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THE REGULATORS OF NORTH CAROLINA
DRAWN FROM HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS
In 1766, after the Stamp Act was repealed, the provincial governor of North
Carolina, William Tryon, began enacting other taxes in its place. The
appropriations made by the province on account of the French and Indian War
had created a public debt of almost half a million dollars. A tax of about
a dollar and a half was levied upon every male, white and black, between the
ages of sixteen and sixty years. This bore heavily upon the poor. In
addition, lawyers were exacting exorbitant fees for legal services, many
charging five dollars for the drawing of a deed.
A number of persons entered the court house in Orange County and presented
to the magistrates a written complaint drawn up by Harmon Husbands, a Quaker,
setting forth grievances “that ought to be redressed,” and proposing that
each company of militia should appoint delegates for a general meeting “to
inquire whether the freemen of this county labor under any abuse of power.”
The delegates assembled at Maddock’s Mills on 10 October 1766. Colonel
Edmund Fanning, considered the most odious officer in the county, refused
to attend, stating that he “considered the meeting an insurrection.”
At a second meeting in April 1767 an association by the name of the
Regulators was formed, and resolutions drawn up by Harmon Husbands were
discussed and adopted, firstly: “That we will pay no more taxes until we
are satisfied that they are agreeable to law, and applied to the purposes
therein mentioned, unless we cannot help it, or are forced.”
In 1767 the governor began building a palace at Newbern, for which he
obtained appropriations of £15,000 (about $75,000). The people were
incensed. The taxes were already burdensome. The palace rendered them
intolerable. The more restless and turbulent persons responded by tying
sheriffs to oak trees and beating them severely with rods, and by rescuing
property which had been seized for taxes, with violence if necessary.
In May 1768 the sheriff, at the instigation of Colonel Fanning, proceeded
with thirty horsemen to arrest Harmon Husbands and William Hunter on charges
of riotous conduct. A large body of people, led by Ninian Bell Hamilton,
“a brave old Scotchman” of seventy years, marched toward Hillsborough jail
to rescue the prisoners. When they reached the Eno River, they found the
prisoners set free. (This account refers to Ninian the elder, who, along
with his sons, Ninian and Matthew, would soon be outlawed by the governor).
On 21 May 1768 the Regulators held another meeting, and decided to petition
the governor directly. They received a written reply, extracted as follows:
“The grievances complained of by no means warrant the extraordinary steps you
have taken.” It is my direction that you “desist from any further meetings”
and “that all titles of Regulators ... cease among you.”
On 22 September 1768, Husbands and Hunter were to be tried at superior court
in Hillsborough. On the day of trial between three and four thousand people
assembled peaceably near the town. Husbands was acquitted. Hunter and two
others were found guilty of riot, fined heavily and committed to jail, from
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