WEBVTT - The Regulator War 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.080 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:13.600 Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.960 I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. If you 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:21.040 have been watching the fourth season of the TV show Outlander, 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.360 one of the things that keeps coming up is that 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:28.400 there are some rebellious people in colonial North Carolina who 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.920 are called the Regulators, and that they're mad about something 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.760 about unfair taxes and corruption. The show doesn't really make 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.720 it all that clear. This season of Outlander was roughly 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.400 based on the novel Drums of Autumn, which, to be clear, 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.440 I haven't read. I also haven't read the next novel 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:47.960 after that one, which is called The Fiery Cross. And 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:51.720 this episode is being recorded before the last episode of 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:53.360 this season of the TV show, but it's gonna come 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.080 out after, so I don't have any idea what's happening 0:00:56.080 --> 0:01:00.360 in the season finale, but it seemed like with all 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.080 of this, uh, it would be a good time to 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.200 do an episode on the Regulator War also known as 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.720 the War of the Regulation, also known as the Regulator Movement, 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.280 which is something that people started asking us to do 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:14.920 all the way back during the last time we did 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.520 an Outlander themed episode, and that was in with our 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:23.840 installment on the Jacobite Rising of seventy. Yeah, I'll confess 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:25.880 that part of me wanted this to be some very 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:31.199 weird steampunky because it does. The name sounds so good. 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.000 It does. And one of the things that currently is 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:36.720 a bit of a challenge this will all be sorted 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:39.280 out by the time this episode comes out, is finding 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.560 the artwork to go with it on our website, because 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:47.240 I keep getting these strange uh not. I mean, they're beautiful, 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.080 some of them, but they're definitely steampunk inspired watches and 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.480 not and not anything to do with the actual historical 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.280 event now. And I also do I do want to 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.080 say right up here at the top that there is 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.840 really a lot to unpack with this season of Outlander 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.480 in terms of its representation of a number of people's 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.799 and that is not what today's episode is about at all, 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:12.280 but there's a lot there, so I just wanted to 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:15.480 acknowledge that it exists. I have not been watching, so 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.960 I have no idea, but to make sense of this 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.760 whole series of events we're talking about, we first need 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:25.480 to get into some North Carolina geography. North Carolina is 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:29.080 divided into three geographical regions from west to east. They 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:33.200 are the Mountains, the Piedmont, and the coastal Plain. Sometimes 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:35.960 the coastal plain is even further divided into the inner 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:40.360 coastal plain and the tide water. Naturally, when Europeans started 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.280 colonizing this part of North America, they started out along 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:45.880 the coastal plain. And it's not just because that's where 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.880 they landed. Aside from the swampy bits, the coastal plains 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.040 soil is really soft and flat and rich. It's not 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:58.079 particularly rocky. This part of the continent has navigable rivers 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:00.640 that are really good for carrying things can force to 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.520 the ocean. And overall, this was a lot of what 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.000 would become North Carolina's best farmland, and it was a 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:12.040 place where wealthy planters started establishing big plantations with enslaved workforces. 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.840 The coastal Plain is separated from the adjacent Piedmont by 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:19.360 a geological boundary known as the fall line. This is 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.760 basically a dividing line between the harder, rockier, more clay 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.680 like Piedmont and the softer, sandy or coastal plaine. In 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.560 addition to the differences in the soil and farming conditions 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.480 on either side of the line. Rivers crossing the line 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:36.720 descend through waterfalls and rapids, making them impractical too impossible 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.480 to use to transport people and goods. There are of 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:42.840 course fall lines all over the world, and in terms 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:45.680 of the Atlantic Seaboard fall Line, it runs from New 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.920 York to Georgia. Yeah, you could still certainly grow things 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:51.480 in the Piedmont, but it was harder, and then it 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.320 was harder to get them anywhere, a little bit of 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.760 a disadvantage. It makes me think of the various stories 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.720 we've done on on things like, um, I think Brook 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.080 Farm had this problem the brook Farm community where they 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:03.560 were like, we're going to go start a thing where 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:06.280 no one else is doing stuff. We're gonna farm here, 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:07.960 and it's like, no one else is farming here for 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:13.440 a reason. It is made of rocks. Also, just to 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:18.160 clear up a little geographical confusion for Outlander viewers who 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.159 might be trying to imagine where all of this is 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:24.120 happening in relation to the TV show, the fictional Fraser's 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.440 Ridge is in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest North Carolina, 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:31.039 somewhere near the real places of Boone and blowing Rock, 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:33.760 and that is on the opposite end of the state 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.760 from Wilmington's which is out on the southeastern coast, roughly 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:41.960 three hundred miles or four eighty kilometers away. Fraser's Ridge 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.080 also would not be very close to Cross Creek or 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.400 the Cape Beer River, which is home to the show's 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:51.159 fictional plantation of River Run. That is roughly two hundred 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:55.280 miles or three kilometers. Today, you would measure it from 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.400 roughly Boone to Fayetteville, which is what Cross Creek is 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:01.000 known as today. The kind of makes it look like 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.720 these places are all next door to each other. They 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:08.320 are not. This geography might seem like a weird thing 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.520 to be spending all this much time on, but in 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:14.080 colonial North Carolina, the division between the Piedmont and the 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:18.400 coastal plain contributed to huge divisions among the colonists and 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.560 between the colonists and the government. At first, the vast 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.000 majority of colonial activity was happening out on the coastal plain, 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.760 with mostly English colonists, and they were arriving by boat, 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.760 either from Europe or from other colonies. But in the 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.400 seventeen hundreds that really started to change. The western part 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:41.040 of the colony experienced a huge population boom. Newcomers were 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:43.960 arriving in the mountains and the Piedmont along the Great 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.440 Wagon Road also known as the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road. 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.279 This had started out as a trading route that was 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.320 being used by eastern North America's native peoples, and it 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.640 ran from Philadelphia down to Georgia. By the eighteenth century, 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:00.000 it had been widened to accommodate wagons in some places 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.679 had been shifted to cross rivers and to get around 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.480 obstacles more easily. Many of these new arrivals were Scots, 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.840 Irish or German, and while most of the English colonists 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.520 out on the coast were Anglican, the Scots, Irish and 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:18.400 German people arriving in North Carolina included a lot more Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.760 and Moravians. So from settlement to settlement, or even within settlements, 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.680 people often didn't speak the same language or follow the 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.599 same religious practices and observances, and as a general trend, 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.880 the Piedmont was much poorer than the coast, with most 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.240 people scratching out a living as subsistence farmers rather than 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:41.160 running large plantations. The influx of Europeans to the Piedmont 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:46.000 was huge. North Carolina's population more than doubled between seventeen 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.120 thirty and seventeen fifty, and then nearly tripled in the 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.440 twenty years after that. Most of these new arrivals were 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.160 settling in what was known then as the back counties. 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.120 That was the Piedmont, which is at the time considered 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:02.880 the North Carolina Frontier. This combination of geography and demographics 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:07.320 led to many problems people in the Piedmont and the mountains, 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:09.640 but our focus for this is really the Piedmont. In 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.000 this episode, uh thought that they were being unfairly taxed 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.040 because various taxes were levied at the same rate there 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.360 as they were out on the coast, where people had 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.320 more money. Settlers in the Piedmont were also represented in 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:26.120 the Assembly, but those Assembly seats had not been reapportioned 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.600 in light of the population boom, so the Piedmont settlers 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:32.440 also felt that they weren't really being fairly represented in 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:36.800 the Assembly either. A lot of local political and court 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.560 offices were being filled by appointment, either by the monarch 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.400 or by the governor or by the Assembly. A lot 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.800 of these appointees were wealthy and powerful people from the 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.680 coast or friends of theirs. So, together with the tax issues, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.200 that really led to a perception that the Piedmont did 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.160 not matter to the Assembly or to the governor except 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:58.560 when it came to being taxed, and even when there 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.520 was some local control roll over who was in charge. 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:06.160 The government and courts were very cliquish. Technically, most officials 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.640 were appointed by the governor, but in many cases the 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.880 governor made these appointments based on the recommendations of the 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:16.960 court itself, so those officers would recommend themselves and their friends, 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:21.040 ultimately creating a courthouse ring where the same powerful people 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:25.280 were always in control of local politics and the legal system. 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.920 The existence of these courthouse rings wasn't necessarily the biggest 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:32.280 problem in people's minds. A bigger issue in the Piedmont 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.600 was that those legal and political positions went from being 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.840 held by farmers and planters to being held by lawyers 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:41.880 and merchants. So it seems like all the political power 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.600 had increasingly moved toward these wealthy outsiders, a lot of 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.160 them either from the coast or connected to people from 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.760 the coast, and all of them in cahoots to stay 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.240 in power. And it also seemed like they were in 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.959 cahoots to take advantage of people. There were laws meant 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.679 to keep officials from abusing their positions, but they were 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.200 not consistently enforced, and people had to handle a lot 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.560 of matters through the court, everything from filing deeds to 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.960 trying to collect debts. The widespread perception was that everyone 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.080 from lawyers to clerks was making things take longer and 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.840 running up fees just to line their own pockets. For example, 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.160 if you were trying to file something with the Register 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.839 of Deeds, he might tax you three times, once for 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.360 each of the forms necessary to finish the transaction, rather 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.240 than just once for the whole transaction you were trying 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.080 to do. As another example of all this, people did 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.640 not trust the sheriffs at all. One of the sheriff's 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.040 duties was to collect the taxes, and here's how people 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:44.600 thought this process generally went down. It's clear that sometimes 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.400 the process did go down this way. Not clear whether 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:49.360 it happened every time, but this was how when somebody 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:51.600 said the sheriff's coming to collect the tax people just 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:53.120 sort of thought, Okay, this is how this is going 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.960 to happen. The sheriff would show up and demand the 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.800 tax but the taxpayer would not have the cash on 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.400 hand to actually pay it, because people didn't have a 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.200 lot of need to carry cash, and there was also 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.319 a serious shortage of actual physical currency to pay things with. 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:11.720 But most communities did have somebody who would keep cash 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.920 and basically acted like a banker, So the taxpayer would 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:17.960 ask to go see that person to get some money, 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:20.839 and the sheriff would refuse and seize some of their 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.360 property instead. I love that people just presume this is 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:26.840 how the process works, like there's a horrible flow chart 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:31.319 that ends with property seized. Um. People, though, did not 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.000 want to pay their taxes in property arbitrarily seized by 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.520 the sheriff. If it had to be paid, they wanted 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:39.960 to pay it with something of known value, like money. 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.280 So then taxpayers would try to negotiate, asking if they 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.439 could get their property back if they went and got 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.880 some money and then caught up to the sheriff down 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.680 the road, and the sheriff might even agree to this, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.520 but then disappear. Later on, the taxpayer might hear that 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.120 his property had been sold off for much less than 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.120 it was worth, so he would still owe money. And 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.720 it was not just the taxpayers who thought that they 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.360 were being ripped off by crooked sheriffs and all this. 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.880 In seventeen sixty seven, North Carolina Governor William Tryon said 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.080 that he thought the sheriff's had embezzled half of the 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.560 money that they had been charged with collecting. Another thing, 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.960 the Piedmont settlers were unhappy with Governor Tryon. And we're 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:22.880 gonna get to that after we first paused for a 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:33.600 little sponsor break. So before the break, we talked about 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.160 a lot of stresses happening in North Carolina. We did 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.760 not even get into the tensions between the colonists and 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.440 the native people already living there, or the tensions with 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.679 the enslaved people that were also in North Carolina. Like, 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:49.840 there was really a lot going on. One of the 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.440 biggest things, though, in the minds of the regulators was 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.480 the Governor William Tryon. He had been appointed Lieutenant governor 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.240 of North Carolina in seventeen sixty four under Governor Arthur Dobs, 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.240 but Dobbs retired really soon after that and then died 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.600 in seventeen sixty five. When Trion became governor, he represented 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.560 the royal prerogative in the colony of North Carolina and 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:15.280 soon he established North Carolina's first permanent capital in Newbern, 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.160 which is near the coast and connected to the Atlantic 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:22.280 by the NEOs River. Tryon planned to build an extravagant 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:25.280 seat of the government and governor's residence in New Bern. 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.160 To that end, even before leaving England to become Lieutenant Governor, 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.040 he had convinced architect John Hawks to join him. Tryon 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:36.240 made his first request for funding for this project, nicknamed 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:41.120 Tryon's Palace, on November a, seventeen sixty six. Not long 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.520 after the Assembly allotted five thousand pounds to both by 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.480 the land and get started on the building. A lot 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.760 of people in the Piedmont thought this was extravagant, and then, 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.320 to make things worse than just the fact that it 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.400 was five thousand pounds to build something that was nicknamed 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.800 a palace, the money to do it was taken from 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:03.360 a one that had been established for public schools, and 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:05.920 then to restore the money back to that fund, the 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.560 Assembly imposed a poll tax and, more importantly, in the 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.680 minds of some people, a levy on alcoholic beverages. That 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.800 five thousand pounds was just the beginning, though another ten 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.840 thousand pounds was earmarked for the project two years later, 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:23.640 and then when it was finally time to open the 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:28.120 palace in seventeen seventy, Governor Tryon planned a huge gala 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:33.040 to celebrate. Tryon's palace wasn't the governor's only extravagance. In 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:37.280 seventeen sixty seven, he mounted an expensive expedition that he 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:41.400 personally went on to survey and negotiate a new border 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.480 between North Carolina and the Cherokee Nation, and as had 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.520 happened with Triump's Palace, taxes were used to pay for this. 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.160 Settlers who were on the wrong side of the line 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.800 were required to move the following January, and the general 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:59.200 perception among the people of the Piedmont was that Tryon 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:03.280 had made this a whole lavish production just to draw 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:07.080 attention to himself. That was described as quote making a 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:11.280 splendid exhibition of himself to the Indians. The regulators also 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.280 had a particular problem with one of the governor's friends, 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.959 Edmund Fanning. Fanning was a great example of the way 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.520 a small group of people were holding a huge amount 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.160 of power, which we touched on before we had our 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.280 commercial break and born in New York, he was a lawyer, 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.560 an assemblyman, the Register of Deeds of Orange County, and 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.640 a colonel in the militia. He was not at all 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.800 the only person who had multiple titles like this. That 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.800 crossover among the Assembly and the courts and the militia 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.040 was huge and was contributing to the perception that the 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:46.120 Piedmont was being controlled by a few wealthy people. Fanning 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.000 was just the one who raised the most ire. There 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.840 was even a song about him, more than one. This 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.720 is the one we're going to read. When Fanning first 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.560 to Orange came, he looked both pale and wan, an 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.720 old patched coat upon his back, an old mayor. He 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.400 wrote on both man and mayor want worth five pounds, 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.280 as I've been offense hold, but by his civil robberies, 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:12.280 He's laced his coat with gold. On top of all 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:15.440 of this, the geography and the taxes, and the representation, 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.080 and the governor and the governor's friend, the colonists and 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.880 settlers of North Carolina were just fractious. The colony went 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.080 through numerous uprisings and rebellions in the decades leading up 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.960 to this. In sixteen seventy seven, Culpepper's rebellion was an 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.640 armed uprising largely in response to the Navigation Acts that 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:38.840 restricted colonial trade. In sixteen eighty nine, colonists arrested corrupt 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.680 Governor Says Sawthel, who was then put on trial and 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.480 banished by the Assembly. The next year, John Gibbs, who 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.480 replaced Governor Sauthel, led an armed uprising against his successor 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.720 and vowed to fight him to the death. Then there 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.400 was Carrie's Rebellion in seventeen eleven, which is a lot 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.240 harder to sum up in one sentence. It is named 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.560 for former Governor Thomas Ry, who led an armed rebellion 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:06.120 against his successor that was rooted in both religion and politics. 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.600 The first seeds of the regulator movement had started back 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.720 before Governor Tryon asked for that five thousand pounds for 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:17.040 his palace. It was August seventeen sixty six a group 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.000 of Quakers met in Orange County to talk about all 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.280 their various grievances, all those issues that were connected to 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:26.720 taxation and corruption. One of them was a man named 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.880 Herman Husband, who's often described as one of the leaders 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.040 of the Regulator movement. It's a little more complicated than that. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.120 As a Quaker, he could not get behind some of 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:38.640 the more violent acts that they took, and he really 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.720 distanced himself from the movement as it became more violent. 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.040 The people that met in August of seventeen sixty six 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.640 called themselves the Sandy Creek Association, and they planned to 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.400 go through the more typical, non violent means of trying 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:54.960 to get things changed. They were going to file petitions, 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.239 they were going to try to get representation in the Assembly, 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.880 things like that. The same New Creek Association didn't make 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.320 a lot of headway and escalated to things like refusing 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.320 to pay taxes. And then a law was passed in 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.160 seventeen sixty eight that required sheriffs to be at specific 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:16.000 places on specific days to collect taxes, rather than just 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:20.159 showing up in the Piedmont. This made things worse instead 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:23.280 of better. Taxpayers felt like now the burden was on 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.480 them to travel somewhere to pay taxes, and because the 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.560 counties then were much larger than they are now, this 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.639 could be a very time consuming and expensive inconvenience. The 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.720 new law also didn't do anything to address the many 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:41.320 other concerns with embezzlement and corruption. Yeah, it seems like 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.320 having a person take their taxes to the sheriff at 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.280 a specific time and place, rather than having the sheriff 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.199 show up and demand money. Like it seems like that 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:53.040 would be an improvement, was not really read as an improvement. 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.960 In the early spring of seventeen sixty eight, the Orange 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.480 County sheriff posted a list of all the places that 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:02.480 he would be collect the tax, along with a fine 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:04.560 for the people who did not make it to those 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.560 places at the right time. And taxpayers were really angry 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.360 about this, and they thought it might be illegal. By 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.600 this point, they had also heard about that additional money 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.960 that had been allotted to build Triumphs Palace. So a 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:20.639 group of Orange County residents got together. They drafted a 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.720 letter which they sent to all of their various officials, 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.960 and here is what it said. Whereas the taxes in 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.280 the county are larger according to the number of taxables 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:35.000 than adjacent counties, and continue so year after year, and 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.160 as the jealousy still prevails among us that we are wronged, 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:40.760 and having the more reason to think so, as we 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.119 have been at the trouble of choosing men and sending 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.040 them after the civilist manner, that we could to know 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:49.680 what we paid our levy for. But could receive no satisfaction. 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.960 We are obliged to seek redress by denying paying anymore 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.800 until we have a full settlement for what has passed 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.959 and have a true regulation with our officers. As our 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.119 grievances are too many to notify in a small piece 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:07.440 of writing, we desire that you are assemblymen and vestrymen, 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.040 may appoint a time before next court at the courthouse, 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.240 and let us know by the bearer, and we will 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.480 choose men to act for us. We desire that the 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.359 sheriffs will not come this way to collect the levy, 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:21.720 for we will pay none before there is a settlement 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:25.120 to our satisfaction. And as the nature of an officer 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.800 is a servant to the public, we are determined to 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.840 have the officers of this county under a better and 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.959 honester regulation than they have been for some time past. 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.480 Think not to frighten us with rebellion in this case, 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.440 For if the inhabitants of this province have not as 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:42.639 good a right to inquire into the nature of our 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.359 constitution and disbursement of our funds as those of our 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:49.760 mother country, we think it is by arbitrary proceedings that 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.840 we are debarred of that right. Therefore, to be plain 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.320 with you, it is our intent to have a full 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.760 settlement of yawn in every particular point that is matter 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.439 of doubt with us. So fail not to send an 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.840 answer by the bearer. They're basically refusing to pay any 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:09.679 taxes until these things are settled. Some cooler headed people 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.160 decided that the language in this initial letter was much 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.080 too aggressive, so they arranged to have a second meeting, 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:20.119 and at that second meeting they adopted this set of 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:25.359 articles that I find to just be delightfully conciliatory. Here's 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:30.119 what it says. We, the subscribers, do voluntarily agree to 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:34.879 form ourselves into an association to assemble ourselves for conference 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:39.159 for regulating public aggrievances and abuses of power in the 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:42.760 following particulars, with others of a like nature that may occur. 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:45.880 One we will pay no more taxes until we are 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:48.879 satisfied that they are agreeable to law and applied to 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.399 the purposes therein mentioned, unless we cannot help it or 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:57.119 are forced. Two, we will pay no officer any more 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:00.040 fees than the law allows, unless we are a i 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.080 to do it, and then to show our dislike and 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:07.720 bear open testimony against it. Three, we will attend all 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:11.280 our meetings of conferences as often as we conveniently can, 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.840 et cetera. Four, we will contribute to collections for defraying 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:20.520 necessary expenses attending the work according to our abilities. Five 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:23.439 in case of the difference and judgment, we will submit 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.720 to the judgment of the majority of our body. So 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:28.280 this is a lot more like we're not going to 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.280 pay our taxes unless we have to, but then we 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:36.159 will complain about it. Both of these documents talked about regulating, 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.680 but the term regulators, as these men came to be known, 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:42.480 was likely picked up from a similar movement in South 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:46.639 Carolina that started the year before, although that particular movement 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:50.840 was more about combating lawlessness than tax reform and government corruption. 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:54.040 Even though the regulators had tried to walk back that 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.719 first more aggressive statement, it was really too late. That 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:00.960 statement had already been sent to Orange County officers who 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:05.280 were affronted. But soon things really started to escalate, and 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:14.960 we will get to that. After another quick sponsor break 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:20.840 on April four, seventy, the regulators called for another meeting, 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:23.800 this time to ask the sheriff to meet with the 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:26.880 committee to talk about their grievances, but before that meeting 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.920 could actually happen, one of the regulators saddle and bridle 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.000 were seized to pay off the levy. A group of 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:35.680 regulators went to try to get them back. That led 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:40.640 to weapons being drawn, but apparently no physical violence. Authorities 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:44.760 tried to deploy a militia to reseize the reclaimed saddle 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:48.080 and bridle, but not enough people reported for duty to 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:51.000 go and do this, presumably because they were sympathetic to 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:53.359