"What Was the Regulator Movement? History and Significance" Topic

"The Regulator Movement, also called the War of the Regulation, was an insurrection in the British-American colonies of North and South Carolina from around 1765 to 1771. In two separate movements—one in South Carolina and another in North Carolina—armed settlers confronted colonial officials over issues of excessive taxation and lack of defense and law enforcement. Since it mainly targeted British officials, some historians consider the Regulator Movement to have been a catalyst to the American Revolutionary War in 1775…"
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Also…

Native American Influence on the Founding of the US

"In telling the history of the rise of the United States and modern democracy, high school history texts typically emphasize the influence of ancient Rome on the founding fathers' ideas about what form the new nation would take. Even college and graduate-level political science programs bias towards this, but there is substantial scholarship on the influence the founding fathers derived from Native American governing systems and philosophies. A survey of the documentation demonstrating those influences based on the work of Robert W. Venables and others is telling for what the founders absorbed from Indians and what they intentionally rejected in their crafting of the Articles of Confederation and later the Constitution…"
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Armand

Since it mainly targeted British officials, some historians consider the Regulator Movement to have been a catalyst to the American Revolutionary War in 1775…"

Except it was mostly poor farmers in the west against the eastern-planter dominated government. And when the planters joined the revolution, many of the ex-Regulators became Loyalists, "loyal to a king who, for all they knew, might only have been a rumor." (Forrest MacDonald, E PLURIBUS UNUM)

So, no, not really.

Civil wars -- and both the AWI and 1861-65 qualify -- pick up and intensify pre-existing animosities. The "great issues of the war", as historians identify them, may be nothing but excuses to kill your old enemies for many of the actual participants.

I am from upcountry SC. My county was a hot-bed of Regulator activity. There is a really significant correlation from that mindset to secession and then Klan violence. Some things never seem to change.

"ick up and intensify pre-existing animosities. The "great issues of the war", as historians identify them, may be nothing but excuses to kill your old enemies for many of the actual participants." that certainly was an Element of the European middle ages that seems to have made it to north America.

I have an old book some place or other that concerns "Lynch Law" in North America. The author traces lynching and vigilantism back to the regulator movement in the Backcountry. He provides a number of accounts that reveal that these "ruffians" had a strong sense of honor and were often involved in quite personal matters. In one incident that I recall, a man was taken by a mob from his residence, secured to a tree trunk, and lashed for getting a bit heavy handed with his wife. Too bad for him that his brother-in-law was a regulator!

Thanks!

Armand

Btw, the original "Lynch law" was extra-legal actions (retroactively indemnified by the House of Bugesses) taken to break up a Loyalist conspiracy to attack the lead mines in sw Va. Nobody was hanged, but many were whipped or forced into enlisting in the Continental army, fined, and assuredly disarmed. The local militia officers acted quickly and then told Governor Jefferson what they had done. TJ asked the legislature to approve it as necessary under the emergency circumstances, which was done in a bill prohibiting lawsuits against the officers.

CHAP. XV.

An act to indemnify certain persons in suppressing a conspiracy against this state. [Chapter CX in original.]
I. WHEREAS divers evil disposed persons in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty, formed a conspiracy and did actually attempt to levy war against the commonwealth; and it is represented to the present general assembly, that William Preston, Robert Adams, junior, James Callaway, and Charles Lynch, and other faithful citizens, aided by detachments of volunteers from different parts of the state,
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LAWS OF VIRGINIA, OCTOBER 1782−−7th OF COMMONWEALTH.

did, by timely and effectual measures, suppress such conspiracy: And whereas the measures taken for that purpose may not be strictly warranted by law, although justifiable from the imminence of the danger;
II. Be it therefore enacted, That the said William Preston, Robert Adams, junior, James Callaway and Charles Lynch, and all other persons whatsoever, concerned in suppressing the said conspiracy, or in advising, issuing, or executing any orders, or measures taken for that purpose, stand indemnified and exonorated of and from all pains, penalties, prosecutions, actions, suits, and damages, on account thereof. And that if any indictment, prosecution, action, or suit, shall be laid or brought against them, or any of them, for any act or thing done therein, the defendant, or defendants may plead in bar, or the general issue, and give this act in evidence. Indemnity granted to Wm. Preston, Robert Adams, jr. James Callaway, and Chas. Lynch, for suppressing conspiracy against the state.

I've been to the battlefield. Small little museum but well done and I enjoyed my visit.