This North Carolina historical marker is located in a confusing area along NC/SC State Route 51 at the state line into Mecklenburg County NC from York County SC.
The marker reads as follows:
"L 38
[seal of he state of North Carolina]
Colonized, 1585-87, by first English Settlers in America; permanently settled c. 1650; First to vote readiness for independence, Apr. 12, 1776.
Department of Conservation and Development 1941"
From the NCPedia website: (
visit link)
"North Carolina in the US Revolution
by Josh Howard
Research Branch, NC Office of Archives and History, 2010.
On April 19, 1775, Massachusetts militiamen clashed with British regulars at Lexington Green. Until that point, North Carolinians had maintained a strained yet loyal allegiance to the mother country. Legal battles had been waged between Whig and Tory forces within the state, and Governor Josiah Martin dissolved the General Assembly on April 7. Nevertheless there had been few physically violent confrontations. However, when word of the Lexington skirmish arrived in New Bern on May 6, open warfare seemed inevitable. North Carolina newspaper editor James Davis wrote, “The Sword is now drawn, and God knows when it will be sheathed.”
Throughout 1775, North Carolina Whigs organized their resistance to the Crown. Provincial Congresses were called to order. Two such bodies had formed in 1774 and early 1775, leading to Martin’s order to close the Assembly. John Harvey, the former Speaker of the Colonial Assembly, oversaw the first two congresses before his death in the summer of 1775. The Third Provincial Congress of North Carolina, organized in August, elected attorney Samuel Johnston at its head. The body ordered the enlistment of North Carolina’s first soldiers in the Continental Army and developed the thirteen-member Council of Safety to oversee the colony’s resistance. Delegates appointed Cornelius Harnett the head of the Council, and divided the colony into six military districts for the purpose of organizing militia and arranging representation in the executive body.
In early 1776, British authorities planned to exploit the allegiances of thousands of Scottish settlers who lived along the Cape Fear River near Cross Creek (present day Fayetteville). Word was sent to the Loyalists to organize and prepare for a landing of British regulars along the coast. Soon hundreds of Highland Scots were enlisting in Tory regiments in the region and marching towards Wilmington. The Council of Safety acted swiftly to counteract their intentions, and on February 27, 1776, Patriot troops intercepted and destroyed the Loyalist force at Moore’s Creek Bridge.
Two months later, on April 12, 1776, the Fourth Provincial Congress passed the Halifax Resolves, officially endorsing independence from Great Britain. North Carolina representatives presented the resolves to the Continental Congress on May 27, the same day that Virginia offered a similar resolution. Within two months, representatives of the Continental Congress, including North Carolinians Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, and John Penn, signed the Declaration of Independence. In November, the Fifth Provincial Congress approved North Carolina’s first state constitution and appointed Richard Caswell governor."