‘Fire and Be Damned!’ North Carolina and the Sparks That Lit the American Revolution

By the late 1760s, North Carolina was a smoldering tinderbox of conflict. Elected officials Cornelius Harnett and John Ashe had led the Sons of Liberty in resisting the Stamp Act, making its enforcement impossible and contributing to Parliament’s repeal of the tax, but deeper grievances remained. Drought brought crop failures, hunger, economic depression, and a...