Enter Andrew Jackson
HARDLY had the business of the May meetings been completed before Mecklenburgers began planning for their participation in the session at Hillsboro in August of the North Carolina Provincial Congress.
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History Timeline
The Revolutionaries
MILLIONS of words, often impassioned and frequently more resonant than reasoned, have been spoken and countless tens of thousands have been written in letters, books, historical journals, magazines, and newspapers on the subject of the Mecklenburg declaration of indepenence. It has been one of the nation's liveliest historical controversies, a continuing debate that has engaged the interest of historians from time to time in many sections of the nation.
Colonial Period
SOCIAL historians studying the more than two-century story of Mecklenburg might well agree that this community's character has its roots in the independent-mindedness of her early citizenship. Theirs was a continuing struggle to achieve and maintain a new way of life.
The Beginnings
MECKLENBURGERS insist that few counties in America have as intriguing a story to tell as their own. They are convinced that Mecklenburg is unique; they declare that they can trace through their region's history from the earliest days a pattern of attitude and action demonstrably different from that of even the closest neighbors.
Prologue
AND NOW the rolling gentle hills of northeastern Mecklenburg, the warm red clay of his native county. Home again, and good to be home.
Acknowledgments
THE writing of history more than any other literary enterprise puts writers in debt to other people. Historians, if left to their own devices, would never find much of the important data that gives color and life to their work. One of the wonders of civilized life is that there should be so many people willing to go to a great deal of trouble for a handful of infinitely less agreeable individuals who regard it as their mission to write books.
Foreword
INFORMAL in approach, this history of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and written under direction of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
The book is planned to serve two purposes. The first is to provide an interesting narrative history of city and county. The other is to serve as a reference book for answering the questions most frequently asked about the locality and its citizens.
Mecklenburg Resolves
Charlotte Town, Mecklenburg County, May 31, 1775
THIS day the Committee of this County met, and passed the following RESOLVES:
Home Life and Recreation
THE first Mecklenburgers, according to historian D. A. Tompkins, were producers. They believed than any work, so it was faithfully and honestly done, was worth doing, and that manhood was more than wealth. Mecklenburg could have existed comfortably cut off from the rest of the world. That makes a people feel independent . . .
Charlotte in Time of War
THE battle of Charlotte is given scant attention in general histories of the Revolution, but the battle marked the turning point in the fortunes of the British. Never thereafter did the enemy wage a very successful offensive. Unlike the Mecklenburg declaration of independence, about which some have had doubts, no serious question has arisen about Charlotte's part in the Revolution.