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North Carolina

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North Carolina

This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to North Carolina. It supports research on the state’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from the colonial period through statehood to the present.

  • Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
  • Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, militia and frontier records, coastal and naval stores archives, manufacturing and law-enforcement collections, and oral histories tied to North Carolina people and places.
  • Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the state.

Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.

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Start date: 1770End date: 1799

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Now showing 1 - 14 of 14
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    1782 N.C. Sess. Laws 413-14
    (1782)
    Created a draft for the Continental Army. Subject to the draft were "all the inhabitants ... between the ages of sixteen and fifty." To prevent the widespread community practice of filling draft ranks with the most vulnerable and least motivated, the act specified that "no British or Hessian deserter who hath not been a resident of this State twelve months, or orphan or apprentice under eighteen years of age, Indian, sailor or negro slave, shall be received as a substitute for any class volunteer or draft whatever."
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    1792 N.C. Sess. Laws 33-34
    (1792)
    The minimum age remained 18, while the maximum dropped to 45. The mandatory arms paralleled the federal statute. Each infantryman was required to "provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, a knapsack, a pouch with a box therein to contain not less than 24 cartridges suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball ; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch and powder-horn, 20 balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder."
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    1777 N.C. Sess. Laws 1
    (1777)
    The Militia of every County shall consist of all the effective men from sixteen to fifty years of age.
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    1787 N.C. Sess. Laws 813-14
    (1787)
    The militia law kept the militia as "all freemen and indented servants within this State, from eighteen to fifty years of age." The required arms and equipment were now more specific and varied by role in the militia. For commissioned officers in the infantry, "side arms" (handguns) "or a spontoon" (a pole arm). For private and non-commissioned officers, a musket or rifle, plus a cartridge box, powder horn, shot pouch "in good condition," "nine charges of powder made into cartridges with sizeable balls or swan-shot," a spare flint, and one worm and picker. As for artillerymen, they "shall be armed and accoutred with small arms in the same manner of the infantry, except the non-commissioned officers, who shall have swords instead of fire-arms." Horsemen, whether officers or privates, needed "a strong, serviceable horse, at least fourteen hands high, with a good saddle, bridle, holsters, one pistol, horseman's sword and cap, a pair of shoe boots and spurs," plus "a proper cartouch-box and cartridges all in good order."
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    1785 N.C. Sess. Laws 710-11
    (1785)
    Raised the minimum militia age to 18. Militiamen included "all freemen and indented servants" (but not servants for life, a/k/a slaves). Militiamen had to arm themselves with "a well fixed gun and cartouch-box, with nine charges of powder made into cartridges and sizeable bullets or swan-shot, and one spare flint, worm and picker.
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    1792 N.C. Sess. Laws 33
    (1792)
    The minimum age remained 18, while the maximum dropped to 45. The mandatory arms paralleled the federal statute. Each infantryman was required to "provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, a knapsack, a pouch with a box therein to contain not less than 24 cartridges suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball ; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch and powder-horn, 20 balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder."
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    1770 N.C. Sess. Laws 787-88
    (1770)
    Eliminated a conscientious objector exemption and ordered "all Male Persons of the people called Quakers, between the age of Sixteen and Sixty" to enlist in the militia. Additionally, the act provided that "the Father or where there is no Father living, the Mother of each and every Person under the age of Twenty One Years, shall be liable to the Payment of the Fines becoming due from their respective sons so under age."
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    1779 N.C. Sess. Laws 191-2
    (1779)
    [E]ach Militia Soldier [had to] be furnished with a Good Gun, Shot bag a Cartouch Box or powder Horn, a Cutlass or Tomahawk.
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    1777 N.C. Sess. Laws 1
    (1777)
    The Militia of every County shall consist of all the effective men from sixteen to fifty years of age.
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    Francois X. Martin, A Collection of Statutes of the Parliament of England in Force in the State of North Carolina 60-61 (1792)
    (1792)
    Restatement of the Statute of Northampton, prohibiting going armed with force and arms in affray of peace, nor to go nore ride armed by night nor by day in fairs, markets, nor "in the presence of the King's Justices.
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    1786 N.C. Sess. Laws 407
    (1786)
    An Act for Raising Troops for the Protection of the Inhabitants of Davidson County, ch. 1, § 5: That every able bodied man who shall be enlisted into the said service, and shall furnish himself with one good rifled or smooth bored gun fit for service, one good picker, shot-bag and powder-horn, twelve good flints, one pound of good powder, and two pounds of good leaden bullets or buck shot suitable to his gun . . . [shall be provided with certain items of clothing].
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    1777 N.C. Sess. Laws 41, 43-44
    (1777)
    Ch. 6, § 9: That all persons failing or refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance, and permitted by the County Courts, as immediately aforesaid, to remain in the State, shall be adjudged incapable and disabled in Law to have, occupy or enjoy, any Office, Appointment, License, or Election of Trust or Profit, civil or military, within this State, and shall not be capable of being elected to, or aiding by their Votes to elect another to be a Member of Assembly, and shall not by themselves, or by Deputy, Attorney or Trustee, execute any such Office, Trust or Appointment, and shall be disabled to prosecute any Suit at Law or Equity, or to be Guardians, Executors or Administrators, or capable of any Legacy, or Deed of Gift of Lands, and shall be disabled from taking any Lands by Descent or Purchase, or conveying Lands to others for any Term longer than for one Year, and shall not keep Guns or other Arms within his or their House, but the same may be seized by a written Order of a Justice of the County in which he or they reside; and after the Expiration of the said Sixty Days, he or they shall not be permitted to depart this State without Permission first had and obtained from the Governor and Council; and in Case of being suffered to depart, shall give Bond and sufficient Security, if such shall be required, not to be aiding to the Enemies of this State during his or their Absence; and in Case of their Departure without such Permission had, he or they shall forfeit all their Goods and Chattels, Lands and Tenements, to the Use of the state?"
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    N.C. Const. art I, § 30
    (1776)
    Declared a right to bear arms in defense of the state, and that standing armies are dangerous to liberty in times of peace and shall not be "kept up."
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    John Haywood, A Manual of the Laws of North-Carolina 234-35 (1814)
    (1784)
    Hunting, § 3: If any person or persons shall be discovered hunting in the woods with a gun, in the night time, by fire light, such person or persons so offending shall, upon conviction, by indictment or presentment in any court of record in this state, be fined by such court 20 current money, to be applied to the use of the county wherein the offence was committed until all costs accruing upon the presentment be paid.