May 20, 1775. That date doesn’t mean much to most people. But for Charlotte residents, it is a huge problem. That is the date the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (also called “Meck Dec”) was signed.
There is controversy surrounding the document. Some historians deny that it ever existed. But if the prevailing story is true, this would be the first declaration of independence in the United States, predating the country’s declaration in about a year.
The story goes that when the residents of Mecklenburg County learned of the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts that started the American Revolution, they decided they had had enough. Despite the fact that this city was named in an attempt to stand in the goodwill of British King George III, a document was written essentially declaring that the British have no authority over this county.
This document was given to Captain James Jack, who rode to Philadelphia on horseback and presented it to Congress. The North Carolina delegation told Jack that they supported what he was doing, but that it was too early for Congressional involvement.
Historians will also argue that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was not a true declaration of independence, and did not actually even exist. They suggest that it was simply a reimagined version of the ‘Mecklenburg Resolutions’, a document published in 1775 that claimed to be intended but never declared independence.
The Mecklenburg Declaration was allegedly published in a newspaper in 1775, but any evidence of this and the original text was lost in a fire in the early 1800s. The text of the “Meck Dec” was recreated and published in a newspaper in the mid-1800s. Historians claim that the newly discovered text, however, borrowed the text from the United States Declaration of Independence, which is now approximately 50 years old. This led to the claim that the “Meck Dec” never really expressed absolute freedom, and that people simply remembered and (incorrectly) recounted the Mecklenburg Resolutions.
The debate essentially boiled down to this question: Did Thomas Jefferson borrow the wording of the United States Declaration of Independence from the Mecklenburg Declaration or was it the other way around?
While historians debate the existence of the document, Charlotte residents are well aware that it existed. You will find this date on the state flag and the North Carolina state seal. For a long time, May 20 was an official state holiday in North Carolina, and it was celebrated even longer than the Fourth of July. The city would hold a parade and performances on that date, schools were closed for the day (sometimes even the entire week), and presidents often visited to speak. Over the years, four sitting United States presidents spoke here on “Meck Dec” day, including Taft, Wilson, Eisenhower and Ford.
Around 1820, John Adams learned of Meck Dec’s alleged earlier publication and began to disprove its existence. As the only evidence was lost and most of the eyewitnesses were dead, there was no one to answer for the opposite story. Adams’s comments were published in a Massachusetts newspaper, and a North Carolina senator set out to collect supporting evidence, including eyewitness testimony. Several witnesses agreed that Mecklenburg County had declared its independence on the supposed date (but these witnesses would disagree on smaller details).
It turns out that probably the most informed witness, Captain James Jack, was still alive at this time. Jack confirmed that he had definitely delivered a document to the Continental Congress during that time, and that document was undoubtedly a declaration of Mecklenburg County independence.
