Cornelius harnett biography
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Cornelius Harnett was born on April 20, in Chowan Precinct, NC, the son of Cornelius and Elizabeth Harnett. Soon after he was born, his parents moved to New Hanover Precinct not long after settlement was first authorized in the mids. They settled in what later became Brunswick County, NC.
Cornelius Harnett purchased a plantation in Wilmington and became a leading merchant there. He was also involved in farming and milling, and he owned and operated the first ferry across the Cape Fear River, connecting Brunswick Town with Wilmington.
In Harnett became involved in public affairs when he was elected Wilmington Town Commissioner. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for New Hanover County by Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston.
Cornelius Harnett was first elected to represent the town of Wilmington in the North Carolina House of Burgesses, replacing Lewis Henry DeRosset, who was appointed to the Executive Council. He took his seat on the:
- 13th General Assembly - at the start of th
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Cape Fear Unearthed: Wilmington Revolutionary War hero, slave owner has complex legacy
For close to two and half centuries, Cornelius Harnett has been hailed as one of Wilmington's heroes of the American Revolution.
A member of the Continental församling who actively resisted implementation of the Stamp Act in Wilmington in the s, Harnett was called "the Sam Adams of North Carolina" due to his fiery rhetoric and his willingness to mix it up, even physically at times, with the British and their loyalists.
Since , an obelisk-style monument dedicated to Harnett — and to those "who made the first armed resistance in the American colonies to the oppressive Stamp Act of the British Parliament," according to wording from The National samhälle of the Colonial Dames of America, the group that erected it — has stood in the mittvärdet i en uppsättning data at Fourth and marknad streets on land donated by the city of Wilmington.
It's mere yards from the historic St. James Cemetery, where Harnett was buried in after
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Cornelius Harnett
American Founding Father and politician
Cornelius Harnett (April 10, – April 20, ) was an American Founding Father, politician, merchant, plantation owner, and slaveholder from Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a leading American Revolutionary statesman in the Cape Fear region, and a delegate for North Carolina in the Continental Congress from to where he signed the Articles of Confederation. Cornelius Harnett is the namesake of Harnett County, North Carolina.[1][2]
Personal life
[edit]Harnett was born on April 10, , to Cornelius and Elizabeth Harnett in Chowan County, North Carolina. Soon after he was born, his parents moved to Wilmington. As an adult, he obtained a plantation in Wilmington. He became a leading merchant there and was interested in farming, milling, and mercantile ventures. Harnett was an Episcopalian but has also been identified as a deist.[3][4] Though he was an intelligent man, there is little k