The Proclamation of 1763

North Carolina was a British Colony in the mid 1700’s. After the French and Indian War, in 1763, the British passed the Proclamation stating that the colonists could not move west of the “watershed line” along the highest mountains.They did not have to protect colonists from the Indians.The Proclamation Line generally lies where the Eastern Continental Divide lies today.The law also said any settlers who had moved west of the line had to move back east of the line.The area where Mitchell County lies today would have been west of the Proclamation Line in an area set aside for Native Americans.