Many North Carolinians expressed Antifederalist sympathies and were skeptical of giving the national government more authority, especially without a Bill of Rights added to the Constitution. There might be problems with the Articles of Confederation, sure, but did Americans, many Tar Heels questioned, need to hurriedly give the national government more power?
First, there was the Halifax Resolves. Then there was the Declaration of Independence.
North Carolinians’ skeptical approach to government power helped pave the way for a U.S. Bill of Rights.
Cornelius Harnett, was an American merchant, farmer, and statesman from Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a leading American Revolutionary in the Cape Fear region and a delegate for North Carolina in the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1779.
North Carolina’s violent crime rate is the 18th highest in the country, and the Tar Heel State’s use of capital punishment ranks them in 5th place in the nation.
During the 2009 Session of the General Assembly, Senator Floyd McKissick(D) from Durham County introduced the Racial Justice Act SB461. The act provides a process by which statistical evidence could be used to establish that race was the basis for seeking or obtaining the death penalty in any case. The Act allows pre-trial defendants and inmates on death row the opportunity to challenge the decision to seek or impose capital punishment.
The Halifax Resolves is the name later given to a resolution adopted by the Fourth Provincial Congress of the Province of North Carolina on April 12, 1776. The resolution was a forerunner of the United States Declaration of Independence.
On the eve of the American Revolution, the Vestry of St. Paul’s Church in Edenton wrote the “Test”, and it became a catalyst for fanning the flames of independence within the colony of North Carolina. Written approximately a month before the Declaration of Independence, the "Test" proved to be the church’s own declaration of independence.
Rev. Daniel Earle from Edenton publicly stood against Britain and their infractions of the rights of free peoples.
North Carolina developed four different state seals during the colonial period and there have been six state seals since North Carolina declared its independence. While the Great Seal changed many times throughout North Carolina history, some variations on symbols have remained and appear on the current Great Seal.