Anna Catharina and the Regulators / II

Anna Catharina had lost her husband after a short marriage to “the fever” and she longed so much for home, which to her was in Pennsylvania. She was a Moravian and true to her religion. She was taken aback by the suggestion she marry again but in a dream her dead husband told her that is what she must do. So she accepted the proposal from Christian Reuter. They were married along with several other couples of the faith.

They complimented each other as husband and wife and Anna knew her new husband was a very good man. He promised to build her a home of their own so they could live individually and he promised her a corner lot which would be even more private. There was nothing in any writings to make one think Anna ever was not appreciative of where she had lived and what she had, but apparently couples then were no different from normal desires of all ages and their religion did not change those feelings. The life she had inside the fort had been important and safe but now the Indian wars were as well as done and the new fears had to do with taxation

The Regulators were a group of western farmers in North Carolina joining together to fight local officials overtaxing them. The years just past the mid-1700s, the farmers organized and through petitions and a some violence got noticed by the Governor of North Carolina, William Tryon. .

In the 1760’s the farmers were in a real struggle to survive; making it very difficult for western farmers to pay their taxes. Local officials tried to take advantage of them to make themselves wealthier. Regulators were enraged at this.

Bethabara became the village near where Anna lived. This is in the Yadkin Valley area.

The vegetables that they grew had multiplied greatly and of a much larger variety and this village would be their place of trade. They had a tavern and people passing through.

There was an eclipse of the sun and of the moon along with the beginning of the Regulator problems and many were superstitious about this regarding it as evil. The settlers in the Yadkin River area signed a protest against the taxes they were being plagued with.

The Moravians felt it was led by someone in Orange County and although he was a Quaker who should be standing for peace; it was the Moravian opinion that perhaps Herman Husband was instigating much of the trouble working the settlers up over it. So far the Moravian knew the law and was not overcharged either because of this or because the governor looked kindly upon them for all the much they had done in this area, considering them an asset. Apparently this was so with the huge tract of land they did own. This was the Wachovia Tract, being 98,985 acres.

Husband had written up papers to pass around they felt was working these people up. (The Road to Salem by Adelaide L. Fries; ch.14) Apparently too these people were led to suspect the Moravian was supplying the government with guns and ammunition which put their brethren simply with bread in danger of being attacked. When they got to the Governor with food supplies they were treated roughly there so it seems although financially they won out the treatment was not good from either side. Men who had been angered by the Regulators whipped a sheriff, a Colonel and a lawyer severely and some others almost so. They tore up some houses and ran merchants out of town. Indeed they had been done wrong but were not choosing the right way to solve their problems and literally made them worse

Through influence of Herman Husband no doubt there was trouble in Hillsborough and rioting in Salisbury and now threatening to come against the Moravian and others. Fighting went on between the Governor and Regulators and cannon brought down some Regulators but scared the most away. The government sent soldiers to Bethabara and were set up at the tavern needing food while they set about arresting Regulators.

They ate all the bread so that more flour had to be obtained to bake more bread and two oxen were killed to feed them. The Moravian were loyal to the government. The Regulators who had mistreated them and tried to get money from them now asked for a good word from them to the government. It was very taxing on Anna’s people having to stand constant guard when they needed to be about other things and in the village some came through friendly and some threatening, but finally it seemed to die down.

Jackie Lynnley 9-24-2011