America250’s state history highlights the Halifax Resolves as the colonies’ first official call for independence.
The Fourth North Carolina Provincial Congress adopted the Halifax Resolves unanimously on April 12, 1776, in Halifax, North Carolina. The measure authorized North Carolina’s delegates to the Continental Congress to support independence if the question came before that body.
The resolves did not themselves declare independence, and they did not instruct North Carolina’s delegates to introduce such a declaration. Instead, they removed the colony’s restriction on voting for independence, making North Carolina the first colony to explicitly permit that action.
The Halifax Resolves helped prepare the political ground for the Lee Resolution in June and the Declaration of Independence in July. They are also remembered on North Carolina’s flag, which displays the date April 12, 1776.