Mecklenburg Resolves Adopted: North Carolina Declares Independence

Citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, allegedly adopted resolutions on May 31, 1775, declaring British authority null and void, one of the earliest colonial assertions of independence. The Mecklenburg Resolves, sometimes called the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, purportedly stated that all laws and commissions derived from royal authority were "annulled and vacated" and that the colonial government was dissolved. If authentic, the document would predate the Declaration of Independence by more than a year. The authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration has been debated by historians for over two centuries. The original document was reportedly destroyed in a fire in 1800, and the text was reconstructed from memory by participants decades later. John Adams expressed skepticism when he learned of it. Thomas Jefferson dismissed it as a fabrication. Supporters of the document's authenticity point to contemporary newspaper accounts and the testimony of the men who claimed to have been present at the meeting. Critics note that the reconstructed text bears suspicious similarities to the actual Declaration of Independence, suggesting that the recollections were contaminated by later events. A separate set of resolutions, the Mecklenburg Resolves of May 31, 1775, are generally accepted as authentic. These resolves declared the authority of Parliament to be suspended but did not go as far as declaring independence from the Crown. The distinction matters because it determines whether North Carolina or Virginia was first to formally repudiate British authority. Regardless of the historical debate, the Mecklenburg Declaration became a point of deep state pride. The date May 20, 1775, appears on the North Carolina state flag and state seal, and North Carolina celebrates "Meck Dec Day" annually.