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
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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, American Revenue Act, Angus W. McLean (1925-1929), James Emerson (1736-1786), Battle of Alamance, James Few (1746-1771), The Nutbush Address (1765), Henderson Walker (1659 - 1704), Welsh, Act Concerning Marriages (1669), Affirmations, Stamp Act, The Test, Rev. Daniel Earle , Guilford County (1771), Salem
Related Commentary: Nothing Says It Better Than A Good Quote, A New Light "Infestation": Charles Woodmason on Colonial Piedmont Religion, Tryon's Ferry: Myth or Fact, Schoolmaster Yorke and The Tories, Comparing the Occupy Movement to Our Regulator Rebellion, 1771 Alamance: The First Battle of Our American Revolution
Related Lesson Plans: A Missionary of English Civilization to the Piedmont: Backcountry Religion and One Man’s Perspective
Timeline: 1664-1775
Region: Piedmont Plateau