Theme: Resist

(Blurb):
Hello historians. Welcome back to Daily History. In today’s episode, we will take a look at the War of the Regulation, an early colonial revolt against British rule. We’ll discuss the main players in this event, why it happened in the first place, and why it was a key moment in U.S history.
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The War of the Regulation was a failed revolution that took place in North Carolina. It lasted between the years 1766-1771. This revolution was led by a group called “The Regulators”. The group consisted of several thousand men, and their main purpose was to protest and change the legislature's inability to establish local regulation. The main cause of the rebellion was the fact that the people chosen to uphold justice (a group known as the Courthouse Ring) were so obviously not doing so. They were, in fact, abusing their power.

Some ways in which the Courthouse Ring abused their power include charging extremely high fees for ordinary goods, stealing over half of the poll tax money collected from the colonists, and other mischievous actions. In 1767, an audit showed that the Ring owed the colony more than £64,000 in taxes they failed to turn over. (Pounds being the currency used in America during this time period). This equates to around $3,000,000 in today's currency. All of this greed and uncaring power started to cause great anger in the citizens.

Herman Husband was considered to be the spokesperson for the Regulator Movement. Herman was an advocate of peaceful reform. But after getting virtually nowhere through protesting, the regulators quickly turned to violence.

As for the Courthouse side, an example setting member in this group was Edmund Fanning. He was a prominent leader of the Courthouse Ring. After growing extremely wealthy from the insane taxes imposed onto the colonists, he was convicted with extortion, but of course escaped punishment because of his status. But Governor Tryon is arguably the most important figure on the Courthouse side regarding the war against the Regulators. After seeing the Hillsborough Riot of 1770, Governor Tryon passed the Johnston Riot Act, giving him the ability to raise an army against the Regulators. The fact that this governor was so easily able to get this Act passed can be seen as yet another example of obvious governmental corruption at the time.

The Battle of Alamance was what ultimately put an end to the war. This battle was fought between approximately 2,000 Regulators and 1,000 of Governor Tryon’s army. After only 2 hours of heavy gunfire from both sides, the Regulators eventually surrendered due to heavy casualties, despite having double the number of men.

Following the battle, many of the Regulators were hung after being caught by British forces, and most were pardoned after being captured and forced to sign a Loyalty Oath. The group then disbanded.

This event changed the way the people viewed the government. It made an example of the ways a government can become corrupt beyond reason, and also how the people under said government will not always tolerate it. We still see some of this type of corruption all around the world in different governmental systems. This includes the United States. But, it seems that we as a people now better understand how to fight back against rules that only benefit one party.

People remember this event not because it failed, but because it taught a lesson; that lesson being to stand up against what is wrong, and even if you fail there is progress made.

Anthony W.