No Deal for Gun Control: North Carolina and the “Wicked Rebellion” Against the British
NO DEAL – That was the response from the Sons of Liberty and other North Carolina patriots in 1776 to a British “offer” – surrender your guns, abandon your allies, give up your right to local self-government – in exchange for a promise of peace.
That moment was more than a turning point in history – it offers enduring lessons for confronting centralized power today.
A STARK ULTIMATUM
On May 5, 1776, British General Henry Clinton issued a sweeping proclamation to crush the growing resistance to British rule in the southern colonies.
Across North Carolina and beyond, patriots were organizing armed defense, forming independent militias, and rejecting British authority.
Clinton denounced this as “a most unprovoked and wicked rebellion” and offered a general pardon to anyone who would lay down their arms – with two exceptions: Robert Howe and Cornelius Harnett, prominent leaders of North Carolina’s resistance.
His demands were sweeping: disarmament, dissolution of the provincial congress and committees of safety, dismantling of “unlawful associations,” and restoration of royal judicial authority.
“Hereby offering in His Majesty’s Name free Pardon to all such as shall lay down their Arms and submit to the Laws, excepting only from the benefit of such Pardon Cornelius Harnett and Robert Howes. And I do hereby require that the Provincial Congress and all Committees of Safety and other unlawful Associations be dissolved, and the Judges allowed to hold their Courts according to the Laws and Constitution of this Province; of which, all persons are required to take notice as they will answer the contrary at their utmost Peril.”
In other words: give up your guns, give up your free speech, give up your right to assembly, give up your friends – and we will give you peace.
URGENCY AND MOBILIZATION
Clinton’s 1776 ultimatum didn’t happen in a vacuum. It followed a surge of resistance triggered by the bloodshed in Massachusetts the year before.
When news of the April 1775 battles at Lexington and Concord reached North Carolina – following months of rising tension and a coordinated British disarmament campaign – the urgency escalated.
In early May, express riders carried the news south – reaching Chowan and Craven counties, including towns like Edenton – where the alarm set off a rapid chain reaction of militia mobilization across North Carolina.
Patriot leaders responded immediately. Committees of safety sprang into action – coordinating defenses, calling up the militia, and preparing for what now seemed like an unavoidable war.
Cornelius Harnett and Robert Howe worked closely through these committees – coordinating defense and circulating intelligence.
In Wilmington, Harnett ordered the news carried forward “without the least delay” and urged that it be sent “by night and day.” ??
In Brunswick, Howe echoed the urgency: “Though I know you stand in no need of being prompted when your country requires your service, yet I cannot avoid writing to you to beg you to forward the Paper containing such important news and pray order the express you send to ride night and day.”
As summer progressed, the momentum continued to grow.
THE FIERY PROCLAMATION
On August 14, 1775, the Tryon County committee of safety passed a resolution declaring that taking up arms was not merely a right – but a duty to defend liberty.
“the painful necessity of having recourse to Arms for the preservation of those rights and Liberties which the principles of our Constitution and the Laws of God, Nature, and Nations have made it our duty to defend.”
The very next day, Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina, alarmed by the rising defiance, issued what became known as the “Fiery Proclamation.”
He opened with a direct accusation: the very act of forming and arming militias without his authority was, in his words, a criminal breach of law and an attack on royal power.
“And that the said John Ashe and Robert Howes alias Howe before mentioned and both of them and every other person and persons who hath or have presumed to array the Militia and to assemble men in Arms within this Province without my Commission or Authority”
Martin spelled out the consequences in clear and unmistakable terms.
“have invaded His Majesty’s just and Royal Prerogative and violated the Laws of their Country to which they will be answerable for the same.”
He further condemned the legitimacy of the resistance’s independent institutions – committees of safety and provincial congresses, “hereby declaring every such Election illegal unconstitutional and null and void to all intents and purpose.”
FIRST FOR INDEPENDENCE?
These threats failed spectacularly as escalating tensions turned into open conflict in February 1776 at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge. Dubbed the “Lexington and Concord of the South,” patriot forces soundly defeated loyalist troops, further solidifying resistance.
By April, the fourth provincial congress of North Carolina convened in open defiance of British orders. Robert Howe, reflecting the widespread sentiment, declared, “Independence seems to be the word. I know of not one dissenting voice.”
Days later, on April 12, 1776, the Halifax Resolves authorized delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence – the first official act by one of the colonies in full support of declaring it. They were also the first example of a colony-wide assembly admitting that reconciliation with Britain was no longer an option.
NO DEAL, NO SURRENDER
Faced with this mounting defiance and resistance, Clinton issued his sweeping proclamation on May 5, 1776 – demanding disarmament, the dissolution of local self-government – basically total submission.
His “peace” offer came with these unacceptable conditions, and like General Gage’s offer the previous year in Boston, it excluded key patriot leaders from pardon.
It was the same kind of demand: give up your guns, give up your friends, give up your liberty – and you’ll be spared.
The North Carolina Patriots decisively rejected Clinton’s terms. No deal.
They weren’t fighting for permission or privileges – they were defending rights that could not be bargained away.
The provincial congresses continued to meet, committees of safety kept operating defiantly, and on August 1, 1776, Cornelius Harnett publicly read the Declaration of Independence in North Carolina – turning rejection into separation and defiance into a lasting legacy.
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