I went to Hillsborough on a recent Saturday for a day of Patriotic frivolity (including tricorn hats, tents, Revolutionary-era clothes, children’s activities, and a colonial market) and to view a dramatization of the meeting of North Carolina’s Third Provincial Congress, which met from Aug. 20 to Sept. 10, 1775.
The well-done dramatization in Hillsborough’s old Orange County Courthouse illustrated what took place at the Third Provincial Congress, as North Carolinians took steps to create a new government for the colony — one that was preparing for war against the British Crown.
What I came away with was a much better, real-time understanding of how the critical actions taken at this conference influenced North Carolina’s determination to take the path to Revolution just months later.
Events leading to the Third Provincial Congress
Weeks after Royal Gov. Josiah Martin and his Executive Council dissolved the North Carolina colonial assembly on April 8, 1775, Patriot militia reportedly attacked Tryon Palace, the governor’s home in New Bern, causing Martin to send his family away to New York. Soon after, during the night of May 24, 1775, Martin fled for good and went to Fort Johnston in Brunswick County, where he eventually boarded the British vessel HMS Cruizer for protection before ultimately leaving the colony in 1776.
We’re left with a period from April to August of 1775 when North Carolina had a royal governor on the run and no colonial representative government. I had never thought about the colony with neither an assembly to make laws nor an acting governor to carry out laws. Coupled with the heightened revolutionary fervor spreading throughout the colony, it must have been quite a chaotic period. Just think what it would be like today if our governor got so frustrated that he threw up his hands and left the state to be run by just the courts and state representatives. It probably would make us better appreciate the balance of powers we enjoy in our government structure.
The congress turns ideas into action
Which brings us to how important the Third Provincial Congress that met in Hillsborough really was. Understand that the colonial assembly to this point had been meeting in New Bern, the epicenter of British aristocracy in the colony, and that the first two provincial congresses had met in New Bern as well. Holding this congress in Hillsborough was symbolic since that the town was the leading town of the backcountry — a place of commerce, law, and opportunity. It was central to a colony rapidly expanding westward and a town where the old political regime didn’t hold as much power as it did in New Bern.
The congress represented 35 counties and elected Samuel Johnston of Chowan County as its president. As one of the dramatic presenters stated, the congress “translated ideas into action,” and that they did, taking action to:
- Create six militia districts based on the largest towns in the colony at that time — Edenton, Halifax, Salisbury, Hillsborough, Wilmington, and New Bern — for the safety of its citizens and preparation for war with Britain.
- Elect members to perform as a Provincial Council that would operate as a governmental body when the congress was not in session. Thirteen members were selected, divided by the militia districts.
- Form Committees of Safety at the district level to recruit a militia and minutemen for their protection.
- Raise two companies of regular Continental troops to go to other colonies and fight the British.
- Issue bills of credit to be used as currency to help fund the new government and its defense.
Revolutionary reflections
Before I went to Hillsborough, this period of the Revolution in North Carolina before Patriot activities heated up in 1776 was always a little foggy. But the actions taken in late summer 1775 as the Third Provincial Congress took the courageous step of creating a new government in a vacuum to oppose the most powerful force on Earth at that time — the British Crown — were every bit as revolutionary as the battles and resolves that came later. The actions of the congress happened before the Halifax Resolves, before the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge, and before the Declaration of Independence.
Anyone interested in the Revolutionary period should visit Hillsborough, a town full of colonial history with historical markers galore to mark the homes of great Patriots and commemorate important events from that time.
