What happens when the very people meant to uphold justice become the ones exploiting it?
In the 1760s, North Carolina farmers watched sheriffs pocket their tax payments, judges rule in favor of corrupt land speculators, and government officials literally steal their land all while claiming to represent the Crown’s interests.
Nathan Schultz, a public historian and the Site Manager at the Alamance Battleground State Historic Site in North Carolina, joins us to explore the North Carolina Regulator Movement.
About the Show
Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Episode Summary
Nathan Schultz is a public historian and the Site Manager of the Alamance Battleground State Historic Site in North Carolina. Nathan has a deep knowledge of early America and has worked extensively in living history interpretation, a field in which he is well known as an ox-driving specialist.
Nathan joins us to explore why farmers in North Carolina’s Piedmont region organized against corrupt officials and land speculators in the 1760s. How those Regulators built their own democratic, agrarian resistance movement while still claiming loyalty to the British Crown. And, how the Regulator Movement culminated in a deadly confrontation at the Battle of Alamance in May 1771.
What You’ll Discover
- Overview of the North Carolina Regulator Movement
- Where the North Carolina Regulator Movement took place
- Settlement of early North Carolina
- North Carolina trade routes
- Central North Carolinians’ British identity
- North Carolina’s founding as a proprietary colony
- Land speculation in Central North Carolina
- What the North Carolina Regulators were against
- Edmund Fanning
- Demographics of the Regulators
- North Carolina Regulators’ views on taxes
- The start of the North Carolina Regulator Movement
- George Sims & the Nutbush Address
- How the Regulators organized & petitioned the NC government
- Herman Husband
- Hillsborough Courthouse Riot
- The protest at Edmund Fanning’s house
- The Riot Bill of 1771
- The raising of the North Carolina militia
- The Battle of Alamance, 1771
- Consequences of the Battle of Alamance
Links to People, Places, and Publications
1776 in Context Question
In your opinion, how did the Regulator Movement contribute to North Carolinians’ thoughts and feelings about the American Revolution and its War for Independence?
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World
🎧 Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America
🎧 Episode 373: The Gaspee Affair
🎧 Episode 374: The American Revolutionary War in the West
🎧 Episode 380: The Tory’s Wife
🎧 Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord, 1775
Support Our Work
Love what you hear on Ben Franklin’s World? Support the show and help us keep history accessible, independent, and deeply researched. Make a tax-deductible donation at benfranklinsworld.com/donate.
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