North Carolina wasn’t just late to ratify the Constitution—its opposition practically forced America to add the Bill of Rights.

In this episode, host Donald Bryson and Guest Paul Newby, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, discuss the Hillsborough Convention (where anti-federalists refused to ratify the Constitution), the years that the state was in limbo, and the Fayetteville Convention, where North Carolina is the second-to-last state to join the Union.

What happens when a revolution stops short of real governance?

In this episode, Host Donald Bryson and guest Dr. Andrew Taylor, professor of American politics at NC State University, explore how debt pressures, disunity, and weak national institutions shaped North Carolina’s politics—and how those strains paved the way to ratification.

Blood-soaked fields near Greensboro. Cornwallis wins the day, but at a devastating cost. Examine the strategic brilliance of Nathanael Greene and the path to Yorktown that followed.

In this episode, host Donald Bryson welcomes Thomas Sobol, Supervisory Park Ranger at Guilford Courthouse National Military Battlefield, to explore the pivotal Southern Campaign of the American Revolution and how the Battle of Guilford Courthouse set the stage for ultimate victory at Yorktown.

As the American Revolutionary War drags on, internal strife intensifies. In this episode, host Donald Bryson and guest John Hood, author of the "Mountain Folk" historical fantasy series and president of the John William Pope Foundation, discuss the Battle of King’s Mountain—a stunning Patriot victory—and the vicious civil war between neighbors in the backcountry.

Host Donald Bryson and Jeanette Doran, Executive Director of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, explore how North Carolina created its first Constitution and Declaration of Rights in 1776. They discuss the influence of John Adams, John Locke, and Enlightenment ideas — and how this bold experiment in self-government still shapes the state today.

The Halifax Resolves predated the Declaration of Independence as the first official colonial action calling for independence from Great Britain.

In this episode of Revolutionary Roads, host Donald Bryson speaks with Bob Rosser, historian and project coordinator for the NC 250 Project at the John Locke Foundation, about the bold actions that made North Carolina "first in freedom."

In this episode, host Donald Bryson speaks with Jim McKee, historian and site manager at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site, about one of North Carolina’s earliest and most decisive Revolutionary War battles — the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge.

Fact or folklore? Explore the debate over the Mecklenburg Declaration and the very real Mecklenburg Resolves that followed. A bold stand—or the birth of a legend?

In this episode, host Donald Bryson is joined by Dan Gibson, attorney and adjunct law professor at Wake Forest University, to explore the mystery of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. In May 1775, citizens of Mecklenburg County may have boldly declared independence from Britain—more than a year before Jefferson’s famous document. Was it fact, myth, or misremembered history? Bryson and Gibson unpack the evidence, the controversy, and how this moment helped cement North Carolina’s claim as “First in Freedom.”