North Carolina issued the Halifax Resolves, the first authorization for delegates to vote for independence.
The Fourth Provincial Congress of North Carolina adopted the Halifax Resolves on April 12, 1776. The measure instructed the colony’s delegates to the Continental Congress to support independence and other steps toward creating a separate political system.
The resolves did not themselves declare the United Colonies independent. Instead, they empowered North Carolina’s congressional delegates to vote for such a measure when it came before Congress. Richard Henry Lee’s Lee Resolution followed on June 7, and Congress approved it on July 2.
The document takes its name from Halifax, North Carolina, where the provincial congress met. It is often described as the first official action by a colony authorizing its delegates to favor independence. That wording differs from Rhode Island’s later action on May 4, which was the first formal colonial renunciation of allegiance to Great Britain.