It is named
Speaker 1: for former Governor Thomas Ry, who led an armed rebellion
Speaker 1: against his successor that was rooted in both religion and politics.
Speaker 1: The first seeds of the regulator movement had started back
Speaker 1: before Governor Tryon asked for that five thousand pounds for
Speaker 1: his palace. It was August seventeen sixty six a group
Speaker 1: of Quakers met in Orange County to talk about all
Speaker 1: their various grievances, all those issues that were connected to
Speaker 1: taxation and corruption. One of them was a man named
Speaker 1: Herman Husband, who's often described as one of the leaders
Speaker 1: of the Regulator movement. It's a little more complicated than that.
Speaker 1: As a Quaker, he could not get behind some of
Speaker 1: the more violent acts that they took, and he really
Speaker 1: distanced himself from the movement as it became more violent.
Speaker 1: The people that met in August of seventeen sixty six
Speaker 1: called themselves the Sandy Creek Association, and they planned to
Speaker 1: go through the more typical, non violent means of trying
Speaker 1: to get things changed. They were going to file petitions,
Speaker 1: they were going to try to get representation in the Assembly,
Speaker 1: things like that. The same New Creek Association didn't make
Speaker 1: a lot of headway and escalated to things like refusing
Speaker 1: to pay taxes. And then a law was passed in
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty eight that required sheriffs to be at specific
Speaker 1: places on specific days to collect taxes, rather than just
Speaker 1: showing up in the Piedmont. This made things worse instead
Speaker 1: of better. Taxpayers felt like now the burden was on
Speaker 1: them to travel somewhere to pay taxes, and because the
Speaker 1: counties then were much larger than they are now, this
Speaker 1: could be a very time consuming and expensive inconvenience. The
Speaker 1: new law also didn't do anything to address the many
Speaker 1: other concerns with embezzlement and corruption. Yeah, it seems like
Speaker 1: having a person take their taxes to the sheriff at
Speaker 1: a specific time and place, rather than having the sheriff
Speaker 1: show up and demand money. Like it seems like that
Speaker 1: would be an improvement, was not really read as an improvement.
Speaker 1: In the early spring of seventeen sixty eight, the Orange
Speaker 1: County sheriff posted a list of all the places that
Speaker 1: he would be collect the tax, along with a fine
Speaker 1: for the people who did not make it to those
Speaker 1: places at the right time. And taxpayers were really angry
Speaker 1: about this, and they thought it might be illegal. By
Speaker 1: this point, they had also heard about that additional money
Speaker 1: that had been allotted to build Triumphs Palace. So a
Speaker 1: group of Orange County residents got together. They drafted a
Speaker 1: letter which they sent to all of their various officials,
Speaker 1: and here is what it said. Whereas the taxes in
Speaker 1: the county are larger according to the number of taxables
Speaker 1: than adjacent counties, and continue so year after year, and
Speaker 1: as the jealousy still prevails among us that we are wronged,
Speaker 1: and having the more reason to think so, as we
Speaker 1: have been at the trouble of choosing men and sending
Speaker 1: them after the civilist manner, that we could to know
Speaker 1: what we paid our levy for. But could receive no satisfaction.
Speaker 1: We are obliged to seek redress by denying paying anymore
Speaker 1: until we have a full settlement for what has 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 levy,
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 arranged 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 aggrievances and abuses of power in the
Speaker 1: following particulars, with others of a like nature that may occur.
Speaker 1: One we will pay no more taxes until we are
Speaker 1: satisfied that they are agreeable to law and applied to
Speaker 1: the purposes therein mentioned, unless we cannot help it or
Speaker 1: are forced. Two, we will pay no officer any more
Speaker 1: fees than the law allows, unless we are a i
Speaker 1: to do it, and then to show our dislike and
Speaker 1: bear open testimony against it. Three, we will attend all
Speaker 1: our meetings of conferences as often as we conveniently can,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Four, we will contribute to collections for defraying
Speaker 1: necessary expenses attending the work according to our abilities. Five
Speaker 1: in case of the difference and 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 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 four, seventy, the regulators called for another meeting,
Speaker 1: this time to ask the sheriff to meet with the
Speaker 1: committee to talk about their grievances, but before that meeting
Speaker 1: could actually happen, one of the regulators saddle and bridle
Speaker 1: were seized to pay off the levy. A group of
Speaker 1: regulators went to try to get them back. That led
Speaker 1: to weapons being drawn, but apparently no physical violence. Authorities
Speaker 1: tried to deploy a militia to reseize the reclaimed saddle
Speaker 1: and bridle, but not enough people reported for duty to
Speaker 1: go and do this, presumably because they were sympathetic to
Speaker 1: the regulators and didn't want to go take up arms
Speaker 1: against them. Edmund Fanning, having read only that first angry
Speaker 1: Or document, wrote to the governor saying that these regular
Speaker 1: leaders were going to burn down the Orange County seat
Speaker 1: of Hillsboro. At first, the governor was at least somewhat conciliatory,
Speaker 1: and on April the regulators selected thirteen delegates to attend
Speaker 1: a meeting to discuss their grievances. But before that meeting
Speaker 1: could happen, Fanning had herman husband, and a regulator named
Speaker 1: William Butler arrested and jailed, and this just inflamed tensions
Speaker 1: even further. What followed was months and a lot of
Speaker 1: confusion and miscommunication, which is not really surprising considering that
Speaker 1: now there have been two meetings that were thwarted by
Speaker 1: some other action. Local authorities were trying to prosecute the regulators,
Speaker 1: and the regulators were refusing to pay taxes and also
Speaker 1: trying to bring charges against the officials who they thought
Speaker 1: were corrupt. In July, Husband and Butler were tried and
Speaker 1: acquitted for inciting the populace to rebellion, and that same
Speaker 1: court session, Fanning was indicted for taking excessive fees. Try
Speaker 1: On also traveled to Hillsboro himself off during all this,
Speaker 1: hoping that his presence would calm things down, and one
Speaker 1: of the things he had to do was to dispel
Speaker 1: rumors that he was recruiting a Native American fighting force
Speaker 1: to go after the regulators. By August, a new sheriff
Speaker 1: had been appointed in Orange County, and he came bearing
Speaker 1: a letter from the governor condemning the regulators and calling
Speaker 1: their actions illegal. The next month, regulators, all of them farmers,
Speaker 1: sent a proposal to the governor. Quote desiring to know
Speaker 1: the terms on which their submission would be accepted, they
Speaker 1: were told that if they surrendered, nine of their leaders
Speaker 1: from three counties laid down their arms and paid all
Speaker 1: their taxes, they would be pardoned. Only about thirty people
Speaker 1: accepted this agreement, and tryon sent troops to try to
Speaker 1: track down and arrest some of the biggest ring leaders.
Speaker 1: After all of this, several people were put on trial
Speaker 1: for their involvement with the regulators, and those who were
Speaker 1: convicted paid fine and spent some time in prison, But
Speaker 1: later on the governor pardoned everybody who had been found guilty.
Speaker 1: That summer, he also dissolved the assembly and called for
Speaker 1: a new election with new representatives, at which point several
Speaker 1: men who had sympathies to the regulators or had been
Speaker 1: really involved in the movement were elected to the Assembly.
Speaker 1: The regulators had little success bringing corrupt officials to trial,
Speaker 1: though Edmund Fanning and another official named Francis Nash were
Speaker 1: both charged with taking illegal fees. Nash was ultimately acquitted,
Speaker 1: while Fanning was convicted but find only one penny for
Speaker 1: each of the five offenses and resigned his post as
Speaker 1: register of deeds. That Register of Deeds example we gave
Speaker 1: earlier in the show, where he was collecting multiple fees
Speaker 1: on one transaction, was essentially what he was convicted of doing. Convicted,
Speaker 1: but not really punished in a very meaningful way penny.
Speaker 1: His His argument was was misconstruction of the law. Basically
Speaker 1: that he had he had misunderstood that this was not allowed,
Speaker 1: and for punishment he can join the Columbia Records Club.
Speaker 1: One penny thing is a little too much. In November
Speaker 1: of seventeen sixty nine, regulators from multiple counties brought petitions
Speaker 1: before the Assembly in New bern A petition from Anson
Speaker 1: County called for changes to voting rights and taxation, for
Speaker 1: paper money to be issued and loaned on land, for
Speaker 1: the ability to sue for small debts without involving a lawyer.
Speaker 1: That was important to that whole idea that the courts
Speaker 1: were running up bees. If you could just handle small
Speaker 1: debts without getting a lawyer involved, there would be less
Speaker 1: of that. Reportedly, also some changes to how court officials
Speaker 1: were paid, in particular paying them salaries rather than having
Speaker 1: them paid out of the fees. This petition also called
Speaker 1: for all of the religious denominations to have the rights
Speaker 1: to conduct legal marriages. For a long time, only Anglican
Speaker 1: clergy had been able to legally perform marriages in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: uh and once Presbyterians were also allowed to do it.
Speaker 1: Part of their fees were still going to the Anglican Church.
Speaker 1: The Anson County regulators also called for Benjamin Franklin or
Speaker 1: some other patriot to act as the colony's representative in London.
Speaker 1: Regulators from Orange and Royanne 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 six, 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 have 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
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy, a group of regulators took a petition to
Speaker 1: the Superior Court in Hillsboro. 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 a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty regulators armed with switches and sticks. They
Speaker 1: took over the courtroom and disrected the court proceedings, and
Speaker 1: then they surrounded the courthouse, whipping a lawyer and 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 quote,
Speaker 1: whatever we may think of the justness of the cause
Speaker 1: of the Regulators, we must readily agree that their conduct
Speaker 1: on this occasion was illegal. After these incidents in Hillsborough,
Speaker 1: Governor Tryon became understandably alarmed. He asked whether the Regulator's
Speaker 1: actions constituted treason and was told that no, that not.
Speaker 1: Even so he started considering whether he could raise a
Speaker 1: militia to fight them. Then, on November twelve, Judge Richard
Speaker 1: Henderson's barn was burned down, presumably by regulators. Governor Tryon
Speaker 1: convened the Assembly to determine a course of action. The
Speaker 1: Assembly expect old Herman husband from his seat in the Assembly,
Speaker 1: and he was then put in jail, even though he
Speaker 1: claimed he had no involvement with the Regulators at this
Speaker 1: point and disabout all their actions. Regulators and the Piedmont
Speaker 1: started planning a march to New Bern. Soon, Johnston's Riot
Speaker 1: Act was introduced to the Assembly and it passed on
Speaker 1: January fifteen, seventeen seventy one. It was an Act for
Speaker 1: preventing tumultuous and riotous assemblies, and for the more speedy
Speaker 1: and effectually punishing the rioters, and for restoring and preserving
Speaker 1: the public peace of this Province. It made rioting a
Speaker 1: felony punishable by death, and it authorized the governor to
Speaker 1: raise a militia to deal with it. At the same time,
Speaker 1: the Assembly also passed several other bills relating to things
Speaker 1: like sheriff's appointments and attorney fees, and faster collections of
Speaker 1: small debts and salaries for the Chief Justice. They also
Speaker 1: divided several of the counties into smaller, more manageable ones.
Speaker 1: All of these reforms related to the things that the
Speaker 1: regulators had been advocating for for so long, but rather
Speaker 1: than waiting to see whether they resolved the situation, Governor
Speaker 1: Tryon took advantage of the Johnson's Riot Act and raised
Speaker 1: a militia. The regulators were outraged at this. The existence
Speaker 1: 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 him. This militia left
Speaker 1: Newbern in April of seventeen seventy one and arrived in
Speaker 1: Hillsboro on May nine 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 Alamance, 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 Alamance. 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 seventeen seventy one. Here is the sentencing
Speaker 1: of one of them, a man named Benjamin Merrill. Quote.
Speaker 1: I must now close by afflict 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 d settlers in the Piedmont were made to
Speaker 1: swear allegiance to the government. This was about three quarters
Speaker 1: of the white men in the more remote parts of
Speaker 1: 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 New Burn
Speaker 1: in June of seventeen seventy one, but then he left
Speaker 1: the colony not long after that to become Governor of
Speaker 1: New York. Fanning went with him to be his personal secretary.
Speaker 1: Both Tryon and Fanning were on the Loyalist side in
Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War. Trion 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 Whiskey Rebellion, for which
Speaker 1: he was convicted and condemned to death, but then later freed.
Speaker 1: He died in seventeen nine. As for Tryon's palace, his successor,
Speaker 1: Josiah Martin, furnished it really extravagantly, but then he fled
Speaker 1: the capital in May of seventeen seventy six out of
Speaker 1: fear of the Revolutionary War. The state government took control
Speaker 1: of the building in seventeen seventy seven, although it was
Speaker 1: again abandoned as the war went on. The building was
Speaker 1: also damaged when large amounts of lead that had been
Speaker 1: used in its construction were torn out of it and
Speaker 1: made into musket balls. The state capital was moved to
Speaker 1: Raleigh in seventeen ninety two, at which point Trion's Palace
Speaker 1: had been damaged by vandals and squatters. It burned down
Speaker 1: on February seven. It was restored and rebuilt in the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties and is now just known as Tryon Palace
Speaker 1: without the s. Some historians argue that the regulator movement
Speaker 1: was a precursor to the Revolutionary War, especially given how
Speaker 1: much of the dispute was between ordinary farmers and the
Speaker 1: royal governor, and how many of the same or similar
Speaker 1: grievances were shared between the regulators and the patriots. In
Speaker 1: addition to taxation and representation and other issues that we discussed.
Speaker 1: Tryon supported the British government when it came to the
Speaker 1: Stamp Act of seventeen sixty five, and had refused to
Speaker 1: allow a delegation from North Carolina to attend the Stamp
Speaker 1: Act Congress that October. And this whole incident does seem
Speaker 1: to 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. Uh that is, that is not its mission.
Speaker 1: You have listener mail for us, I sure do. This
Speaker 1: is from John. John says, I just finished your two
Speaker 1: part episode on so Journal Truth and really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: I teach high school history and have used some of
Speaker 1: your podcast episodes in the past for source material as
Speaker 1: well as some lessons for my students. Thank you for
Speaker 1: always citing your sources. That is a lesson we try
Speaker 1: to get across to our students, and it is nice
Speaker 1: to you reinforce that. This past summer, I took a
Speaker 1: course on American protest and we were looking at some
Speaker 1: photographs that were sold during the abolitionist movement, including some
Speaker 1: of so Journal Truth. One of the photos that Truth
Speaker 1: posed for was her holding some yarn with a string
Speaker 1: of yarn on her lap. In the outline of the
Speaker 1: United States, you can infer that the nation is becoming
Speaker 1: untangled over the issue of slavery. I included a link
Speaker 1: to the photo and an online source. I thought you
Speaker 1: would enjoy that fact. I also included a link to
Speaker 1: an article on knitting and social activism for you, hoping
Speaker 1: you would enjoy it. Thank you both for your enthusiasm
Speaker 1: and passion for history, Sincerely, John, Thanks so much John
Speaker 1: for this uh for this email. That photo is really
Speaker 1: interesting because it's not possible for us to really know
Speaker 1: whether the yarn was intentionally draped out that way, um
Speaker 1: because it does kind of resemble the United States. But
Speaker 1: also people are primed to see patterns and things. Uh So,
Speaker 1: regardless of whether that was part of the initial intent
Speaker 1: of the photographer, it does make it a really striking image. UM.
Speaker 1: For that and other reasons, there are also a lot
Speaker 1: of very interesting articles about those particular photos and how
Speaker 1: they were posed and how they were framed and sort
Speaker 1: of the more staged aspects to them and what they
Speaker 1: all mean. It is super interesting for folks who were
Speaker 1: interested in um like the history of photography and the
Speaker 1: history of pick sure's, as like political meanings and even propaganda.
Speaker 1: It's all tied together. So thanks so much John for
Speaker 1: that note. If you would like to write to us
Speaker 1: about this or any other podcast, we are at History
Speaker 1: Podcasts at how Stuff Works. Dot com, and then we're
Speaker 1: all over social media at missed in History. That is
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Speaker 1: that I left off. If you would like to come
Speaker 1: to our website, which is missed in history dot com,
Speaker 1: you will find up at the top of the page
Speaker 1: where it says Paris trip exclamation point, information about the
Speaker 1: trip we are taking to Paris later this year that
Speaker 1: you can go on. UH. You can also find a
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Speaker 1: you can find all of the show notes for the
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