"Liberty Mountain" - Tickets On Sale for the Fall

If your favorite college football team shows signs of needing more NIL money this Fall, tickets are now on sale for "Liberty Mountain", an historical drama centered around the Battle of

Kings Mountain during the American Revolution. With long-standing plays like "Horn In The West" in Boone and "The Lost Colony" in the Outer Banks; North Carolina is a state that likes to perpetuate its history through the theater. And with North Carolina being one of the original thirteen colonies that would later become the United States of America, much of this artistic output is focused on the history of early America. With the Battle of Kings Mountain taking place but nine miles away on the South Carolina side of the state line, the city of Kings Mountain, North Carolina in 2014 decided to add its own contribution to the state's historical stage in the form of "Liberty Mountain".

With the siege of Charleston in May of 1780 being one of the costliest defeats of the American Revolution, only to be followed by another defeat for the Patriots in Camden in August of 1780, the British General Lord Cornwallis was feeling rather confident about emerging completely victorious during the Redcoats' Southern Campaign in the American War for Independence. Consequently, he dispatched Major Patrick Ferguson to North Carolina in early September of 1780 to recruit members for the British army and to protect Cornwallis' left flank as he moved through the Carolinas. It was a seemingly simple enough task that befell "Bull Dog" Ferguson, given the recent string of British military victories. However, this task would pit Ferguson against a formidable foe he had not met before, a foe that the British would consider more "savage" than the wildest Native American - the mountain men.

As part of his recruiting methods to gain recruits for the British cause among the locals, Ferguson issued a warning that if any Patriot sympathizer were found to be hiding in the mountains, the British army would march " . . . over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword." Rather than instilling fear in the hearts of the mountain men as intended, this dire threat proved to be Ferguson's undoing. As many of the inhabitants of the mountain regions of Western North Carolina and what would later become Kentucky and Tennessee had fled to those wilderness regions from the east, specifically to escape from the British dominion they had encountered there in the years leading up to July 04th, 1776. And after eking out a living away from the coastal cities like Charleston, the mountain men had no desire to come under the purview of the red coat of Britain, yet again.

This led to local regional leaders organizing a group of backwoods mountain men who wanted to protect their property from King George III on a 330 miles long hike with no authorization from the Continental Army and little military structure to meet Major Ferguson face-to-face at Kings Mountain. A meeting that would prove pivotal to the course of American history. And one which is the focus of the play, "Liberty Mountain".

Written by the playwright, Robert Inman, who is a native of Elba, Alabama, "Liberty Mountain" will be performed on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at the Joy Theatre in Kings Mountain, North Carolina from September 13th, through October 06th, 2024. It is directed by Jeremy Trent Homesley, who also served as the artistic director for "Horn In The West" during the 2024 summer season. Tickets can be purchased here: Buy Tickets | Liberty Mountain (libertymountaindrama.com)