Halifax Resolves: First Colony Votes for Independence

North Carolina became the first colony to officially authorize its delegates to vote for independence from Britain when the Fourth Provincial Congress passed the Halifax Resolves on April 12, 1776. The resolution, adopted unanimously in the town of Halifax, empowered North Carolina's delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to "concur with the delegates of the other Colonies in declaring Independency." No colonial government had previously taken this explicit step. The move came after months of escalating conflict. British Royal Governor Josiah Martin had fled the colony in July 1775, and North Carolina militia had defeated a force of Loyalists at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776. Thomas Paine's Common Sense, published in January, had shifted public opinion dramatically toward independence. The Provincial Congress, meeting in Halifax, sensed that the political moment had arrived. The Halifax Resolves did not themselves declare independence. They authorized North Carolina's Continental Congress delegates, including Joseph Hewes and William Hooper, to join with other colonies in making such a declaration. This distinction mattered because it preserved the appearance of collective action rather than unilateral secession. Other colonies quickly followed, with Virginia passing similar resolves in May and the Continental Congress adopting Richard Henry Lee's resolution for independence in July. The date of the Halifax Resolves, April 12, appears on the North Carolina state flag and seal, reflecting the state's pride in leading the independence movement. The document demonstrated that by spring 1776, the question was no longer whether the colonies would separate from Britain but when and how. Three months later, the Declaration of Independence formalized what North Carolina had already authorized, and the delegates who signed it in Philadelphia included the men Halifax had empowered to do so.