As mentioned in my last history column, the Regulator Movement was a crisis that arose in the period after the destructive Cherokee War due to dissatisfaction with the colonial government and a lack of local government. 

In 1767, the Regulators gave the colonial government in Charleston a list of demands, including jails and courts in the backcountry and more representation in the colonial legislature. Surprisingly, the colonial government acted with restraint and decided to try to meet the demands of these vigilantes. However, the Regulators’ use of violence to enforce order caused tension with other backcountry residents. To combat the Regulators, another vigilante group calling themselves the Moderators arose. These Moderators didn’t disagree with the Regulator demands but objected to the Regulators’ use of violence. Violence seemed likely but a truce was signed between the factions on March 25, 1769. 

The colonial legislature began working to meet the demands of the Regulators and in March of 1769, the Circuit Court Act passed. This piece of legislation created courts, jails, and the office of sheriff in the backcountry. The act would have passed sooner, however, the British Parliament objected to the length of time a judge served in the original language. The legislature also placed new restrictions on hunters including banning hunting by fire at night. Although this marked the end of the Regulator movement and did give the backcountry more government and more representation in the legislature, it did not heal the rift between the backcountry and the Lowcountry completely. 

These fissures would come to a head several years later when many of the residents of the backcountry either became Loyalists or stayed neutral when the American Revolution began. Many of those people had bigger grievances with the colonial government than they did with the faraway British government. This rift would not truly be healed until the adoption of a new constitution in 1808 which sought to give the backcountry a much bigger role in the legislature. 

To learn more about the colonial period in Lexington County, visit the Lexington County Museum and the Cayce Historical Museum.   

J.R. Fennell has served as director of the Lexington County Museum since 2007. He holds a master’s degree in public history and a certificate of museum management from the University of South Carolina.