Mecklenburg Resolves (1775)
American Revolution: The Mecklenburg Resolves are adopted in the Province of North Carolina.
Historical Context
Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, revolutionary sentiment swept through Britain's American colonies. In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina — centered on the town of Charlotte — local leaders were quick to express opposition to British authority. Mecklenburg was a frontier community settled largely by Scots-Irish Presbyterians, fiercely independent and hostile to crown interference. Charlotte-town served as the county seat, and local militias and committees of correspondence had already been organized to resist British policies.
Did You Know?
North Carolina's state flag bears the date May 20, 1775 — the disputed “Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence” supposedly adopted two days before the Resolves — making North Carolina the only state whose flag references an act of independence predating July 4, 1776. Most historians regard the May 20 document as apocryphal, but it remains a point of enduring state pride.
What Happened
On May 31, 1775, delegates from the townships of Mecklenburg County assembled at the courthouse in Charlotte. Colonel Thomas Polk presided. The delegates adopted resolutions declaring that all laws, commissions, and authority derived from the British Crown were annulled and vacated in Mecklenburg County, and that the colony's own laws and local government would take precedence until a reconciliation or permanent government could be established. The Mecklenburg Resolves were more explicitly anti-British than the moderate petitions then circulating in the Continental Congress.
Legacy
The Mecklenburg Resolves were published in the Cape Fear Mercury and circulated through the colonies, demonstrating that colonial resentment of British authority extended well beyond New England. North Carolina's state flag bears both May 20, 1775 (the disputed Declaration) and April 12, 1776 (the Halifax Resolves, when North Carolina officially empowered its delegates to vote for independence). The Mecklenburg Resolves are considered an important precursor to the Declaration of Independence signed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.