Another Wilmington commemoration of Harnett is located nearby the grave and Daughters of the American Revolution plaque. The Monument to Cornelius Harnett, a granite obelisk, stands across the street from the St. James Episcopal Church graveyard.
Image: St. James Episcopal Church graveyard
REVOLUTIONARY WAR PATRIOT / CORNELIUS HARNETT /
NC DELEGATE TO CONTINENTAL CONGRESS /
SIGNER OF THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION /
BORN 1723 IN CHOWAN COUNTY, NC /
DIED c1781 IN WILMINGTON, NC /
MARKER PLACED BY THE /
STAMP DEFIANCE CHAPTER, NSDAR /
SEPTEMBER 2009
Harnett was a leader in the resistance to the Stamp Act organized in the Lower Cape Fear area and chairman of the Sons of Liberty. He served as the first president of North Carolina's Provincial Council, also known as the Council of Safety, from 1775 to 1776, as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and was a signer to the Articles of Confederation. In a local news report from the Star News at the time of the dedication the historian of the local chapter, Ruth-Anne Bolz, indicated the significance of the effort to the local chapter and the DAR as an organization based on ancestry and lineage and the fact that Harnett himself had no descendants, although it is known that Harnett left a son, also a Revolutionary, Cornelius Harnett, Jr. Cornelius Harnett was captured in Wilmington in 1781 by the British during their occupation of the city. He died soon after his release from prison.
The name of the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter reflects the efforts of Harnett and other local patriots who resisted the Stamp Act. A write-up in a 2009 issue of the Old North State, the newsletter of the Lower Cape Fear Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, acknowledged Harnett's role as the "John Adams of the South" as both revolutionary and statesman in the development of the revolutionary government and emerging nation.
11 July 2014 | Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina