South Carolina in the American Revolution

South Carolina was outraged over British tax policies in the 1760s that violated what they saw as their constitutional right to "no taxation without representation". Merchants joined the boycott against buying British products. When the London government harshly punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party, South Carolina's leaders joined eleven other colonies (except Georgia) in forming the Continental Congress. When the British attacked Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 and were beaten back by the Massachusetts Patriots, South Carolina Patriots rallied to support the American Revolution. Loyalists and Patriots of the colony were split by nearly 50/50.

Many of the South Carolinian battles fought during the American Revolution were with loyalist Carolinians and the part of the Cherokee tribe that allied with the British. This was to General Henry Clinton's advantage. His strategy was to march his troops north from St. Augustine, Florida, and sandwich George Washington in the North. Clinton alienated Loyalists and enraged Patriots by attacking a fleeing army of Patriot soldiers who posed no threat. Enslaved Africans and African Americans chose independence by escaping to British lines where they were promised freedom.^[1]

Combined Continental Army and state militia forces under the command of Major General Nathanael Greene regained control of much of South Carolina by capturing the numerous interdependent chain of British-held forts throughout the State. One by one, the British and Loyalists were surrounded in the capital of Charles Town and became completely dependent on supplies by sea. After preliminary peace terms had been agreed, the British evacuated Charles Town on December 14, 1782, a day now officially designated as "South Carolina Independence Day". Greene was awarded a Congressional Medal and numerous other official awards from the State of South Carolina for his leadership in liberating the state and for restoring an elected government. In 1787, South Carolina representatives John Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Pierce Butler went to Philadelphia where the Constitutional Convention was being held and constructed what served as a detailed outline for the U.S. Constitution.

^ Ramsay's History of South Carolina two volumes later published in one volume. Newberry, S.C., W. J. Duffie, 1858. p. 272 states that 25,000 slaves escaped joining the British Army during the Revolutionary War. Colonel Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee placed the number of slaves who went to the British side at more than 20,000 in his Memoirs of the Revolutionary War in the Southern Department, Volume II, p. 456. These numbers have been estimated to be between 20 and 25 percent of the slave population of the state at the time. William Jay in Miscellaneous writings on slavery, Volume 3, 1853, p. 460 gives the slave population of South Carolina in 1790 as 107,00 to show the magnitude of the number of slaves who fled to the British side in the Revolutionary War. Digital History Explorations Revolutionary War places the percentage of escaped slaves in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War at about 25 percent.

[1] Ramsay's History of South Carolina two volumes later published in one volume. Newberry, S.C., W. J. Duffie, 1858. p. 272 states that 25,000 slaves escaped joining the British Army during the Revolutionary War. Colonel Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee placed the number of slaves who went to the British side at more than 20,000 in his Memoirs of the Revolutionary War in the Southern Department, Volume II, p. 456. These numbers have been estimated to be between 20 and 25 percent of the slave population of the state at the time. William Jay in Miscellaneous writings on slavery, Volume 3, 1853, p. 460 gives the slave population of South Carolina in 1790 as 107,00 to show the magnitude of the number of slaves who fled to the British side in the Revolutionary War. Digital History Explorations Revolutionary War places the percentage of escaped slaves in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War at about 25 percent.

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