Forget Independence Hall in Philadelphia. There’s a spot just south of Huntersville that might just be the birthplace of American independence. It’s at Alexandriana Park on Old Statesville Road, not far from the entrance to Interstate 485. Traffic is heavy, including a steady stream of delivery trucks going in and out of a huge Amazon warehouse right next door. At the park entrance is a sign that reads "Birthplace of Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. May 20th 1775." That’s exactly 250 years ago.
David Fleming is the author of “Who's Your Founding Father?: One Man’s Epic Quest to Uncover the First, True Declaration of Independence.”
"It preceded Thomas Jefferson’s document by 14 very important months where the leaders of Charlotte risked their lives to be the first colonial Americans to declare themselves free and independent from the tyranny of the crown and from England,” Fleming said.
He joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry at the park to talk more about what has become known as Meck Dec.
"Here in Huntersville is where McKnitt Alexander, one of the signers of the Meck Dec — and the secretary of the convention on May 20 where they debated, wrote, and signed and declared the Meck Dec — this is where he used to live on a giant estate,” Fleming said. “And it was here where the men — the scholars, who wrote and debated the Meck Dec — it’s here on this property where they originally thought up the idea.”
Now there is a debate as to whether the Meck Dec ever really happened. More on that in just a bit. Fleming says one place in particular on the Alexander estate was important.
“This is where the men used to meet at a thing called Freedom Spring, in the woods to — let’s be honest, drink whiskey and debate independence and how they were going to go about it,” Fleming said. “Freedom Spring is literally the wellspring of American independence.”
And that spring still exists today. Fleming leads me across the street to some woods flanked by a new apartment complex and I-485. We have to make our way down a steep embankment next to the apartment complex’s retention pond. Fleming nearly slips.
About a dozen yards into the woods, we come across a rectangular structure filled with muddy water. It’s an old tub, called a font, used by a nearby church at one point for baptisms.
“And it used to have steps,” Fleming said. “So this used to be five or six feet deep.”
And there, running silently next to it, is a spring emptying into a large pond that appears to be the work of a beaver. The source is about 20 feet behind a tangle of thick brush and briars that quickly stops us.
So we step back from the briars and I point out to Fleming not everyone agrees with him [that] the Meck Dec happened. For one, skeptics question why no declaration document exists today. Fleming says there’s a reason for that.
“The original document — the original Meck Dec — burned in a house fire,” Fleming said. “But McKnitt Alexander’s notes from the meeting, which include an outline of what the Meck Dec was going to represent and what they were going to sign, those survived and are at the Wilson Library archives at the University of North Carolina. There were also 13 sworn eyewitnesses that included military veterans, historians, the governor of North Carolina.”
That testimony was recorded decades later and doubters argue the eyewitnesses confused Meck Dec with the Mecklenburg Resolves, which were definitely passed May 31, 1775, but stop short of making an actual declaration of independence. No less a revolutionary luminary than Thomas Jefferson doubted the Meck Dec’s authenticity, because of the lack of contemporaneous evidence.
Whether it happened or not, Meck Dec Day was later declared a holiday and was widely celebrated for decades. Four sitting U.S. presidents came to Charlotte for Meck Dec events, culminating with Gerald Ford drawing tens of thousands of people to a speech in Freedom Park on the 200th anniversary. And the date May 20, 1775, is still on the North Carolina state flag. But aside from the sign and a plaque across the street at Alexandriana Park, there’s nothing to indicate the monumental history that may have happened here.
“This really is the perfect metaphor for the Meck Dec — and just basically it’s a great metaphor for how Charlotte treats its own history,” Fleming said. “This is overgrown. It’s been ignored. It’s underwhelming standing here right now.”
But Fleming is optimistic that will change.
“I can imagine in five or 10 years this being restored,” Fleming said. “There have been groups that have reached out, excited and enthused to sort of join and restore this area, and turn it back into Freedom Spring. And I think that’s going to happen.”
