Can God Be on Both Sides?: The Role of Religion and Politics during the North Carolina Regulation
During the 1760s and early 1770s, backcountry Piedmont farmers were at odds with Eastern gentry and royal government officials. The former, known as Regulators, opposed what they considered illegal cooperation between leading private individuals and government officials and used legal and extralegal means to draw attention to their demands for the restoration of proper government. Lord Tryon, the Royal Governor of North Carolina, considered the Regulators an unruly mob that threatened order and proper governance. Throughout the Regulator Rebellion, both sides laced political arguments with religious language or based their politlcal and social beliefs on religious understandings. Two leading figures were Quaker and Regulator ideologue Herman Husband and Anglican minister George Mickeljohn.Download PDF(s):
Sources:
William S. Powell, James K. Huhta, and Thomas J. Farnham, eds., The Regulators in North Carolina: A Documentary History, 1759-1776, (Raleigh, 1971).
By Troy L. Kickler, North Carolina History Project
See Also:
Related Categories: Religion, Political History, Colonial North CarolinaRelated Encyclopedia Entries: Charles Woodmason (1720?-1776?), Herman Husband (1724-1795), Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), Edmund Fanning (1737-1808), Watauga Association, Edward Vail (1717-1777), Sandy Creek Baptists, John Sevier (1745-1815), Marriage, History of, Shubal Stearns (1706-1771), Johnston Riot Act, Hillsborough Riot (1770), Hillsborough Confrontation (1768), Skimmington, Welsh, Act Concerning Marriages (1669), Affirmations
Related Lesson Plans: A Missionary of English Civilization to the Piedmont: Backcountry Religion and One Man’s Perspective
Timeline: 1664-1775
Region: Piedmont Plateau