*June 19th-6:00PM-250th Regulator Remembrance Event*
Scotty Rio
Hi,
I wanted to let the Orange County Commissioners and county staff know about an historic event coming up on Saturday, June 19th at 6:00PM.
On Saturday, June 19th, at 6:00PM the 250th Regulator Remembrance Day event will occur at the 1771 Regulator Marker site, located in Cameron Park behind the Orange County Board of Education Building (200 East King Street, Hillsborough, NC 27278)
For 250 years, people have been coming to this site to lay flowers and pay tribute to six men, accused of being "Regulators," who were executed by English colonial Governor William Tryon following the Battle of Alamance on charges of "High Treason" for daring to question English colonial policy about fees and taxes.
In response, these brave farmers and fathers were denied due process, denied the right to call witnesses, denied the right to counsel, and were convicted and subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. As a final indignity, their families were denied the right to claim their bodies, and their final resting place remains a mystery today.
I started the modern version of "Regulator Remembrance Day" back in 2013, to mark the 50th anniversary of when the Colonial Dames of North Carolina installed a bronze marker on a granite block at the 1771 Regulator Marker Site. It has been educating people of all ages for over half a century ever since 24/7 in all weather and in seasons.
Like I have done since I started doing this, there will also be staff from the Alamance County Battlefield at the event and descendants of the original regulators who died in Hillsborough and Alamance, too. 250 years later, those descendants have multiplied like stars. It's great to see "living history " reflected in these lives and a real authentic connection with the people who lived and died here 250 years ago.
The event is open to the public and during the commemoration event, where we share the history, read the names, and toll a bell, the public is invited to bring flowers to lay at the site, too, just like descendants and those who care have been doing for 250 years, as a collective way to heal from trauma and remember with gratitude the bravery of these six men
Glad to welcome special guests, too, and that includes any of our local elected officials!
The men who died 250 years ago in Hillsborough did not die in vain. There was no "Bill of Rights" to protect them then. However, seventeen years after the terrible events of June 19, 1771, North Carolina's Constitutional Convention met in Hillsborough in the summer of 1788 to debate and consider ratifying what was then the "new" U.S. Constitution.
It should have been a simple matter of ratifying the Constitution like the majority of states had already done by that point. Instead North Carolina’s Constitutional Convention meeting in Hillsborough in the Summer of 1788 made history.
North Carolina's Constitutional Convention was the only one to refuse to ratify what was then the "new" United States Constitution until provisions were made for introducing amendments, a Bill of Rights, to Congress and the ratifying states.
North Carolina's principled stance proved to be the "tipping point" for the new Congress under the "new" constitution to take up the issue in the Spring of 1789, when they met in New York (there was no Washington, DC at that point) for the first time under this "new" form of government.
Amendments were proposed and debated and finally, 12 amendments were passed by Congress on September 25, 1789 and sent out to the states for ratification, a process that had never been tried before.
Its concerns satisfied, North Carolina made history again, becoming the only state to hold a second constitutional convention, this time in Fayetteville in November 1789 at which they ratified the Constitution and a month later, became the third state of thirteen to ratify the amendments, too.
Two years later, on December 15, 1791, when Virginia ratified the amendments constituting the required 3/4 of states necessary for an amendment to become part of the U. S. Constitution, 10 of 12 amendments that got enough votes became part of the U. S. Constitution, the ones we commonly refer to today as the "Bill of Rights," protecting essential civil liberties and legal fairness.
That's why I call North Carolina the "Birthplace of the Bill of Rights'" for the principled stance that delegates took to make sure those amendments were added.
Of course, in the sweep of history, what started in Orange County and Hillsborough and North Carolina began a continuing expansion of civil rights that continue today, marked by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments abolishing slavery, and extending citizenship and voting rights that continued with the 19th amendment that widened the scope of voting rights for women and the 26th amendment extending voting rights for 18 year olds, too. The continuing expansion of civil rights can be seen in the legal protections that American citizens who identify as LBGTQ enjoy today, as the rainbow flags flying over Hillsborough celebrate, too.
If good can come out of something bad, then the deaths of those brave men on June 19, 1771 is evidence of a long American tradition of citizens standing up for basic civil liberties and legal fairness that continue today.
The Regulator Marker stone, placed there in the 19th century, proclaims in hundreds of pounds of weathered marble, "We will never forget. We will always remember."
On Saturday, June 19th, at 6:00pm, just as descendants and those who care have done for 250 years, once again, the public will be invited to place flowers at the Regulator Marker site in remembrance and dedication.
Thank you to Orange County commissioners and county staff for all you do tirelessly to make Orange County a better place for residents and visitors. That's a legacy of caring and commitment that extends 250+ years.
In a larger sense, we are all descendants of those Regulators 250 years ago who spoke up and spoke out, who gathered peacefully and petitioned the government for redress of grievances, who had deeply held convictions of conscience even though they differed in how they expressed those convictions religiously, who believed in the power of the press, and legal fairness.
On Saturday, June 19th, at 6:00PM at the Regulator Marker Site in Cameron Park, in back of the Orange County Education Building (200 East King Street, Hillsborough 27278) people will once again peacefully gather for a few moments to remember with gratitude those who died doing the very things that define us all as Americans today.
It's a debt we owe future generations, too.
If any county staff or commissioners have further questions, feel free to contact me, too.
Gratefully,
Scott Washington, Local Historian, former Assistant Director of the Orange County Historical Museum, and Founder and Organizer of the Annual Regulator Remembrance Day Event, June 19th at 6:00PM (Cameron Park, behind the Orange County Board of Education building, 200 East King Street, Hillsborough, NC 27278), and cohost of the longest running "live" radio weekly segment celebrating history, called "History Matters" heard every week on the Aaron Keck Show on award winning WCHL in Chapel Hill, streamed globally on Chapelboro.com, and available as a podcast on Apple iTunes, too.
PS--I have written a comprehensive PDF about the 1771 Regulator Marker site and glad to send it to any of the commissioners or county staff if they're interested. The 1771 Regulator Marker site is one of the oldest of its kind in the nation, recognized locally and at the state level as a site of state wide historic significance, and at the federal level, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Hillsborough Historic District.