North Carolina legislators may not have been familiar with English Common Law, but they did adopt legislation similar to English law.  Legislators established laws that supported religious tradition and the lifestyle they were accustomed to as former English citizens.

 

The English statute laws always had religious inspiration, but following the English Reformation this influence became more evident.  Prior to the seventeenth century, the statute laws referred to the king as the absolute authority, but after 1600 God and his word held the supreme authority.  North Carolina adopted some of this religious language in their laws, but not as explicitly as the statutes.

 

In the early seventeenth century, many of the English statutes that centered on crimes against order and morals expanded their focus from stifling pre-marital fornication to suppressing drunkenness and cursing.  There is a clear connection to Protestantism in the enactment of these laws, for Protestantism emphasized abstinence from alcohol consumption and profane swearing.  This influence transferred to North Carolina law. 

 

The timeline below illustrates the statute law shift from targeting sexual impropriety to supressing drinking and swearing.  The North Carolina laws show a clear influence from both Protestantism and the statute laws, while also reflecting the ideas developed during the Second Great Awakening.