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Hoax or misunderstanding? The May 20 date is on the NC flag. It likely shouldn’t be.

Waving in the wind from poles all across the state, the North Carolina flag is a high-flying symbol of our state’s government, history and culture — and possibly, of historical inaccuracies.

That’s because one of the dates on the flag, May 20, 1775, represents a historical document and event that likely never occurred.

In addition to appearing on the state flag, the date also appears on the state seal and the state’s “First in Freedom” license plate, the no-cost alternative to the traditional “First in Flight” license plate.

To learn more about the history behind the two dates presented on the state flag, The News & Observer consulted NCpedia, a resource managed by the state Government & Heritage Library, and Joseph Beatty, a public historian and research supervisor with the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR).

Here’s what we learned about our state flag — including why the May 20, 1775, date is heavily disputed.

What do the dates on the NC flag mean and represent?

Both dates on the state flag are tied to events early in the state’s history, and represent key moments when citizens in the state asserted what Beatty called an “independent spirit” — notably, months before the United States formally declared independence from Britain.

Let’s start with April 12, 1776, the date on the flag that’s historically accurate.

This date represents the adoption of the Halifax Resolves, which NCpedia says were “the first official action by a colony that called for severance of ties to Britain and independence for the colonies.”

The resolves were adopted at the Fourth Provincial Congress, one of five meetings of representative assemblies convened to transition North Carolina from royal to state government.

At the Fourth Provincial Congress, the assembly authorized North Carolina’s delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence for the 13 colonies. The assembly sent copies of the resolves to the colony’s delegates in Philadelphia, and they “became an important element in the push to draft the Declaration of Independence,” NCpedia says.

Two copies of the Halifax Resolves are known to exist today, according to NCpedia: one is part of the National Archives and another is in the State Archives of North Carolina.

Now, let’s move on to May 20, 1775, and learn why the date isn’t exactly historically accurate.

This date is supposed to represent the date that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, in which residents of Mecklenburg County declared themselves “free and independent people,” was produced, NCpedia says.

But there’s a problem with that: The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence most certainly never existed,” NCpedia says.

Was the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence a hoax?

Allegedly, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was produced by citizens of Mecklenburg County — likely the county’s Committee of Safety — on May 20, 1775, to declare themselves free from royal rule by Britain.

As the legend of the declaration goes, the original document was destroyed in a fire in 1800, and text from the supposed document did not resurface until 1819, when a Raleigh newspaper published text that was recreated from memory by someone who claimed to be present at the meeting where the declaration was drafted, NCpedia says.

William Polk, a political leader at the time, “gathered testimony from several elderly men” who also claimed to have been present for the meeting, bolstering the claim that the meeting had taken place — and “Mecklenburgers immediately started celebrating the date,” NCpedia says.

Historically speaking, there’s a problem with that chain of events and their reliability as fact.

“The circumstances about how we came to know about the May 20 events, they don’t come to us directly,” Beatty with DNCR said. “They don’t come to us in sources that are verifiable.”

The declaration’s authenticity came into question in 1829, when Thomas Jefferson’s writings were published after his death. Jefferson had written to John Adams in July 1819, the year the alleged, recreated text of the document was published, and declared the declaration as a hoax, NCpedia says.

The state legislature established a committee to investigate the declaration’s authenticity, ultimately gathering enough evidence to support the declaration — though, according to NCpedia, the committee’s conclusion was likely influenced by a committee leader who had previously organized a 50th anniversary celebration for the document.

For several years, scholars outside of the state continued to contend that the declaration was a fraud — but the May 20 date was nevertheless added to the North Carolina flag in 1861, and remained there after the flag was redesigned in 1885.

Then, in 1907, scholar William Henry Hoyt, used “the latest methods of scientific history and internal criticism” to show that the declaration was not real.

Instead, Hoyt argued, the declaration had been a misconstruction of another historical event and document in North Carolina: the Mecklenburg Resolves, which NCpedia says were “very real” and were adopted on May 31, 1775 — 11 days after the alleged adoption of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

The North Carolina Legislative Building, with state seal in foreground, is pictured in March 2021.
The North Carolina Legislative Building, with state seal in foreground, is pictured in March 2021.

What are the Mecklenburg Resolves?

The Mecklenburg Resolves “were a bold set of anti-British resolutions, adopted on May 31, 1775, at a meeting in Charlotte” NCpedia says.

The resolves were a “radical set of resolutions, denying the authority of Parliament over the colonies and investing that power in the Provincial Congress,” which created a revolutionary governmental structure.

The historical reliability of the resolves is much stronger than that of the declaration.

They were published, in full, in a newspaper on June 16, 1775, less than a month after their adoption — not years later, like the declaration — and NCpedia cites several contemporary leaders and figures of the time who published responses to the text in the days following.

“As I look at the evidence of what we know and when we came to know it, it seems I can say with some certainty what happened on May 31,” Beatty said. The same isn’t true for the declaration.

“You know, we have to lean on the evidence that we have,” Beatty said. “And we know that on the 31st, the committee in Mecklenburg passed the resolves, that are thoughtful, they’re bold, and they’re really deliberate in both the action that they recommend and making this really powerful claim of wanting to dissolve the power of the king and parliament in their jurisdiction.”

So why is the May 20 date on the state flag?

There are a few factors that could explain the confusion between the May 20 and May 31 dates, and why the former ended up on the state flag.

People misremembered or conflated several historical events. By the time the general public learned of the Mecklenburg Declaration, it had been more than 40 years since the alleged document was created. What we know about the document is not from an original source, but from someone who recalled and recreated the document — which isn’t historically reliable. There’s a big chance that that person, after so many years, was confused about the events and misremembered the Mecklenburg Resolves as a different document, signed on a different date.

There was an 11-day difference in the calendar. In 1752, NCpedia says, the British adopted the Gregorian calendar after previously using the Julian calendar. The difference between the two calendars was 11 days — the exact difference between May 20 and May 31.

“Even in 1775, Charlotte was in a remote area, and some persons still may have been using the old calendar,” NCpedia says, giving another explanation for the confusion in dates.

“The calendar is 11 days off from a date that has come down to us as being another important date,” Beatty said. “It’s probably not coincidental.”

Some people really did, and still do, believe that the Mecklenburg Declaration existed. “I think there are people then and now who believe that a Declaration of Independence was passed in Mecklenburg County on May 20,” Beatty said. “I think there is conviction among some behind this date. We just lack evidence.”

But is it possible both the declaration and resolves existed? Maybe — but more likely, no.

The declaration and resolves essentially would have done the same thing, Beatty said, making it unlikely that both documents existed. But unlike the alleged Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which, in its recreated form lacked specific directions for Mecklenburg to actually become independent from British rule, the Mecklenburg Resolves “actually go into more detail about setting up governance,” Beatty said.

Beatty said the committee responsible for the resolves would have been meeting on both May 20 and May 31, and most days in between, so the confusion between the documents could reflect “some of the deliberation that the committee put into” their decision over those meetings.

Therefore: The May 20, 1775, date was added to the North Carolina flag in 1861, and has remained there since 1885, when the current flag design was adopted. It would be decades before William Henry Hoyt first debunked the date — explaining how the incorrect date ended up on the flag, and has remained there so long.

‘First in Freedom’: Does the date discrepancy matter?

Beatty said slight changes have been made over time to “make less emphatic the validity of the Mecklenburg Declaration,” including editing the North Carolina state manual in 1981.

But the May 20 date persists, on the flag and elsewhere, often tied to the claim that the state is “First in Freedom.”

Would officially adopting the later, historically accurate date of May 31, 1775, for the state flag change that claim?

Beatty said it isn’t likely that North Carolina’s “First in Freedom” fame would be overturned if the state used the May 31 date.

“I don’t think that would take away that claim,” Beatty said. “And honestly, the Halifax Resolves in April ‘76 — that’s the other date on the flag — are also a legitimate call for independence, you know, arguably the first call for independence among the states. So I don’t think that changing that date would take away or would minimize that claim to First in Freedom.”

And regardless of the date used to represent the Mecklenburg documents, the sentiments behind them are largely the same.

“I don’t want to see the disagreement over the May 20 date to draw attention away from the fact that North Carolinians have had this independent spirit for a very long time,” Beatty said.

Other North Carolina flag facts

The current design of the flag has largely been in place since 1885. Only “minor modifications to the length and the elimination of two commas” have been made to the flag since then, NCpedia says.

The flag’s design is dictated in state law. It has a blue section on the leftmost side, with a white star in the center, surrounded by an “N” on one side and a “C” on the other, both “in gilt,” or gold. The “fly of the flag,” or approximately the right two-thirds of it, consists of a red bar on top and a white bar on the bottom, both equal in size. The law also prescribes the two dates to be included on the flag.

There is an official salute to the state flag, outlined in state law. The salute is: “I salute the flag of North Carolina and pledge to the Old North State love, loyalty and faith.”

The flag is required to be displayed at the judge’s stand in every courthouse in the state. State law directs county commissioners to “authorize the procuring of a North Carolina flag” for this purpose.

Flags may be retired. Like the U.S. flag, North Carolina state flags may be retired if they become “worn, tattered or otherwise damaged.” Flags in need of retirement should be respectfully disposed, as outlined in state law.