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A History of the Cabarrus Black Boys
    In the 1770s, Cabarrus was still a part of Mecklenberg County, with Charlotte Town
referred to as a “Hornet’s Nest” by Lord Cornwallis for good reason.  In the southeastern part
of Mecklenberg lived a number of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian farmers along the banks and tributaries
of Rocky River Creek.  Their sympathies were with the colonists who opposed the Tories.  The
Whigs were on alert, and 16 miles northeast of Charlotte was a settlement named Rocky River.  There
existed as much of the true spirit of patriotism as ever existed. 
     The protests and demonstrations had become violent.  Governor Tryon dispatched General Hugh Waddell to
Salisbury with instructions to disperse the Regulators.  He was to raise more militiamen from the Western portion
of North Carolina.  Wagonloads of munitions of were procured from Charleston, South Carolina, and conveyed to
Charlotte.  From some suspicious movements amongst the friends of liberty, wagons could not be found to trans-
port the supplies for Waddell’s use.  Opposition to the British government was beginning.  The Whig teamsters
refused to move the shipment.
    The King’s Magistrate seized three wagons by force to haul the supplies.  They left Charlotte and were headed thrrough the
Rocky River section of the county, where nine young men pledged themselves, by a most solemn obligation, not to disclose the
secret of “The Gunpowder Plot” to save their fellow countrymen.  The nine boys were all born near the Rocky River Church.
     To prevent detection, they disguised themselves by blackening their faces with soot, and started out towards the
rendezvous on foot.  Two of the brothers met their father coming from a local mill with two horses loaded with meal.  The
“Black Boys” demanded of their father, the horses, and ordered him to dismount.  They placed the meal on top of a large
rock to protect it from wild hogs.  The father pleaded with the “supposed strangers” for the privilege of his horses to get
the meal home, but all was in vain.  Off the brothers went to rejoin their seven comrades.  This band, wrought up with patriotic fever, came upon the wagon train encamped on Phifer’s Hill, near Concord.
     The guards and drivers were not expecting trouble, and they were busy setting up camp for the night when they were surprised and captured by the patriots.  The men stove in the kegs of powder, tore the blankets into shreds, collected some of the powder and flints.  They made a fuse that led some distance from the pile.  One of the boys fired his pistol into the pile causing a tremendous explosion.  When the news of the exploit reached Governor Tryon he was outraged.  English pride had suffered a blow that mere replacement of the powder would not heal.
     The boys fled the vicinity, and were driven by the King’s patrols as far as Georgia.  They here hunted like wild beasts.  For four long years, they eluded their captors, worried their pursuers, until the spirit of liberty grew and blossomed into the 1775 Mecklenberg Declaration of Independence. 
     The “Black Boys” gave their country an abiding pledge of their attachment to the cause of liberty, which they promptly redeemed whenever their services were needed.  All through the stormy times, these brave fellows never lost an opportunity to a common cause, always faithful and earnest.
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    Any woman is eligible for membership who is no less than eighteen years of age and can prove lineal, blood line descent from an ancestor who aided in achieving American independence. She must provide documentation for each statement of birth, marriage, and death.
The Cabarrus Black Boys Chapter meets the third Wednesday of the month during September, October, December, February, March, April, and May.  We have a short business meeting and program.  Our members are from varied backgrounds.  They are historians, retirees, mothers, and school teachers. Current DARs or prospective members are always welcome.
DAR