“When Governor Tryon asked John Ashe, Speaker of the Assembly, what the attitude of the colony would be toward the Stamp Act, Ashe promptly replied with great confidence: ‘We will resist it to the death’” (Connor Essay 31 Colonial Records Vol VI).
“The most dramatic demonstrations against the obnoxious measure occurred at the chief ports of Wilmington and Brunswick. Vehement public protests at Wilmington in October and November led to the resignation of Dr. William Houston as stamp master. With no one to issue stamps and stamped papers, business could not be conducted, and ships could not clear port. Virtually all business and commercial activity ceased” (Morgan 231).
“Even though the financial situation threatened to become desperate, North Carolina leaders persisted in their determination to nullify the Stamp Act, regales of the cost. British official were equally determined to enforce the law. The tension created by the unyielding attitudes of the opposing sides turned into serious trouble early in 1766 when two ships were seized on the Cape Fear for not having stamped clearance papers. Ruling favorably on the seizures, the attorney general ordered the two vessels sent to Nova Scotia for adjudication. This decision infuriated Cornelius Harnett and other North Carolina “Sons of Liberty,” provoking them to armed resistance.
“At Wilmington large crowds gathered from the surrounding counties, drank “Liberty, Property and no Stamp Duty;’ hanged Lord Bute in effigy; compelled the stamp master, William Houston, to resign his office; required Andrew Stewart, the printer, to issue the Cape Fear Gazette on unstampt paper; and organized themselves into an association by which they ‘mutually and solemnly plighted their faith and honor that they would at every risk whatsoever and whenever called upon unite, and truly and faithfully assist each other in preventing entirely the operation of the Stamp Act’’ (Connor Essay 31 Colonial Records Vol. VII).
“Early the next morning (February 21) the “inhabitants in arms” sent Colonel James Moore to demand that they be permitted to speak with Pennington, his majesty’s comptroller, which the Governor refused. “About ten o’clock Tryon observed ‘a body of men in arms from four to five hundred,’ moving toward his house. Three hundred yards away they drew up in line and sent a detachment of sixty men down the avenue to the door. The leader and spokesman of this detachment was Cornelius Harnett. Then followed the most dramatic scene of the struggle over the Stamp Act, a brief but intense interview between William Tryon, representative of the king’s government, and Cornelius Harnett, representative of the people’s will, for possession of one of the king’s officers (Connor Essay 38-39).
Pennington decided to leave with Harnett, upon which the Governor demanded his resignation. According to Tyron, “Mr. Harnett interposed, with saying he hoped he would not do that. I enforced the recommendation for resignation. He consented, paper was brought and his resignation executed and received” Harnett led the ex-comptroller out of the Governor’s house to his followers who were waiting outside (Connor Essay 41).
“Pennington was afterwards obliged to take an oath that he would never issue any stamped paper in this province. The above oat the Collector informed me he was obliged to take, as were all the clerks of the County Courts and other public officers. By the last accounts I have received, the number of this insurrection amounted to 580 men in arms and upwards of 100 unarmed. The Mayor and Corporation of Wilmington and most of all the gentlemen and planters of the county of Brunswick, New Hanover, Dublin and Bladen, with some masters of vessels, composed this corp” (Tryon to Secretary Conway, Feb. 25, 1766 Colonial Records VII).
“The North Carolina Gazette boasted, ‘that few instances can be produced of such a number of men being together so long and behaving so well … the whole affair was conducted with decency and spirit, worthy the imitation of all the Sons of Liberty throughout the continent… throughout the contest Harnett and the other leaders received loyal support from the people by electing Harnett without opposition for the Assembly, and New Hanover unanimously elected John Baptista Ashe and James Moore'” (Connor Essay 42-43).
“Throughout this contest the conduct of no man stands out so conspicuously as that of Cornelius Harnett. From the announcement of the British ministry’s intention to levy a stamp duty in America, he was among the foremost in opposition; and it is stating nothing more than the records will bear out to say that when the struggle closed, no man could justly claim more credit for successfully preventing the operation of the Stamp Act in North Carolina than he… Wilmington was the chief port of entry in the province and Brunswick was the place of the governor’s residence, consequently the Cape Fear became the center of this struggle (Connor Essay 46).
But after his defiance of Tryon in 1766 – an act performed ten years before the Declaration of Independence and seven years before the Boston Tea Party- Harnett became in an especial sense the leader of his people and the target of British malevolence and denunciation. Every State boasts its heroes of the Stamp Act, but in all examples of resistance to this oppressive act, I find no deed that equals Harnett’s in its blend of courage, dignity, and orderliness. He and Tryon had looked each other in the eyes, and the eyes of the Englishman had quailed (Smith: Our Debt 385-86).
Afterwards in 1767, Harnett purchases 170 acres from James Moore and wife, Ann, along Rich Inlet at Topsail Sound adjoining the acreage of Caleb Mason and Josiah Grainger.
In a footnote in Janet Schaw’s diary asserts that “Lands or plantations ‘down on the sounds’ were those along the western side of the shallow waters enclosed by the sand bars and islands of the Atlantic coast. Many planters, Heron, Howe, Hasell, Grainger, Mason, Hooper, Harnett, Lillington, Maclaine, Gabriel Johnston, and Porter, had lands of plantations there and resided on them for all or a part of the summer season. The waters, extending for miles along the coast, ‘not being freshened by rivers and constantly receiving the tide from the sea,’ were later experimented with as affording ‘a good source’ for evaporating salt (186).
Harnett retreats to this second plantation site, that he refers to as Poplar Grove, throughout his tenure as a Patriot to the Common Cause.