Albemarle Region (N.C.) -- History; North Carolina -- History
Durant, though doubtless impatient to proceed as quickly as possible to
his home and family in Perquimans, nevertheless spent the day pleasantly
enough talking to his brother planters, Valentine Byrd, Samuel
Pricklove, and others. All was going merrily as a marriage bell when
suddenly Deputy Governor Miller appeared on the scene, accused Gilliam
of having contraband goods on board, and of having evaded the export tax
on tobacco when he sailed out of port with his cargo a year before. A
violent altercation arose, in which the planters, with few exceptions,
sided with Gilliam, who indignantly (if not quite truthfully) denied the
charges brought against him.
Miller at last withdrew, muttering imprecations and threats against
Gilliam; but about 10 o'clock that night he returned with several
government officials, boarded the "Carolina" and attempted to arrest
both Gilliam and Durant. The planters, among whom were Valentine Byrd,
Captain Crawford, Captain Jenkins and John Culpeper, hearing of the
disturbance, anxious for the safety of their friends, and fearing lest
Gilliam should sail away before they had concluded their purchases, came
hurrying in hot haste to the rescue. Rowing swiftly out to the little
vessel, they quickly turned the tables on the Governor and his
officials; and to their indignant surprise, Miller and his men found
themselves prisoners in the hands of the rebels. Then the insurgents,
with John Culpeper, now the acknowledged leader of the revolt, at their
head, rowed ashore to the landing with their captives; and in the old
house at Enfield, on a bluff near the bank of the river--so goes our
local tradition--the angry and astonished Governor was imprisoned.
Then the revolutionists proceeded to "Little River Poynte," probably
the settlement which afterwards grew into the town of Nixonton, and
seized Timothy Biggs, the surveyor and deputy collector of customs, who
had been wringing the tobacco tax from the farmers. Then breaking open
the chests and the locks, they found and took possession of Miller's
commission as collector of customs and returned to Enfield, where they
locked Biggs up with Miller in Captain Crawford's house.
For two weeks the deputy governor and the deputy collector were kept
close prisoners at Enfield. The revolutionists in the meanwhile drew up
a document known as "The Remonstrance of the Inhabitants of Pasquotank,"
in which they stated the grievances that had led them to take this
high-handed manner of circumventing Miller and Biggs in their tyrannical
proceedings. This "remonstrance" was sent to the precincts of Currituck,
Perquimans and Chowan; and the planters, following the example of their
neighbors in Pasquotank, rose in insurrection against the other
collectors of the hated customs and export tax, and arrested and deposed
the collectors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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