Abstract:
Leading up to the American Revolution, a document authored by the anonymous 'Musquetoe' was released that caricatured and satirized the leading Whigs and Tories of the Lower Cape Fear River Valley in North Carolina. The document exposed how the region exhibited many of the same strains found in other regions of the colony that had already escalated into open conflict. A large conflict was between the merchant class who had recently attained gentry status and therefore remained in the Loyalist camp, and the planters who resented the rise of merchants and were more often Whigs.