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America250: The People of North Carolina in the American Revolution
May 20, 2023 9:00 am – 5:00 pm EDT
The People of North Carolina in the American Revolution
As the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America approaches, the North Carolina Genealogical Society is partnering with the NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources and the Friends of the Archives to explore and to celebrate some of the diverse groups of North Carolinians who helped shape the history of the state and the country: women and men, young and old, patriots and loyalists, immigrants and indigenous, the free and the enslaved.
Registration for this event has closed.
- Date: Saturday, May 20, 2023
- Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm (doors open at 8:00 am for registration check-in)
- Where: NC State Archives and Library, 109 E. Jones St, Raleigh, NC
- Cost: $45 per person ($40 for members of NCGS or Friends of the Archives)
In-person or live-streamed.
Topics and Speakers
Keynote: The Many North Carolinas of the American Revolution*
John A. Ruddiman, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History at Wake Forest University
As the generation-long American Revolution accelerated, the peoples of North Carolina’s diverse regions and communities weighed decisions over allegiance and action.
“Uppity Women” Make History in Edenton, NC*
Alexis Tobias-Jacavone, Director of History and Communications for the Edenton Historical Commission
In January of 1775, newspapers throughout Great Britain shared a rather strange story with their readers–in the previous October, 51 women from the restless American colonies decided to organize their own boycott of British goods to protest taxation without representation. In a time when female voices were not welcome in politics, these ladies not only put their families’ reputations and livelihoods at stake, but they also risked turning the Crown’s wrath to their charming port town of Edenton, North Carolina. Who were these “uppity women”, and why did they dare to make their voices heard in the “Edenton Tea Party”?
North Carolina Loyalists (In-person only)
W. Becket Soule, OP
Of the thirteen colonies, North Carolina had the largest Loyalist population after New York. This talk will review the reasons why so many North Carolinians remained loyal to the Crown during and after the American Revolution, what documentation is available to research descent from a Loyalist ancestor, and where Loyalists migrated after the end of the Revolution.
NC Militia or Continental Line: Where are the Records?*
Craig R. Scott, MA, CG®, FUGA
Determining whether an ancestor served in the militia, Continental Line or both is the key to knowing where to find the service records. Locating and analyzing pay vouchers, account books, pensions, final settlements, land grants, and Secretary of State Records provides valuable information for genealogists.
The Quakers: Between a Rock and a Hard Place (In-person only)
Ron Osborne
Wait! Weren’t all Quakers in Pennsylvania? You mean some were here in North Carolina? And what were they doing smack dab in the middle of a war? From pacifists to prisoners to patriots, from agitators to helpless bystanders, with loyalists, soldiers and even generals thrown in for good measure, Quakers found themselves in the thick of the war. Their places of worship and homes were battlefields, hospitals and burial grounds. Meet some of these Friends and see how their presence had a significant influence on the American Revolution, particularly so here in North Carolina.
African American & Indigenous Patriots of the Revolutionary War in North Carolina*
Kevin Graham, Tyrone Goodwyn and Luke Alexander
In the state of North Carolina, over 400 men of African and Native American descent can be identified within the muster rolls of the Continental Army in the American Revolution. As direct descendants of several of these patriots, researchers Kevin Graham, Tyrone Goodwyn and Luke Alexander please ask you to join them in an exploration of what the fight for freedom meant to these brave founding fathers whose stories have not as often been told.
The Regulator Movement: New Research (In-person only)
Mark Chilton, Orange County Register of Deeds
Presenting his in-depth research into land ownership, neighborhoods, and religious affiliations in three rural settlements that were part of Orange County in the late colonial period, Chilton explains the connection between settlement patterns, membership in denominations including Presbyterian, Lutheran, German Reformed, and Baptist, and involvement in the Regulator Movement. His detailed maps include land ownership in three areas: along Buffalo and Alamance Creeks; surrounding the convergence of the Trading Path and the Cape Fear Road; and near the Sandy Creek Baptist Church.
Documenting the World of Outlander*
Joshua Hager and Alison Thurman, State Archives of NC staff
This presentation explores real documents connected to the fictional world of the popular TV series Outlander, based on the books by best-selling author Diana Gabaldon, and featured in the NC State Archives “Documenting the World of Outlander” blog series. Josh and Alison will lead a lively conversation about which records Jamie and Claire Fraser would have created or seen in their time in colonial and revolutionary North Carolina. Specific topics include military records, maps, land grants, and records documenting interactions with members of the Cherokee Nation.
*These sessions will be live-streamed and available to view on the day of the event with the purchase of an event ticket. Sessions will not be recorded.
Speaker Biographies (click to open)
John A. Ruddiman
John A. Ruddiman is an Associate Professor of History at Wake Forest University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University. His first book, Becoming Men of Some Consequence: Youth and Military Service in the Revolutionary War (2014), explores the lives of young men in the Continental army. That project has led to essays on “General Orders” and orderly books in the Continental Army, George Rogers Clark’s campaign in Illinois, Samuel Shaw’s voyage as the first American consul in China, and Traugott Bagge’s writings as a North Carolina Moravian historian of the Revolution.
He is currently researching the place of slavery in the Revolution using soldiers’ travel writing during the War of American Independence. These texts illustrate diverse and changing relationships among enslaved people and American and European combatants. Across these projects, his work as a historian of Revolutionary America explores how people built their lives, reshaped their communities, and constructed meaning for themselves and for posterity.
Alexis Tobias-Jacavone
Alexis Tobias-Jacavone is the Director of History and Communications for the Edenton Historical Commission (EHC). After earning her bachelor’s degree from Providence College in 2015, she trained as a Historic Interpreter through the North Carolina State Historic Sites. She has been studying the Edenton Tea Party since 2018, and leads the EHC’s Research Task Force to shed more light on the intricate relationships between the 51 participants.
W. Becket Soule, OP
Becket Soule has taught classical languages, law, and history at the Catholic University of America, the Dominican House of Studies (Washington, DC), the Pontifical College Josephinum (Columbus, OH), and Oxford University, and retired as Professor of Canon Law at St Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario. He has been visiting lecturer and fellow at other institutions of higher studies in the United States, Great Britain, and the Ukraine, and has served as an official of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches in Rome; Becket has also served Anglican and Catholic parishes in Texas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and England. He is now pastor of St Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church in Maggie Valley, NC.
Becket is descended from a dozen Mayflower passengers and is a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants (currently Deputy Governor and Elder of the Canadian Society, and Secretary and Historian of the NC Society), and editor for the George Soule “silver book.” He is also a member of the Society of Colonial Wars and the United Empire Loyalist Association and is on the Board of Directors of Soule Kindred in America and Delano Kindred, where he serves as research committee chairman. Becket is NCGS Secretary and the Book Review Editor of the NCGS Journal. His current quest (or obsession) is to track down his ancestors in Proprietary North Carolina.
Craig R. Scott, MA, CG®, FUGA
Craig Roberts Scott, MA, CG®, FUGA is the author of The ‘Lost Pensions’: Settled Accounts of the Act of 6 April 1838 (Revised) and Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of the Treasury, Inventory 14 (Revised). His most recent work is Understanding Revolutionary War and Invalid Pension Ledgers, 1818 – 1872, and the Payment Vouchers They Represent. He has authored seventeen books and several articles in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, and other genealogical publications. He is the President and CEO of Heritage Books, Inc., a genealogical publishing firm with over 9,500 titles in print. A professional genealogical and historical researcher for more than thirty-five years, he specializes in military records, problem-solving, Quakers, and publishing.
He is a member of the Company of Military Historians and on the editorial board of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. He is a former Treasurer and Director of the Association of Professional Genealogists. He has been a faculty member or coordinator of research tracks in the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, Samford University and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, and the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh. He is currently the Coordinator of the SLIG Guided Research and Consultation Track, helping students solve their brick wall problems. He has coordinated many Heritage Books, Genealogical Conference and Cruises. He is the host of the YouTube Just Genealogy channel.
He is a recipient of the Grahame T. Smallwood, Jr. Award and UGA Silver Tray Award. He became a Fellow, Utah Genealogical Association in 2014.
Ron Osborne
Ron Osborne, in the ninth generation of his family growing up in the Centre Friends Meeting community of rural Guilford County, developed a love of history and for learning more about his family’s stories. The first of those accounts were given to him while at the knee of his grandparents and elders, listening to their recollections. Leaving home, Ron earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and became a licensed professional engineer, embarking on a 35-year utility career. All the while, he continued to explore history, and collect family stories. Retiring in 2019 as the emergency preparedness manager for Duke Energy’s North and South Carolina distribution system, history continues to remain his first passion.
An amateur historian, Ron and his wife of 33 years, Elizabeth, raised their three kids on their small farm in southern Alamance County. The two of them still live there, devoting time to the cadence of farm life, traveling broadly, and maintaining an active presence in their congregation, Spring Friends Meeting, and within numerous social justice, progressive initiatives.
Kevin Eugene Graham
Kevin Eugene Graham is a native of Brunswick County, NC. His parents are the late Malon Graham, Sr. of East Arcadia, NC, and the late Dora Jane Kelly Graham of Winnabow, NC. Kevin is a graduate of Elizabeth City State University. He is married to Adrienne Allen Graham and has three daughters, La’Quanta, Akira, and Kamisha. He also has three granddaughters, Ma’Kayla, Lia, and EllaRose.
Kevin is a proud descendant of several patriots who fought in the American Revolutionary War. His patriot ancestors were John Blanks, Sr., Zachariah Jacobs (Holmes), and Shadrack Chavis, Sr., all of whom were free men of color from Bladen County and New Hanover County, North Carolina. His research as a historian and genealogist has focused primarily on free families of color from the counties of Bladen, Columbus, New Hanover, Robeson, Pender, and Sampson, prior to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. His research is available on his family website graham-reunion.com.
On February 21, 2020, Kevin accepted the position of President of the Lower Cape Fear Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), as the first African American to hold the position. Today, Kevin serves as Historian and Registrar for the chapter.
Luke Alexander
Luke Alexander is a genealogist and community historian focusing on African-American and Indigenous heritage in the Carolinas. He has ancestry from several of the earliest recorded families of African origin in America, along with being of direct descent from the Lumbee, Waccamaw and Cape Fear Native-American nations.
Luke serves as vice-president of the Benjamin and Edith Spaulding Descendants Foundation, Inc. engaged in philanthropic activities in his ancestral hometown Farmers Union, NC. Luke is an inducted member of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) with lineage from his 4th great-grandfather William (Loughry) Lowry (1758-1847), a patriot ancestor of the Lumbee and Tuscarora communities of Robeson County, NC. Luke also serves as Librarian General of the Society of the First African Families of English America (SOFAFEA).
Luke has provided historical commentary on-air for WECT News, the NBC affiliate in Wilmington, NC. With co-author Andre Kearns, Luke was published in the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) Journal (2020) and the inaugural SOFAFEA Journal (2022) with articles on their shared ancestor Emanuel Cumbo, a free man of Angolan descent who owned land near Jamestown, Virginia circa 1667. Luke is also an administrator of DNA research projects with Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) and GEDmatch.
Tyrone S. Goodwyn
Tyrone S. Goodwyn is a child of southeast North Carolina. His mother was Daphine Jacobs of Burgaw in Pender County. He has spent his entire life regularly visiting that community where free Jacobs first landed in North Carolina circa 1750s. As a Jacobs, he is related to all of the other free person of color surnames across the region. In his teens, he started interviewing his elders in the surrounding counties.
Mr. Goodwyn holds undergraduate degrees in Marketing Management and in Management Information Systems from Old Dominion University; an MBA in Marketing from the College of William and Mary; and a Master of Information Systems from George Mason University. He was a Systems Architect and Technical Director in the telecommunications industry for decades.
Since his retirement he has worked full time researching and publishing the stories of SE NC FPOC. He is currently partnering with Colonial Williamsburg and the various Custis museums to reconnect the families of the enslaved across time and across the various plantations, and to build a web platform to make it accessible.
Mark Chilton
Mark Chilton is the Register of Deeds of Orange County, North Carolina. While an undergraduate studying Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he ran for and was elected to the Chapel Hill Town Council in 1991. Mark attended North Carolina Central University School of Law and has been a member of the North Carolina State Bar since 1997. Mark has remained involved in local government in Orange County ever since – on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen and as Mayor of Carrboro. He was elected Register of Deeds in 2014.
As Register of Deeds, Mark has emphasized making Orange County’s extensive historical documents available on the internet and has created extensive indexes and other finding aids to make these records more readily accessible. His interest in the history of Orange County has led him to carefully examine Orange County’s land records and court records related to the Regulator Uprising of 1766-1771, records related to slavery in Orange County. He is currently developing finding aids for information about free people of color who lived in Orange County prior to the Civil War.
Mark lives in Carrboro with his wife Rebecca and has two sons and a stepdaughter.
Josh Hager
Josh Hager is the Records Description Unit Supervisor at the State Archives of North Carolina, where his team works to make government records more accessible and discoverable. He previously served as a Records Analyst and a Reference Archivist at the State Archives of North Carolina. Josh is a “Triangle Triple,” holding a BA from Duke University in History, a Master’s in Public History from North Carolina State University, and a Master’s in Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Josh also serves on the Executive Board of the Society of North Carolina Archivists and as the Co-Chair for Advocacy for the Council of State Archivists’ State Electronic Records Initiative
Alison Thurman
Alison Thurman is the Correspondence Unit Supervisor at the State Archives North Carolina, which serves to provide reference services remotely for members of the public who are unable to visit the State Archives in person. Alison has served in a variety of positions at the State Archives, including over 12 years as a reference archivist in the Public Services Unit. She is a native of Kinston, North Carolina and holds a BA in History from Meredith College and a MA in Public History from North Carolina State University.
She enjoys community outreach which allows her the opportunity share the history and culture documented by collections at the State Archives of North Carolina and she is excited to share her combined interest in Outlander and North Carolina history with fans of the books and television show and history buffs.
America250 – NC Schedule (click to view)
Additional Information
- A variety of exhibitors will be located in the lobby area.
- Representatives from the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) will be available to answer questions.
- Some of the sessions will run concurrently and not all sessions will be live-streamed.
- Recording of lectures is not permitted.
- The syllabus will be available for all attendees to download from the NCGS website. In-person attendees can order a printed syllabus for an additional charge of $5. (Link may be found on the In-Person ticket page.)
- Coffee, tea and snacks will be provided for in-person attendees.
- Boxed lunches are available for in-person attendees with ticket purchase for an additional cost of $14 each. (Link may be found on the In-Person ticket page.) Attendees are welcome to bring their own lunch.
- Last day to register and order a boxed lunch is May 13th.
Downloadable, printable PDF Flyer for America 250-NC
Registration will close at midnight on 13 May 2022. All checks submitted as payment must be received no later than 13 May 2023.
Purchasing Tickets: Scroll down to the “Register” buttons below to access tickets for either In-Person or Virtual Attendance. Tickets for the optional box lunch and optional printed syllabus are available using the links provided on the In-Person ticket page.
Refund Policy: A full refund will be given if request is received on or before 13 May 2023. No refunds will be given for requests received after 13 May 2023.
Between 14 and 18 May, registrants will be sent an email with a link to attend the event virtually, as well as a link to the syllabus.
NCGS members, please log in before purchasing tickets to take advantage of NCGS member pricing.
Friends of the Archives members: at checkout use the coupon code you have been provided.
(These discounts cannot be combined.)
Not a member? Take advantage of NCGS member pricing by first joining NCGS. Newly joining members must first purchase a membership and then log in with their member credentials to receive the member discount. Visit the Membership section of the website to see available plans.