An article published in the April 30, 1819 edition of the Raleigh Register and North Carolina Gazette proclaimed the following: “It is not probably known to many of our readers, that the citizens of Mecklenburg County, in this State, made a Declaration of Independence more than a year before Congress made theirs. The following Document on the subject has lately come to the hands of the Editor from unquestionable authority, and is published that it may go down to posterity.”
The document in question was called the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and it had allegedly declared Mecklenburg “free and independent” from British rule on May 20, 1775. Of the 27 men who were said to have signed the document, almost all were Presbyterian.
But many people were confused – why were they just now hearing about this revolutionary action? The original document burned in a house fire in 1800, and the published version had been reconstructed from notes made by the clerk of the 1775 meeting. No extant copies could be found.
The debate over the authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration began. And, when a copy of a document called the Mecklenburg Resolves written on May 30, 1775, was discovered in a 1775 newspaper, the debate intensified. The Resolves were revolutionary, but stopped short of declaring independence. Did both documents exist? Or was the Declaration being conflated with the Resolves?
Examine the evidence and decide for yourself by visiting the new exhibit, “Mecklenburg Declaration?” at the Presbyterian Heritage Center.
The PHC is open Tuesday-Friday (10-4) and Saturday (12-4).
