Charlotte Mecklenburg and the Birth of a Nation, Ours!

July 3rd, 2008 categories: Charlotte Living

Wow! Wake up today and the celebrated columnist and wordsmith George Will is writing about Charlotte Mecklenburg! Named for George the III’s wife Charlotte – our town played an instrumental part in the birth of our nation. Mr. Will writes about the underappreciated role Charlotte Mecklenburg’s Captain James Jack played in our nation’s independence, our MeckDec! He writes, “The impatient patriots here had splendidly short fuses in 1775. Those who tilled the startlingly red clay or who lived in the town named for George III’s wife Charlotte…”

According to a long-held local tradition, the citizens of Mecklenburg County declared themselves independent of Great Britain on May 20, 1775 – more than a year before similar action was taken by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Paul Rever rode around town sounding the alarm whereas in 1775 our own Captain Jack rode the full 547 miles Charlotte to Philadelphia to deliver on paper the spirit of Charlotte which Lord Cornwallis fittingly described as “a hornet’s nest of rebellion”.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 am and is filed under Charlotte Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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