В Северной Каролине откроют экспозицию о заговоре против первого губернатора штата в эпоху Войны за независимость

Gerald Thomas has a sixth and seventh sense that will come in handy next week for eastern North Carolina residents who want to hear all about a plot to kill the governor some 250 years ago. Thomas, a Maryland author who is originally from Bertie County, will be giving a lecture on the Gourd Patch Affair, which has ties to America’s 250th anniversary but for some rather nefarious reasons. Thomas, a retired congressional auditor and federal executive has written six books on Bertie County’s role in war history throughout the years, beginning with the Revolutionary War. His job as an investigator for the U.S. Department of Defense allowed research and analyzation to become like additional senses, he said. In 2024, the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources erected a state highway marker for the “Gourd Patch Conspiracy” at Mayo’s Crossroads — which during the American Revolution, was within the borders of Martin County. Due to a post-war shift in the county line, the marker lies in Edgecombe County at the intersection of N.C. 42 and Roberson School Road near the Pitt County line. Area residents will have the opportunity Thursday to step back in time and hear what coded sticks, mysterious hand signals and gourds all have in common. This unveiling event and Thomas’s lecture will come as the Martin County Historical Society presents The Gourd Patch Affair as its newest display for America’s 250th celebration. At 6 p.m. Thursday, the unveiling of the display will take place at the Williamston Travel and Tourism Office, inside the NC Telecenter at 415 East Blvd. in Williamston. Light refreshments will be served. Then at 7 p.m., Thomas will speak about the Gourd Patch Affair, which is sometimes called the Llewelyn Conspiracy. According to the NCDNCR, in 1777, John Llewelyn (or Lewelling), a Martin County planter and justice of the peace, led a religious plot to kill then-Gov. Richard Caswell. Later, Llewelyn was convicted of treason but received the state’s first pardon. Llewelyn’s actions played an important role in the formation of North Carolina’s new government. According to the NCDNCR, “A group of farmers from Martin, Tyrrell, Pitt and Bertie counties organized themselves using secret codes, hand gestures and signs and met in a pumpkin patch to craft a clandestine plot. Their aim? Assassinate North Carolina’s first governor, overthrow the state government and protect the Protestant religion.” Once their plot was discovered and foiled, the NCDNCR notes, the results were a radically strengthened governor’s office, turning North Carolina’s relatively weak executive office into a station that could restore order and mete out justice in a system of checks and balances. “The trial and ensuing pardon also demonstrated that the state could withstand the first major test of its newly established legal system,” according to the NCDNCR. Local historian Mike Taylor said Llewelyn was afraid Anglicanism or the Church of England was going to disappear in the new state of North Carolina because the legislature had just written a constitution and had not included separation of church and state. “France, a Catholic nation, was helping in the war effort, to supply money and supplies,” Taylor noted. Llewelyn, Taylor continued, was afraid the state would ultimately become controlled by the Catholic Church. “So, being a Loyalist (or Tory), he wrote a new constitution and plotted a secret uprising against North Carolina’s new patriot government,” Taylor explained. Not knowing whom they could trust, they would meet in a pumpkin patch and have a series of tests the potential recruit would have to pass. According to local historian Fred Harrison, they were recruiting in Tyrrell, Martin, Bertie, Edgecombe, Halifax and Chowan counties. “The incidences were strung out. The court documents reveal a broad range. In the depositions, they talk about where they were, how they communicated and what was said,” Harrison continued. “One time they’re in the cornfield here, they’re in a wheatfield in another place. It’s kind of all over.” The Gourd Patch Conspiracy is the name that stuck. “But it’s just sort of a moniker for just the fact that it was a very large-scale, open event that was held out in the in the woods or in places of secrecy outside,” Harrison noted. Taylor noted that conspirators would have a stick in their pocket. “And while they would be talking, they would pull it out,” Taylor continued. “It had three notches in it. That would lead to a conversation. If they got through the whole thing, then that’s when they would swear allegiance to this (newer) constitution.” They called themselves “The Brethren,” according to Taylor. Eventually, 100 men joined The Brethren in the region, according to the NCDNCR. And Taylor said the men continued to meet secretly and planned to assassinate the governor and all the leading patriots of eastern North Carolina, which included some of their close friends. This shift toward violent Loyalism led to their downfall, according to the NCDNCR. They planned to raid arsenals at Tarboro and Halifax because they needed munitions. But 63 were arrested in Tarboro and taken to jail in Edenton, including Llewelyn. This was in September 1777 while the Revolutionary War was raging. Of the 63, only 18 were tried.