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On May 31, 1775 delegates meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina--the seat of Mecklenburg County--passed a set of resolves providing for orderly government as the bonds between Britain and its colonies were breaking up. This event became the basis for the so-called "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence."

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Lead: On May 31, 1775 delegates meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina--the seat of Mecklenburg County--passed a set of resolves providing for orderly government as the bonds between Britain and its colonies were breaking up. This event became the basis for the so-called "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence."

Tag: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: As the years passed, the events of the Revolutionary era faded in memory. People began to forget that there was much dissension among Americans regarding independence. Many people fought on the side of the British and only late in the war slipped over to the Patriot side. It is not surprising that by the 1820s Americans in all sections were clambering for recognition as having been among the earliest and most enthusiastic supporters of revolution. In fact, the break from Britain was a dicey affair--with the outcome very much in doubt--and the colonies were split on the subject.

During the Congressional session of 1818-19, members were debating from where the first impulse for independence came. Was it from Massachusetts or from Virginia? In the heat of debate, assertion was made that--to be precise--Mecklenburg County had declared its independence from Britain a year before the Continental Congress passed Thomas Jefferson's Declaration on July 4, 1776. By this reasoning, Mecklenburg should receive at least equal billing with other locations as one of the seats of the revolutionary impulse.

While there were newspaper accounts of the proceedings of May 31, 1775, there were no original documents. They had been stored by John McKnitt Alexander, one of the participants, but they were destroyed in 1800 when his house was burned. According to his son, Joseph McKnitt Alexander, his father had reconstructed the documents from memory. Joseph then produced an additional document dated eleven days earlier, May 20, 1775. This was a full-blown Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence from Britain. It even contained some of the phrases Jefferson would use a year later in the Congressional Declaration. Though some, including Jefferson and Adams, maintained that they had never heard of the Mecklenburg document, it passed into the public memory as an early example of patriotic fervor. The problem was that the document was a fake. Scholars using documentary evidence determined that, in all probability, Joseph Alexander had just made it up.

The Mecklenburg Resolves were an attempt to bring order out of a deteriorating civil situation, steps already being taken by counties all over the state--it was not a declaration of independence.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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