May 16, 1771

North Carolina Regulators Crushed at Alamance Creek

The protests of almost 6,000 small farmers in western North Carolina against a provincial assembly they believed was under control of the merchants and lawyers only interested in burying the farmers in debt erupted into violence in the spring of 1771. At the Battle of Alamance Creek, militia under Governor William Tryon destroy the Regulators and execute six of the movemen's leaders. The rest are pardoned.