Many of the early colonial settlers of North Carolina were of Scotch-Irish decent who migrated to the piedmont area mainly through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and eastern North Carolina. Most were Presbyterians and farmers, bringing their strong sense of family, religion and love of the land. Their work ethic made many men successful in their chosen occupations. They named their county seat, Charlotte, after King George’s wife. The county was named Mecklenburg, after the area in Germany of her birth.

However for many subjects, their loyalty to the British throne was tried beyond their tolerance. We know from historical newspaper accounts that men in Mecklenburg wrote a document known as the Mecklenburg Resolves on May 31, 1775, setting up a new government that granted them more freedom than they had known under British rule. Freedom is not free, and the peace in the thirteen colonies gained in the late 1700s, after a series of battles now known as the Revolutionary War, was gained with a high price.

Read these documents that are more than one hundred years old to learn more about life in Mecklenburg County that led some men to write the treasonous document, the Mecklenburg Resolves, and possibly the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

• Sketches of North Carolina
  Essay by Rev. William Henry Foote, 1846

• The Land We Love