Near this place, from the porch of Effingham Tavern on 22 April 1776, Carter Henry Harrison, a member of the Cumberland Committee for Safety, read the Resolutions of Cumberland County to citizens gathered there. These resolutions called for the Colonies to “abjure any allegiance to his Brittanick majesty and bid him a goodnight forever.” The freeholders approved these resolutions, and Harrison was instructed “positively to declare for an independency” at the Virginia Convention. On this historic occasion, Cumberland made the first call by a governmental body for independence from Great Britain.