Tag Archives: liberties

Almost a year before the US Declaration of Independence was signed, a group of patriots in Tryon County NC, just west of Charlotte, signed The Tryon Resolves. The Tryon Resolves, signed in August 14, 1775, was a list of grievances against the British government in response to the battle of Lexington. During the revolution, the area around Charlotte was referred to as a hornet’s nest because of the fierce opposition the british encountered. In fact, one of the worst defeats the british suffered was at the Battle of Kings Mountain, just west of Charlotte. Here is the text of The Tryon Resolves, followed by a photo of the signatures.
The unprecedented, barbarous and bloody actions committed by British troops on our American brethren near Boston, on 19th April and 20th of May last, together with the hostile operations and treacherous designs now carrying on, by the tools of ministerial vengeance, 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.