This episode finds us discovering the facts on North Carolina's very own version of the Boston Tea Party: The New Hanover Barbecue Party.
A similar but less remembered event took place seven years earlier in North Carolina. At the time, tensions were high over the recently enacted Stamp Act, which levied taxes on legal documents, newspapers, and magazines. Carolinians weren’t particularly receptive to the measure, and in 1766, the militia companies from several counties expressed their discontent by marching to the town of Brunswick and refusing to let a cargo of stamped paper be brought ashore.
Alarmed by the unrest, Governor William Tryon chose a conciliatory path. At the next militia muster in New Hanover, he prepared a feast for the troops that included a whole barbecued ox and several barrels of beer. Now, that seems like a pretty crafty move to me, but as it turns out, it wasn’t nearly enough. When called to the feast, the soldiers mocked Tryon’s hospitality, poured the beer onto the ground, and pitched the ox, untasted, into the Cape Fear River.
Well, I guess the alligators had a fine supper that night. New Hanover County is the area of North Carolina that includes Wilmington. I'm guessing that the Barbecue Party took place in or around Brunswick Town, which was the colonial capital for several decades before moving to New Bern.
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1 comment:
Awesome... what people always seen to forget: in the years after the French & Indian War, the people of North American small towns & farm villages were THE BEST FED ordinary people in the world. Militia 20-year-olds were several inches taller & much heavier than the Red-coats and the German mercenaries and, of course, sailors of all the world's Navies. [beef & beer, indeed...]
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