Why is this a revolutionary artifact? It may not look like much, but this object held the key (wink, wink) to making North Carolina “First in Freedom.” It opened the door to the building in Halifax, where the Fourth Provincial Congress approved the Halifax Resolves on April 12, 1776. That document instructed the colony’s delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to vote for independence—making us the first colony to officially call for freedom from Great Britain.