Summary: A date on North Carolina's flag says Charlotte declared independence on May 20, 1775. Jefferson called the document spurious. The documents tell a more complicated tale.
Read the storyIn April 1776, delegates in a small Roanoke River town told North Carolina's men in Philadelphia they could vote for independence. The wording was careful.
In a few minutes before dawn on February 27, 1776, a Loyalist army met musket fire at a stripped bridge near Wilmington. North Carolina's royal government never recovered.
In the autumn of 1780, a thousand frontier riflemen crossed the Blue Ridge and destroyed a Loyalist army in about an hour, upending British plans in the South.
Lord Cornwallis won the field at Guilford Courthouse and lost a quarter of his army. Seven months later he surrendered at Yorktown. Here is how one led to the other.
Three months before the Declaration, delegates in a small Roanoke River town told North Carolina's men in Philadelphia they could vote to break with Britain.
In May 1771, farmers who wanted honest fees and fair taxes met Governor Tryon's militia on a North Carolina creek. The fight lasted about two hours.
After a threat from a British major, frontier riflemen crossed the Blue Ridge and wiped out his Loyalist force in about an hour, reviving the Patriot cause in the Carolinas.
