North Carolina backcountry teacher George Sims wrote an address, or speech, on June 6, 1765. He wrote about how upset he was with government officials. Sims accused local court officers of not doing their jobs correctly or legally. He blamed dishonest lawyers and public officials for the problems that small farmers had in Piedmont. He shared the address with people in Granville County (today Vance County) and nearby counties. The people were interested in Sims’ complaints. It made residents even more agitated. Regulator leaders later used this speech to support their cause. Sims’ address became known as the "Nutbush Address." It was named after the area known as Nutbush (in present day Vance County).
Read the address below:
Gentlemen, it is not our mode, or form of Government, nor yet the body of our laws, that we are quarrelling with, but with the malpractices of the Officers of our County Court, and the abuses which we suffer by those empowered to manage our public affairs...
[L]et us make an estimate of the difference between getting our livings by honest industry and getting them by these cursed practices. We will suppose ourselves all to be men, who labour for our livings, and there is a poor man among us, who has dealt for about 4 or 5 pounds in such things as his family could not possibly do without, and in hopes of being spared from the lash of the law till he can sell some of his effects to raise the money; he gives a judgment bond to his Merchant, and before he can accomplish his design his bond is thrown into Court, and Benton the poor mans Burgess has it to enter on the Court docquet and issue an execution the work of one long minute. Well, Gentlemen, what has our poor neighbour to pay Mr. Benton for his trouble? Why, nothing but the trifling sum of forty one shillings and five pence. Well he is a poor man, and cannot raise the money. We will suppose Mr. Benton condescends to come to terms with him. Come (says he) and work. I have a large field and my corn wants weeding (or something like that). I will give you 1/6 a day, which is the common wages of a labourer in these times till you pay it off because you are a poor man, and a neighbour I will not take away your living. Well how many days work has our honest neighbour to pay Mr. Benton for his trouble and expense in writing about a minute? Why, he must work something more than 27 days before he is clear of his clutches. Well the poor man reflects within himself. At this rate says he when shall I maintain my own family. I have a wife and a parcel of small children suffering at home and I have none to labour but myself, and here I have lost a month’s work and I do not know for what, my merchant not yet paid, I do not know what will be the end of these things; however, I will go home, and try what I can do towards getting a living. Stay neighbour, you must not go home, you are not half done yet, there is a damned Lawyers mouth to stop before you go any further, you impowered him to confess that you owed £5, and you must pay him 30/ for that, or, else go and work nineteen days for that pick-pocket at the same rate, and when that is done, you must work as many days for the Sheriff, for his trouble, and then go home and see your living wrecked and tore to pieces to satisfy your merchant.
Well Gentlemen, if this were the case, would it not be a melancholy thing? But it is worse by ten degrees than any thing that you have yet heard. It is not a persons labour, nor yet his effects that will do, but if he has but one horse to plow with, one bed to lie on, or one cow to give a little milk for his children, they must all go to raise money which is not to be had. And lastly if his personal estate (sold at one tenth of its value) will not do, then his lands (which perhaps has cost him many years toil and labour) must go the same way to satisfy these cursed hungry caterpillars, that are eating and will eat out the bowels of our Commonwealth, if they be not pulled down from their nests in a very short time, and what need I say, Gentlemen, to urge the necessity there is for a reformation. If these things were absolutely according to law, it would be enough to make us turn rebels, and throw off all submission to such tyrannical laws..... But, as these practices are diametrically opposite to the law, it is our absolute duty, as well as our Interest, to put a stop to them, before they quite ruin our County. Or, Are become the willing slaves of these lawless Officers, and hug our chains of bondage and remain contented under these accumulated calamities? No, Gentlemen, I hope better things of you... [F]irst, let us be careful to keep sober, that we do nothing rashly; but act with deliberation. Secondly, Let us do nothing against the known and established laws of our land, that we may not appear as a faction endeavouring to subvert the laws, and overturn our system of government. But, let us appear what we really are, To wit, free subjects by birth, endeavouring to recover our native rights according to law, and to reduce the malpractices of the Officers of our Court down to the standard of law....
Credit for Primary Source Transcription:
Sims, George. "An Address to the People of Granville County," June 6, 1765. In State and Colonial Records of North Carolina, Volume 07, Pages 89-90. Transcription by Documenting the American South, https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr07-0020 (accessed June 10, 2018).
