Alamance: Governor William Tryon reading at his desk.

What Did North Carolina's Government Look Like?

You might be wondering why the governor would try to enforce a British law. Before the Revolutionary War, the governor of the colonies was a British citizen, while the members of the General Assembly were American. So the General Assembly and the governor disagreed quite often. However, since America was considered Britain's colony, the British government felt that they had the right to make laws for the Americans.

So each state governor had more power than any other person in the American government. He didn't even have to ask the General Assembly's permission to do anything; he could just do whatever he wanted. And if the General Assembly didn't agree with him, he had the right to fire them.

Something else was going on in North Carolina's politics, as well as in the other states. The citizens were split into two groups: Tories, who were loyal to Britain and felt the states should follow the rules; and Whigs, who were more rebellious and really wanted to be able to decide things for themselves.

The Sons of Liberty in Cape Fear kept protesting the Stamp Act until one day in 1766 they gathered hundreds of people in Brunswick, where British authorities were keeping two ships from passing through the port because their papers did not have stamps. After boarding the British ship, the Sons of Liberty forced the captain to let the ships go. The next day, an angry mob stormed the governor's residence, demanding the resignation of the comptroller of customs, the person who enforced the Stamp Act. Two years later, Britain repealed the Stamp Act.

The Beginnings of Revolution