I am writing this blog post on the 4th of July, also known as Independence Day. For the residents of Charlotte, Independence Day has a special meaning, for the Charlotte area played an important role in the history of the American Revolution. Many of the early residents of Mecklenburg County supported the position that the American colonies should declare their independence from Great Britain and its ruler, King George III. According to some accounts, a group of local militia leaders met in Charlotte on May 20, 1775, and drew up a document known as the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Whether this declaration was officially adopted or not is in dispute, but there is no denying that the Charlotte area was a center of revolutionary activity throughout the war. In fact, one of the key battles in America’s fight for independence took place just south of Charlotte at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. For readers who want to know more about Charlotte’s role in the history of the American Revolution, I recommend four books written by Charlotte writers.
Dan L. Morrill, Professor Emeritus of History at UNC Charlotte and the former Director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, published Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution in 1993. Focusing primarily on the battles and skirmishes that took place in North and South Carolina, Morrill shows how these engagements eventually resulted in the surrender of the British General Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 20, 1781. I especially enjoyed reading Morrill’s accounts of the Battle of Kings Mountain and the Battle of Cowpens, both of which took place near Charlotte. As Morrill makes clear, these battles were decisive victories for the Patriots and helped turn the tide of the war.
Richard P. Plumer’s Charlotte and the American Revolution: Reverend Alexander Craighead, the Mecklenburg Declaration and the Foothills Fight for Independence came out from the History Press in 2014. Plumer focuses much of his book on the role that the Charlotte-based Reverend Alexander Craighead played in garnering support for the Patriots’ fight for independence. In Plumer’s words, Reverend Craighead’s “preaching and political agitating in the crucial decades before 1775 made him one of America’s first revolutionaries.” Plumer also writes about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. He strongly supports the position that this declaration is genuine even though no original copy of the document has been found.
Scott Syfert, an attorney with one of Charlotte’s biggest law firms, has also written about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. In his 2013 book titled The First American Declaration of Independence?: The Disputed History of the Mecklenburg Declaration of May 20, 1775, Syfert draws on his background as an attorney to weigh the existing evidence as to whether the MeckDeck, as it is sometimes called, is genuine or not. He writes, “As an attorney, I see both sides of the argument for and against the MecDeck; and make no mistake, there is a considerable body of evidence in favor of both sides.” For the readers of Syfert’s book, it seems as much like a detective story as a work of history. Syfert does not come down on one side or the other in terms of this controversy, but he does tell an intriguing tale.
Like Syfert, Landis Wade worked for years as a Charlotte attorney, but since retiring from his career as a trail lawyer in 2018, he has turned his attention to writing mystery novels. In his 2022 novel titled Deadly Declarations: An Indie Retirement Mystery, Wade writes about three residents of a fictional Charlotte retirement community who join forces to solve a mystery related to the controversial Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Wade incorporates lots of historical information about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in his novel, but he never lets these points of history slow down his entertaining plot.
These four books all deal in one way or another with Charlotte’s special connections to the American Revolution and the Patriots’ fight for independence. As we celebrate Independence Day here in Storied Charlotte, we should remember that we are not just celebrating our independence from Great Britain; we are also celebrating our independence from being ruled by a king.