Piedmont colonists (including those living in Wake County, now just two years young ) lived with a mix of routine frontier hardship and growing political stress as the colony inched toward revolution. Day‑to‑day life was physically demanding and often uncertain.  With only a few poor roads in and out of the area, travel and trade with the coast and Virginia was limited. They had to produce most everything for themselves and barter for what they couldn't make and hope to bring in a bit of cash if they managed a good bargain with their neighbors.  They lived in a subsistance economy that required hands-on effort for everything - clearing land, planting seed, tending animals, working fields, building homes, barns and fences, making their own cloth, soap and food items that didn't grow from the ground. The Regulator uprising   th at had just been chaotically resolved, had already left many backcountry farmers angry at corrupt officials and unfair taxes. By 1773,  neighbo...

Imagine living in a time when it took months to know what was happening in your own "little corner of the world" as well as the Colonies at large. North Carolina did not have a dedicated newspaper until 1751. The first local newspaper, the North Carolina Gazette, was published in New Bern roughly weekly.  Imagine going through the chaotic times leading up to the Revolution with no timely account of the world, local or global. Colonists of NC had to wait weeks and sometimes months for updates from England and other colonies. Not knowing the events was difficult, but not seening the rising tide of dissent had to be disconcerting as well.  Events such as the French and Indian War and the Native raids against the western NC settlements that we talked about earlier took a toll on the general morale of the colonists. The punative decrees and regulations yet to come against the colonists as a result of their resistance to the King and his agents added a further layer of divisiveness...