The Breeze Magazine of the Lowcountry, JULY 2018

HISTORY
How South Carolina
Won the Revolution
By Michele Roldán-Shaw
The movie “Patriot,” starring Mel Gibson, brought to life
the drama and heroism of everyday Americans during
the Revolutionary War. Though reviled by critics for
its historical inaccuracy, popular audiences connected
deeply with the spirit it portrayed—the flavor of the
times, the romanticism of rebellion, and the courage
that fortified honest folk fighting for what they believed
in. South Carolinians especially tend to hold this movie
close, as the scene of the action is right here at home.
Forget the fact that
Benjamin Martin (Mel
Gibson’s character)
never actually existed;
according to the
screenwriter he’s a
composite of four
great South Carolinian
heroes: Francis Marion,
Andrew Pickens, Daniel
Morgan, and Thomas
Sumter. Never mind
that certain major
events depicted in “The
Patriot” are fictional;
it stands that South
Carolina was a deciding
factor in the struggle
for independence, and
saw more action than
any other state.
From the first stirrings
of sedition, certain factions here were already on board.
After Boston had its famous Tea Party, Charlestonians
dumped seven chests of East India product into the
Cooper River. Even before that a shipment had been
confiscated at Charleston Harbor and stored in the
Exchange Building—some histories say it rotted there,
others that it was eventually used to raise money during
the Revolution. (Maybe they just sold moldy tea?)
South Carolina was the second state, after Virginia,
to ratify the Articles of Confederation that served as
the first constitution of the United States. And it was
a South Carolinian, Christopher Gadsen, who designed
the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag depicting a coiled snake
with thirteen rattles for each of the thirteen colonies.
Nevertheless, not everyone in South Carolina favored
rebellion. Wealthy planters on the coast were generally
all for dissolving ties with Britain, but people upstate
and backcountry tended to have more gripes against
Lowcountry aristocracy than they did against the
British. Of the 200 or so battles fought here, many
could be characterized
as Patriot vs. Loyalist
rather than American
vs. British. Indeed, the
fight to gain public
sympathy was as heated
as the actual armed
conflicts. Both sides
made the mistake at
different points of trying
to force public support,
threatening violent
action against those who
did not swear allegiance
— either to the Crown
or to the Rebel cause —
and take up arms against
their neighbors. One
thing about Americans:
we do NOT like to be told
what to do. Such tactics
invariably backfired and
caused the very people
being courted to run to the other camp.
Historians have reflected that one major tactical error
by the British was to overestimate the strength of the
Loyalists in the South. They thought they could come
in with a few regulars, stir up local sons and daughters
of the Crown, get Cherokees on the warpath, entice
slaves into their ranks with promises of freedom, and
thoroughly squash the radicals. All of that did in fact
happen — except for the thorough squashing.
Early in the war, an attempt to take Charleston failed
when on 28 June 1776 the British launched an
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