250 years later: New Charlotte Museum of History exhibit celebrates Meck Dec day, Charlotte history

CHARLOTTE — Mecklenburg County landowners gathered to sign their own declaration of independence from Great Britain 250 years ago on May 20.

The Charlotte Museum of History is celebrating the “Meck Dec” with a new exhibit.

The diorama exhibit shows Uptown as it once was in 1775.

Historian Nolan Dahm said where the Bank of America tower and halal cart sit today at the corner of Trade and Tryon Streets, history was made.

“They gathered together on the night of May 19, and on May 20, they allegedly signed a declaration that was the first declaration of independence in all of the American colonies,” Dahm said.

Dahm is the historian behind the exhibit. He said it doesn’t only celebrate Meck Dec day. It also highlights the culture that Queen City has built around it.

“Here is the 1774 rock house that was home to Hezekiah Alexander,” Dahm said. “He was a signer of the Meck Dec, and that home is the only remaining structure that we have associated with the document. And so we decided that we are going to create an exhibit to help celebrate and commemorate for the 250th anniversary.”

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But there are some skeptics of the story behind Meck Dec day.

The story says that Captain James Jack brought one of the two copies of the Meck Dec to the constitutional convention in Philadelphia.

But the other one was in the possession of John McNitt Alexander.

“His house burned down in April of 1800, and the story goes that the Meck Dec burned with his house,” Dahm said. “And so in September of 1800 he met with the founder of UNC Chapel Hill, William R. Davey, and dictated what he remembered from his notes and from his memories of that night.”

And that is known as the Davey Copy.

“They looked at the Davey copy, they looked at all sorts of other testimony, and they decided this is what the Meck Dec, said, and they printed it in the Raleigh register,” Dahm said. “They printed it in all sorts of other newspapers. And they eventually printed it by itself in 1826.″

One of the seven copies can be seen in the museum’s exhibit.

For the skeptics and non-believers of the Meck Dec day story, Dahm had one message.

“What I say is that I’m not a believer in the Meck Dec,” he said. “And I’m also not a skeptic of the Meck Dec. What I think is really important to remember is that...what we now call the Meck Dec has a life of its own. And I think that’s the really interesting part of the story.”

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