A 'pebble' found in NC tavern ruins was really a coded message among Colonial rebels

[bluedigger]

A clump of dirt initially dismissed as nothing more than a pebble has turned out to be one of the most significant 18th Century artifacts ever found in North Carolina, archaeologists say.

“No bigger than a pea,” the clump was washed to reveal a pressed glass jewel, etched with a Colonial-era code: “Wilkes and Liberty 45.”

Archaeologist Charles Ewen told McClatchy those words were infamously seditious in the 1760s, and indicate the excavated tavern in Brunswick Town was likely a den of rebellious Americans.

“That was a rallying cry for those in opposition of King George III,” says Ewen, director of Phelps Archaeology Laboratory at East Carolina University.

“John Wilkes was a pamphleteer who often published works critical of the government. Brunswick Town was a hotbed of sedition, being among the first to oppose the Stamp Act, and what better place than a tavern to find confirmation of these sentiments?”

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation reports Wilkes was an Englishman idolized by Americans at the time. The number 45 refers to a notorious Wilkes pamphlet, which dared say the King was not above reproach, according to the foundation.

Ewen’s dig at the tavern made national news in June, when he revealed a fire in the 1760s caused the walls to collapse on top of a trove of well preserved artifacts in the crawl space.

The glass jewel was found next a wall and was part of a cufflink, parts of which were also found, he said. Similar cufflinks with the message have been found in England, he added.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article232283702.html?fbclid=IwAR34qJgitDu7ABMejXMTjmtNSoemVJtazehVCzKcORETfBiDxDNWGPxISAg

Now, that's a good find!

[dameatball]

1. Stuff like this is so interesting. Thanks for posting.

[Mr.Bill]

2. I wonder if John Wilkes Booth

was named after him.

[GeoWilliam750]

5. Not entirely clear from wiki whether this John Wilkes is the same for whom Booth was named

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes_Booth

interesting nonetheless

[pansypoo53219]

3. cool.

[BamaRefugee]

4. MAGATs will claim that "45" means tRump was adored even BEFORE America Became Great.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Trump flew them into Revolution era airports with his jet. . . . nt

[Captain Zero]

7. But, we can claim Liberty 45 does indeed refer to him

but in the original context that he is NOT above reproach.

[Karadeniz]

8. 1760....I wonder when the idea to revolt first began?

[csziggy]

9. The Regulators fought the British taxation in the Carolinas between 1765 and 1771

Two of my ancestors, father and son, were among the Regulators.

The War of the Regulation (also known as Regulator Movement) was an uprising in the British North America's Carolina colonies, lasting from about 1765 to 1771, in which citizens took up arms against colonial officials, whom they viewed as corrupt. Though the rebellion did not change the power structure, some historians consider it a catalyst to the American Revolutionary War. Others like John Spencer Bassett view that the Regulators did not wish to change the form or principle of their government, but simply wanted to make the colony's political process more equal. They wanted better economic conditions for everyone except slaves and Native Americans, instead of a system that benefited the colonial officials. Bassett interprets the events of the late 1760s in Orange and surrounding counties as "a peasants' rising, a popular upheaval.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Regulation

Since the tavern burned down in the 1760s that could have been during the period that the Regulators were rebelling - and it's in the right area.