Source The Regulator Movement in North Carolina (mid‑1760s to 1771) grew out of everyday frustrations that many backcountry families experienced with taxes, courts, and local officials. After the French and Indian War, the British Empire tightened control and raised revenue , but in North Carolina the most pressing issue for ordinary settlers was how provincial and county officers applied those taxes and fees on the ground. For many small farmers in counties like Orange and the areas that would become Wake, the problem was not abstract British policy so much as very concrete abuses at the courthouse and in the sheriff’s office. Inequality: East vs. Backcountry A sharp divide separated wealthy planters and officeholders in the eastern counties from the poorer settlers in the Piedmont backcountry. Eastern elites dominated the Assembly and high offices; they set policies and often backed their own network of appointees. Backcountry farmers, working thinner soils and living far from ...