British attacks on the South converted moderates to independence by June 1776

Evidence

“When I consider the defenceless State of No. Carolina arising from a want of Arms & Ammunition [and] the divided sentiments of the people,” he wrote, local patriots should “call as soon as may be the Provincial Congress to take such measures under their Sanction as may prevent the cause of America, so far as N. Carolina is concerned in support of it, going to total destruction.” He would attend himself and asked Penn to go too. … A week later, all three North Carolina delegates—Hewes, Hooper, and Penn—sent a joint letter to the colony’s patriot executive council stating that, if Martin, the loyalists, and the invading British meet up, “the Consequences might prove fatal to our Colony.” — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 133 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: British military and commercial aggression, not ideology, converted colonists to independence. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 157; The burning of Norfolk was propagandized to build the case for independence — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 23; British postwar conduct in Boston drove Washington to embrace independence (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Fear of loyalist-slavery-invasion convergence pushed southern delegates toward independence #expands (0.85) — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 133