Category: American Revolution

Weapons are the tools of fear. A decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the greatest restraint. Peace is his highest value. If peace has been shattered, how can he be content? His enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself. He doesn’t wish them personal harm. Nor does he rejoice in victory. How could he rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men? He enters a battle gravely, With sorrow and with great compassion, As if were attending a funeral.

Lao Tzu – ‘The Tao Te Ching’

In Francis Marion’s colony of South Carolina, there was little action in the rebellion against the British Empire until 1780. As noted in John Oller’s book ‘The Swamp Fox – How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution‘:

Ever since the shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in 1775, the South had been mostly untouched by the conflict, which was famously fought at places such as Bunker Hill, Fort Ticonderoga, Trenton, and Brandywine. But by 1779 the war in the North had reached a stalemate, with the British firmly in control of New York City under Sir Henry Clinton, and the Americans, led by George Washington, camped thirty miles away in Morristown, New Jersey, desperately hoping for help from a French navy anchored in the West Indies. The last significant engagement in the North had been in June 1778 at Monmouth Courthouse, where Washington and his most dependable officer, Nathanael Greene, battled Clinton and his lieutenant general, Charles Cornwallis, to a draw. But while the Americans remained hard-pressed, Britain had grown increasingly weary of war. Its coffers nearly bankrupt and its military stretched thin by an expanded conflict with France and Spain, Parliament agreed to finance one final effort to end the American rebellion.

George Washington had remained convinced that victory could only be had if the Continental forces could displace the British from New York harbor. This is something he remained fixated on for several years until the French did send their navy, not to New York harbor but to Yorktown, Virginia in the fall of 1782.

With the stalemate in the northern colonies, the focus shifted to the southern American colonies. The British Empire’s “Southern Strategy” was agreed on by King George, Lord Germain and by General Sir Henry Clinton who was initially in New York harbor. The strategy had both logic and economy in mind to address the concerns for a lingering war in this part of the empire when there were plenty of other areas around the world that the British were spending resources on. The British were convinced that there were a majority of Loyalists in the southern colonies that would aid them at the very least at occupying and retaining them in their empire.

The British would begin by occupying the colony of Georgia where revolutionary sentiment was weakest and aim to establish a foothold there. From that most southern location the thought was to gain more and more American loyalists to be in the fight (British reasoning was that it was cheaper and spared British lives to “Americanize” the war) as they rolled up South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and beyond .. or so they thought.

However, blowback is real.

While the British had an easy time with Savannah, Georgia in December 1778 and eventually made Charleston capitulate in May 12th 1780, there were actions and words from the British that eventually had unintended consequences.

Initially the British believed their plan was working as there was a wave of brown-nosers that gave Clinton and the British Admiral a congratulatory address thanking them in restoring the South Carolina politically to Great Britain. So confident was Clinton by June 4, 1780 that he proclaimed that the South Carolina people are “either prisoners or in-arms with us” .. so Clinton made plans to return to New York harbor while giving Cornwallis cleanup duty. Clinton had previously stipulated that so long as any civilian Whigs agreed to a parole, the British would grant them a full pardon and leave them in peace in their homes and property for the duration of the war. However, before Sir Henry Clinton left he announced on June 3, 1780 that prior paroles were null and void and those previously on parole would have their rights restored AND were expected to actively assist the British government. Basically, anyone not signing an oath of allegiance to the British Empire by June 20th 1780 would be considered enemies of the king.

Neutrality was no longer an option, basically you are either with us or against us. With British raiders already burning houses, pillaging property, etc., the countryside was awakened and a hornet’s nest of rebel sentiment was born.

Blowback caused a very nasty civil war in the independent colony of South Carolina where the vocal leaders of the rebellion were arrested and shipped to St. Augustine, Florida. Governor John Rutledge’s had left for exile in North Carolina so basically the civil government in South Carolina ceased to exist.  So between the colony’s Whigs, Tories (Loyalists) and even Indians, the Carolina back-country grudge scars were reopened. Religious affiliations were also splitting communities with Presbyterian and Baptist dividing with Anglican (which was a tax-supported entity). However, these allegiances were not fixed affiliations for if a Whig steals your horse, you might consider becoming a Tory. There was a cycle of retribution and revenge that would take its toll for the whole war from 1775 to 1782.

It is in this moment in time that Francis Marion, healing from that ankle injury that happened in Charleston months before, would emerge as a grass-roots leader, not as a Continental officer, but as a freedom fighter. The Swamp Fox was in principle a visionary who knew the long-term effects of blowback well. The tenor of Francis Marion’s rules of engagement had in mind a future more united society in South Carolina if the war against the empire could be won.

Before we proceed to see when Francis Marion arrives on the scene in the summer of 1780, I will instead set the stage yet again for how divided the colony of South Carolina was by then. This was not something that happened suddenly in 1775 but was set in the decades that proceeded the American Revolution that involved the lawless Carolina back-country and groups known as the Regulators and the Moderators, the ‘Blue’ and ‘Red’ sides of the day.

QUESTION(s):

What would happen in today’s regions in the United States as rival factions are pitted against each other? Who might emerge that would fight for liberty, freedom and rights of ALL involved? How could grass-roots efforts effectively turn the tide from an occupation force of an empire?

Finally, do we have hidden in our country the type of man like Francis Marion who would selflessly emerge onto the scene and fight for self, family and friends even when these family members and friends be on either side of this internal, societal conflict?