1763-French & Indian War ends.
1764: Parliament passes the Sugar Act as a way to raise more revenue to pay off the debt from the French & Indian War. North Carolina becomes one of only 2 provinces that branded the Sugar Act of 1764 as a tax and violation of the British Constitution (along with New York)
1765-Parliament passes the Stamp Act. Protests break out in North Carolina in Cross Creek, Edenton, New Bern and Wilmington.
1766-1771: Regulator Rebellion
June 1770-Robert Rowan, Farqhuard Campbell and Walter Gibson join the Sons of Liberty of North Carolina.
August 1774- The first Provincial Congress of North Carolina meets in response to Britain’s ‘Intolerable Acts,’ in defiance of Royal Governor Josiah Martin. Farquard Campbell and Thomas Rutherford represent Cumberland County. They both later became Loyalists.
April 8, 1775-Governor Martin dissolves North Carolina’s colonial assembly.
April 19, 1775-The Battle of Lexington and Concord take place.
May 20, 1775- The Mecklenburg Declaration is claimed to have taken place in Mecklenburg County (the accuracy of the event is disputed to this day, most scholars believe it is only a legend).
June 19, 1775-The Wilmington-New Hanover Safety Committee publish their Association.
June 20, 1775- Cumberland Patriots sign their Cumberland Association (Liberty Point Resolves) led by Robert Rowan.
November 1775-Robert Rowan leads a band of Patriots (including later Loyalists Maurice Nowland and Aaron Vardy) to intercept a letter meant for Governor Martin that was being carried by Capt. Walter Cunningham.
Feb 13, 1776- Col. Thomas Rutherford, head of Cumberland County’s minutemen, publicly releases a proclamation calling on people to join “the King’s Royal Standard at Cross Creek”, and oppose the Patriots.
Feb 27, 1776-Battle of Moores Creek Bridge takes place. Cols. Caswell and Moore follow Capt. Robert Rowan’s suggestion, leading to Patriot victory. 26 signers fought for the Patriots, and two Liberty Point Resolves signers, Aaron Vardy and Maurice Nowland, fought for the Loyalists and were captured after the battle.
April 12, 1776- The Halifax Resolves take place.
May 1776-The North Carolina Provincial Congress investigates the conduct of the Loyalists. Four former members of the Provincial Congress had become Loyalists: Farquard Campbell, Thomas Rutherford, Alexander McKay and James Hepburn. All were from Cumberland County.
September 23, 1776-Aaron Vardy escapes from prison in Fredericktown, Maryland and makes his way back to North Carolina before later going to Philadelphia.
Summer 1777-Robert Rowan and William Gillespie are accused of being Loyalists. Liberty Point Resolves signer Walter Murray was involved in both accusations.
Summer 1777-The North Carolina Assembly passes an act requiring residents to make loyalty oaths to the new government; if residents refuse, they are told to leave the state and will have their land confiscated.
April-August 1778-Robert Rowan is promoted to Colonel of the Cumberland militia regiment, but Lt Col Philip Alston raises a fit, saying he deserved the appointment. In August, Rowan gracefully resigned his commission, and Alston becomes Col.
October 1780-Maurice Nowland escaped from a jail in Reading, Pennsylvania and joins the British in New York. He later moves to England after the war.
March/April 1781- Cornwallis passes through Cross Creek after the battle of Guilford Courthouse. Lewis Bowell’s bakery is raided by British troops when Cornwallis comes through but he manages to survive.
April 1781-Robert Rowan and Thomas Cabeen go to Wilmington to try to recover some escaped enslaved individuals who had escaped when the British had come through Cross Creek.
July 1781- Thomas Cabeen appeals to the legislature for redress, as Joshua Hadley had stolen one of his enslaved women. Hadley had gained a reputation for using the conflict to steal property from those who lived around him. The legislature denied Cabeen’s petition.
Sometime in 1781-Robert Rowan, Theopolius Evans and Thomas Sewel are captured by Loyalists who meant to hang them. But Rowan and the others snuck up the chimney in the middle of the night and escaped. Loyalists then raided Susannah Rowan’s house looking for Robert, and threatened to kill her, but she refused to tell them where he was, so they eventually left.
July 29, 1781-The House on the Horseshoe battle takes places between Tory raider David Fanning and Philip Alston. Alston’s wife saves them from destruction.
August 14, 1781-Cross Creek is raided by Tory Col. Hector McNeil, resulting in the capture of Col. James Emmet, Robert Rowan and a couple other government officials.
August 27, 1781-Battle of Elizabethtown takes place in Bladen County, and after the Patriot victory, they free some of the prisoners that had been captured in the Cross Creek raid. Loyalist power in the Cumberland region starts to decline after this victory.
August 1781-Piney Bottom Massacre.
Fall 1781-Sheriff Thomas Hadley is killed by Loyalists in a raid on his home.
September 8, 1781-Battle of Eutaw Springs, the last major battle in the Carolinas, involved multiple Liberty Point Resolves signers.
1783-Cross Creek becomes Fayetteville. Rowan and Lewis Barge serve as early commissioners of the town.
1785-James Dick publicly horsewhips signer Thomas Cabeen and Mary Brown for their “many immoralities.”
November/December 1786-The North Carolina General Assembly waives fine on James Dick after receiving a petition from Fayetteville residents urging the fines to be rescinded, led by Robert Rowan.
November 1789- The Constitution is ratified in Fayetteville.
December 1789- UNC is chartered, making it the first public university in the United States.
March 29, 1836-The last Liberty Point Resolves signer, William Carver, dies.
1851-John Hill Wheeler’s Historical Sketches of North Carolina mentions only 39 signers of the Liberty Point Resolves, not 55. This would then be passed down as fact for the next 100+ years.
June 21, 1909-First monument to the Liberty Point Resolves is put up in Fayetteville at Liberty Point.
June 20, 1933-The Liberty Point Resolves Monument is unveiled.
1975-The Liberty Point Resolves document is rediscovered in Wilson Library’s Southern Historical Collection. It was found filed into the “Thomas G. Polk Papers.”
February 16, 1976-The forgotten 16 signers’ are added to the back of the monument.
June 21, 2025-Cumberland celebrates the 250
th signing of the Liberty Point Resolves