“Too Grievous for a People to Bear”: Impressment and Conscription in Revolutionary North Carolina

Waging the War of American Independence (1775–83) required massive numbers of troops, weapons, and supplies in quantities most states could not readily provide. Meeting these needs were persistent challenges for the nascent state governments, all of which lacked a financial foundation, manufacturing base, and logistical network to sustain a concerted war effort. North Carolina was particularly beset by these challenges, which led state officials to adopt two of the most burdensome intrusions into the wartime routines of Carolinians: impressment and conscription. Both of these expedients produced antipathy and resistance to Patriot authorities, undermined support for the new state, and added to the disorders within the state during most of the war years.