North Carolina became the first colony to authorize its Continental Congress delegates to vote for independence in 1776.
The North Carolina Provincial Congress adopted the Halifax Resolves on April 12, 1776, while meeting in Halifax. The measure empowered the colony's delegates to support independence if the issue came before the Continental Congress.
The action did not itself declare independence or instruct Congress to introduce an independence resolution. It removed restrictions that had prevented North Carolina's delegates from supporting such a move. Virginia later took the separate step of directing Richard Henry Lee to propose independence in Congress.
The Halifax Resolves helped create the political path to the Declaration of Independence. North Carolina's three delegates—Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, and John Penn—could now participate in the independence debate with explicit authorization from their home colony. Congress adopted the Declaration less than three months later.