Regulator Movement in North Carolina

Regulator Movement

Governor Tryon and the Regulators; engraving by A. Bollet Co.
Date1766 – 1771
Location
Central North Carolina
Result Colonial government victory
Belligerents
Province of North Carolina Regulators
Commanders and leaders

William Tryon

Hugh Waddell

Herman Husband
Benjamin Merrill (POW) Executed

James Hunter
Strength
1,500 ~2,300

The Regulator Movement in North Carolina, also known as the Regulator Insurrection, War of Regulation, and War of the Regulation, was an uprising in Provincial North Carolina from 1766 to 1771 in which citizens took up arms against colonial officials whom they viewed as corrupt. Historians such as John Spencer Bassett argue that the Regulators did not wish to change the form or principle of their government, but simply wanted to make the colony's political process more equal. They wanted better economic conditions for everyone, instead of a system that heavily benefited the colonial officials and their network of plantation owners mainly near the coast. Bassett interprets the events of the late 1760s in Orange and surrounding counties as "...a peasants' rising, a popular upheaval."[1][2][3]

  1. ^ Bassett, John Spencer (1867–1928) (1895). "The Regulators of North Carolina (1765–1771)". Washington: Govt. Print. Off.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Hugh Talmage Lefler, and Albert Ray Newsome, North Carolina: the history of a Southern State (2nd ed. U of North Carolina Press, 1963) pp. 161–178. online