Betsy Dowdy: The Paul Revere of North Carolina

“LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.”

This is the start of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Most Americans know about the “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” Paul Revere’s ride on April 18, 1775, has been stated as being historically significant for “alerting colonial militia to British troop movements, enabling the defense of Lexington and Concord, and acting as a catalyst for the American Revolutionary War.”

However, there is another midnight ride of great importance, and it happened in North Carolina. Known as the “Paul Revere of the South,” Miss Betsy Dowdy was a 16-year-old girl who, in December 1775, rode her horse “Black Bess” over 50 miles throughout the marshlands of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, from Corolla to Hertford.

She rode all night in order to warn General William Skinner and local Patriot militia about British troop movement. British troops, under the leadership of John Murray, often referred to as Lord Dunmore, were moving on Great Bridge, Va. Dunmore was the Royal Governor of Virginia from 1771 to 1776.

It is said that Betsy swam her horse across the Currituck Sound, passed through present-day Camden, and delivered her message at Hertford. This made it possible for Patriot militia to provide reinforcements and defeat the British at the Battle of Great Bridge.

In 2022, the William G Pomeroy Foundation stated: “General Skinner rushed his militiamen to Great Bridge, and by the time Betsy returned to the Currituck Banks, the Battle of the Great Bridge had been fought and won. The British had fled, packed into naval troopships, and North Carolina remained in American control. According to legend, Betsy’s bravery earned the personal thanks of General George Washington for her commitment to the American cause of freedom.”

Her ride is still celebrated today in the northeastern coastal region of North Carolina. The Northern Outer Banks hosts an annual event, The Betsy Dowdy Ride Event. The event takes place in the spring, usually at the end of May, and spans across Currituck, Camden, Pasquotank, and Perquimans counties.

This event includes a live horse ride along the original route and starts in Camden at the Betsy Dowdy Highway Marker. The ride ends at Harvey Point Road in Hertford. The main festival is at the Newbold-White House in Hertford.