Book Description

This study details the accomplishments of the whig gentry of backcountry North Carolina during the American Revolution. During this time the backcountry was the scene of a savage civil war between whigs and tories. The region's whig leadership strove both to defeat the tories in a grueling guerilla [that is, guerrilla] war and at the same time to create a government that was capable of imposing order and stability on the area. This study uses land claims, tax records, and census results that attest to the wealth and affluence of the whig leadership. Local court records demonstrate their political power and show the type of government they created in backcountry. Accounts of the war in backcountry North Carolina used in this study include those of participants and of neutral groups such as the Moravians. Letters and accounts by British officers attest to the effect of the whig victory on British strategy in the southern theater. Additionally, many secondary accounts of both backcountry life and the military struggle are drawn upon. The whigs were victorious because their leaders were effective military men who successfully prevented the creation of any tory force capable of challenging their authority. They were also successful in establishing a government that offered war-weary backcountry citizens the promise of peace and stability. Their crowning achievement was their successful defence of the backcountry order they had created when they defeated Major Patrick Ferguson at King's Mountain in 1780. This whig victory not only solidified their control over their own area, but forged the first link in a chain of events that would see the British driven out of the Carolinas to defeat at Yorktown.