Culpepper's Rebellion

Reasons for Conflict and Rebellion

Members of the region that became known as North Carolina demonstrated the first element of history, life is choice, after being bullied by England to the point where they made the life threatening choice to rebel against the mother country. Other major elements of historical theory present in the period leading up to the revolution are cultural divergence, power, and historical patterning. Ultimately the colonists had to make the choice to rebel due to the lack of a stable government, issues over land ownership, taxation, and religious conflicts. North Carolina and England being buffered by the Atlantic Ocean lead to a cultural divergence, meaning that the colonists began to distance themselves from the

In response to England losing money due to smuggling, Thomas Miller, a proprietary leader, formed a militia to enforce the trade laws and to arrest any colonists caught breaking them. Miller abused his power and issued faulty arrests until John Culpepper, the leader of the rising antiproprietary movement, lead “Culpepper’s Rebellion” in 1677. This non-violent rebellion raided county records, oversaw the arrest of Miller, and successfully ensured Culpepper elected as customs collector. Culpepper was tried in England for treason, but the Proprietors defended him; because if he was convicted, they would prove unfit to rule North Carolina and their charter would be lost. The “rebellion” ended when Culpepper was acquitted on the grounds that there was no standing government, so there could not have been a revolt. Despite his acquittal the antiproprietary tension remained in the North Carolina and more importantly, the colonists tasted rebel success for the first

Most of their war was peaceful, yet the Regulators did resort to violence on occasion. In 1770 in response to having their peaceful request ignored, they forcefully entered the Hillsborough Supreme Court where they attacked lawyers, threw the judge off the bench, and proceeded to have a court session of their own. Governor Tryon then passed the Johnston Riot Act, in an attempt to subdue the regulators from making another march to Hillsborough, which allowed for military intervention in the case of a riot. Regulators eventually encountered a military force on their way to Hillsborough at Alamance Creek where the trained troops overpowered the under matched rebels. The Regulator movement was over, but their mentality towards freedom carried over to the provincial congress and later the state