North+Carolina+in+the+War+for+Independence

=Even before the battles of Lexington and Concord,= =     North Carolinians      = =had taken steps to separate themselves from the clutches of the British.= =When first Governor Tryon, then his successor, Josiah Martin, tried to= =shut down the Assembly, Speaker John Harvey continued to correspond= =with protestors in other colonies=



= = =The Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge= =After the death of John Harvey in 1775, other leaders like Cornelius= =Harnett and Richard Caswell led the province. The Provincial Congress= =set up defense measures, created a loyalty oath for everyone to take, authorized= =the enlistment of soldiers to fight in the war, and issued paper= =money to pay for everything.=



=Was there a mecklenburg declaration of independence?= =North Carolina has a distinctive= =state flag. Not only is it red, white,= =and blue, but it also has two= =important dates on it. One is May= =20, 1775, when the people of= =Mecklenburg County declared= =themselves free of British authority.=



=Halifax Resolves= =The British attempt to invade the province convinced many North= =Carolinians that their conflict could not be settled peacefully. William= =Hooper, a delegate to the Continental Congress, wrote home that “it would= =be Toryism to hint [at] the possibility of future reconciliation.”=



=State Constitution= =Once independence was declared, and the United States created by= =an act of the Continental Congress, North Carolina officially went from= =being a colony to a state. As a state, North Carolina had to come up with= =its own rules to govern itself.=



=Governing the New State= =The new legislature in the new state faced many challenges= =in its early years. Under the first governor, Richard= =Caswell, it had to protect its citizens from Tories and other= =potential threats.=