Regulator Rebellion: Herman Husband, Harmon Cox and the Battle of Alamance

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In 1760s western North Carolina, droughts wiped out the barter economy and settlers fell into debt to newly arrived merchants and lawyers, while Orange County court cases rose from seven to 111 a year in a decade. Fees and taxes had to be paid in hard currency the farmers lacked, and the courthouse ring of lawyers, sheriffs and officials seized and auctioned land cheaply. Yale-educated official Edmund Fanning, convicted of embezzlement, was fined one penny per charge, and Governor William Tryon funded a lavish coastal palace with a regressive poll tax. Two Quaker cousins led opposite responses: Herman Husband wrote petitions and appealed to Tryon, while Harmon Cox turned his home and gristmill into a base and paid for armed resistance.

On September 24, 1770, Regulators stormed the Hillsborough court, Judge Richard Henderson fled overnight, and the crowd beat Fanning, smeared waste on the judge's seat, placed a corpse at the lawyer's bar and tore down Fanning's house. Tryon pushed through the Johnston Riot Act and in May 1771 marched about a thousand militia with eight cannons to Alamance, where a crowd of 2,000 to 6,000 expected to negotiate. He broke a one-hour truce, and when the firing ended nine of his men and 100 Regulators were dead with 200 wounded. Tryon pardoned Cox but put a bounty on Husband, Boston papers recast the battle as tyranny, and many Regulators moved west to form the Watauga Association and later fought as patriots.

• The crowd cracked the Hillsborough church bell but deliberately left the altar untouched.
• Under the Johnston Riot Act, a crowd of ten or more that refused to disperse could be declared outlaws.
• Tryon hanged six Regulator leaders at Hillsborough, including James Few, who had wounded him in the battle.
• After Alamance the governor burned Regulator homes and farms and forced loyalty oaths.
• Fanning was dragged out by his heels and beaten so badly he nearly lost an eye.