Tryon Resolves

The Tryon Resolves were a declaration adopted by citizens of Tryon County in the Province of North Carolina in the early days of the American Revolution. In the Resolves, adopted in response to the Battle of Lexington, the signers vowed resistance to coercive actions by the British Empire against its North American colonies. The document was signed on August 14, 1775, predating the United States Declaration of Independence by almost 11 months.

The Tryon Resolves were among the earliest of many local colonial declarations against the British government. Other similar declarations from the same period include the Mecklenburg Resolves adopted in nearby Mecklenburg County, North Carolina and the Suffolk Resolves adopted in Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

As tensions between the North American colonies and the British government increased, residents began forming Committees of Safety to prepare militia companies for a potential war. On September 14, 1775 many of the signers of the Tryon Resolves formed the Tryon County Militia in preparation for British retaliation against American revolutionaries.

Text of the Tryon Resolves

The unprecedented, barbarous and bloody actions committed by British troops on our American brethren near Boston, on 19th Apriland 20th of May last, together with the hostile operations and treacherous designs now carrying on, by the tools of ministerialvengeance, for the subjugation of all British America, suggest to us the painful necessity of having recourse to arms in defense of our National freedom and constitutional rights, against all invasions; and at the same time do solemnly engage to take up arms and risk our lives and our fortunes in maintaining the freedom of our country whenever the wisdom and counsel of the Continental Congress or our Provincial Convention shall declare it necessary; and this engagement we will continue in for the preservation of those rights and liberties which the principals of our Constitution and the laws of God, nature and nations have made it our duty to defend. We therefore, the subscribers, freeholders and inhabitants of Tryon County, do here by faithfully unite ourselves under the most solemn ties of religion, honor and love to our county, firmly to resist force by force, and hold sacred till a reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain and America on Constitutional principals, which we most ardently desire, and do firmly agree to hold all such persons as inimical to the liberties of America who shall refuse to sign this association.

igners

*John Walker
*Charles McLean
*Andrew Neel
*Thomas Beatty
*James Coburn
*Frederick Hambright
*Andrew Hampton
*Benjamin Hardin
*George Paris
*William Graham
*Robt. Alexander
*David Jenkins
*Thomas Espey
*Perrygreen Mackness (or Magness) [http://www.tngenweb.org/dekalb/pgmagness.htm]
*James McAfee
*William Thompson
*Jacob Forney
*Davis Whiteside
*John Beeman
*John Morris
*Joseph Harden
*John Robison
*James McIntyre
*Valentine Mauney
*George Black
*Jas. Logan
*Jas. Baird
*Christian Carpenter
*Abel Beatty
*Joab Turner
*Jonathan Price
*Jas. Miller
*John Dellinger
*Peter Sides
*William Whiteside
*Geo. Dellinger
*Samuel Carpenter
*Jacob Mauney, Jun.
*John Wells
*Jacob Costner
*Robert Hulclip
*James Buchanan
*Moses Moore
*Joseph Kuykendall
*Adam Simms
*Richard Waffer
*Samuel Smith
*Joseph Neel
*Samuel Loftin

External links

*Journeys Through Time: Nixon’s History of Lincoln County: The Revolutionary War Period. [http://lelawhisnant.net/journeysthrutime/id103.htm ]
*Library of Congress: Adventures of the American Mind: Student Activity Page [http://aam.govst.edu/projects/mkasik/student_page.htm ]
*Library of Congress: Adventures of the American Mind : Teachers Page [http://aam.govst.edu/projects/mkasik/instruct_design.htm ]
*Whiteside family signers of the Tryon Resolves [http://members.tripod.com/mmkasik/id23.htm ]
*Revolutionary Dig Saving Local History [http://www.ncdot.org/news/dailyclips/2002/02_07/2002-07-24o.html]