New Bern

New Bern, North Carolina: The Colonial Capital That Defied an Empire

Long before the first shots rang out at Lexington and Concord, the seeds of revolution were germinating in the streets of New Bern, North Carolina. As the colonial capital and seat of royal governance, New Bern occupied a unique position in the American struggle for independence — it was simultaneously the headquarters of British authority in the colony and a crucible of patriot resistance. The town's story encompasses the full arc of the Revolution, from the earliest stirrings of discontent in the late 1760s through the final British raids of 1782, and its history illuminates themes central to the broader American experience: the tension between centralized authority and local self-governance, the painful fracturing of communities along loyalist and patriot lines, and the courage required to dismantle one political order and construct another in its place.

To understand New Bern's revolutionary significance, one must begin with the building that came to symbolize everything the patriots opposed. In 1770, Royal Governor William Tryon presided over the completion of Tryon Palace, an elegant Georgian structure that served as both the governor's residence and the colonial capitol. Designed by English architect John Hawks — the first professionally trained architect to practice in North Carolina — the palace was by far the most ambitious public building in colonial North Carolina, and its construction came at enormous cost. The colonial Assembly had initially appropriated just £5,000 in December 1766, but Tryon insisted that the building could not be constructed "in the plainest manner" for less than £10,000, and an additional £10,000 was subsequently appropriated to ensure completion. The final cost reached at least £15,000, financed largely through poll taxes and liquor levies imposed on the colony's citizens, many of whom lived in hardscrabble conditions on the frontier. The palace was built by both paid and enslaved laborers , a fact that further underscored the inequities embedded in the colonial order. Tryon staged a grand gala to celebrate the palace's official opening on December 5, 1770, but even as guests toasted the new seat of government, the building's extravagance was generating fierce opposition. Notably, during construction, a powerful hurricane struck New Bern in September 1769, destroying two-thirds of the buildings in the city — yet the palace, already under roof, survived the storm, a fact that underscored both the building's solidity and the contrast between royal investment in the governor's quarters and neglect of ordinary colonists' welfare. The palace was intended to project the grandeur and permanence of royal authority, but it achieved the opposite effect. Backcountry settlers, already resentful of what they perceived as corrupt and unresponsive eastern elites, saw the palace as a monument to aristocratic excess. This resentment fueled the Regulator Movement, a grassroots uprising of western North Carolinians who demanded fairer taxation, transparent government, and honest courts. Governor Tryon quelled this movement at the Battle of Alamance in 1771 , but the grievances that had animated the Regulators did not die at Alamance — they migrated into the broader patriot cause.

Three years later, New Bern became the site of a remarkable act of colonial defiance. During August 25–27, 1774, seventy-one elected delegates representing 30 of 36 counties and 6 of 9 boroughs met at the Craven County Court House in New Bern for what became known as the First North Carolina Provincial Congress. It was the first Provincial Congress held in America in open defiance of royal authority . John Harvey, the Speaker of the Colonial Assembly, had distributed handbills urging people to elect delegates , and Governor Josiah Martin issued a proclamation forbidding attendance and commanding justices-of-the-peace and Sheriffs to prevent it — but the proclamation was ignored . Harvey served as moderator of the congress , which met just blocks from Tryon Palace itself. In response to the unjust taxes and laws, especially those outlined in the Intolerable Acts, twenty-eight resolutions or "resolves" were issued , focusing on the rights of British American subjects and economic sanctions against Great Britain. These "New Bern Resolves" affirmed loyalty to the Crown while insisting that colonists could not be taxed without their consent. The congress also adopted a nonimportation agreement against any East India Company or British manufacturers' goods after January 1, 1775, unless the laws were rescinded , and William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and Richard Caswell were elected as delegates to the 1st Continental Congress . The New Bern Resolves were subsequently presented at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia that September, and had a significant influence on the Articles of Association adopted there. The second Provincial Congress met again in New Bern the following April (April 3–7, 1775), ignoring Martin's decree that it was illegal, and with 48 of the 68 assembly members in attendance, the delegates approved the actions of the Continental Congress — prompting an incensed Martin to dissolve what turned out to be the last Provincial Assembly .

As revolution approached, New Bern's Committee of Safety emerged as a crucial institution of patriot governance. Committees of Safety, established in late 1774 and early 1775, enforced the Continental Association banning all trade with Britain, spread Whig propaganda, made military preparations, enforced price ceilings on strategic items, and seized imported goods . On May 31, 1775, the New Bern Committee of Safety passed a strongly worded set of resolves calling for support for the armed struggle against England , a sharp escalation from the still-loyal tone of the 1774 resolves. Among the committee's prominent members was Richard Cogdell, whose future son-in-law, the merchant John Wright Stanly, would become one of the most consequential patriots in eastern North Carolina.

The crisis reached its climax in May 1775. When word of the Lexington skirmish arrived in New Bern on May 6, open warfare seemed inevitable; North Carolina newspaper editor James Davis wrote, "The Sword is now drawn, and God knows when it will be sheathed."

Governor Martin complained to a correspondent that townsmen in New Bern were "actually endeavoring to form what they call independent Companies under my nose."

In mid-May, Martin removed the cannons from their mounts at the palace; within days, a "motley mob" appeared at his door demanding to know why the guns had been dismounted, and the governor offered the unconvincing explanation that the mounts were rotten . Concerned for the safety of his family, Martin packed his wife and children off to New York, and then, under cover of darkness, the governor himself quietly stole away from the palace . According to one account, he "spiked the cannon and buried all ammunition and military accouterments beneath the cabbage bed in the palace garden" before departing. Martin fled to Fort Johnston, a strategic fort near the mouth of the Cape Fear River , where he hoped to rally Loyalist support to retake the colony — a plan that ultimately collapsed with the patriot victory at Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776.

With the royal governor gone, rebels seized the Palace and retained it as their seat of government