North Carolina’s Regulator Insurrection

Several years before Lexington and Concord, farmers in western North Carolina had a rebellion of their own. This movement, called the Regulator Insurrection, represents the first time Royal officials used soldiers to suppress American colonists. When cheap land began attracting settlers to western North Carolina in the 1750s, speculators bought up large tracts that inflated land prices, forcing many farmers deep into debt. In 1766, the farmers organized and took their case to the colonial legislature but made no headway. When legal methods failed, a group calling themselves the Regulators adopted extralegal methods such as refusing to pay taxes, reclaiming confiscated property, and disrupting court proceedings.