Born into a wealthy and venerable family in Scotland, Janet Schaw traveled to North Carolina in February 1775 to kick off a two-year tour of the Carolinas, the Caribbean (including the island of Jamaica), and Portugal. She first visited her brother, Alexander, at his plantation, Schawfield, located outside the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina, just in time to witness the area’s population fragment into Loyalist and Patriot camps. The latter group struck the Scottish visitor as being particularly ardent in their cause. In her diary, Schaw chronicles their insistence that the inhabitants of the Cape Fear River region identify themselves as supporters of either independence or the king. Her descriptions capture an atmosphere increasingly fraught with tension and the constant threat of violence, including a failed attempt by the patriots to arrest and try Josiah Martin, the colonial governor—an event that immediately preceded bloodshed.