The Swamp Fox (Recap #2)

Recap #2 of the book;

The Swamp Fox - How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution

So the first few years of the war left the South alone for the most part ... but when the North produced a stalemate situation in the summer of '78, Sir Henry Clinton and King George decided to rollup behind Washington from the South .. starting in the weakest colony for independence, Georgia, they would gain more and more American loyalists to be in the fight (Brits reasoned it was cheaper and spared Brit lives to "Americanize" the war) as they rolled up SC, NC, Virginia and beyond .. or so they thought.

1) Blowback is real: While the Brits had an easy time with Savannah, GA in Dec 1778 .. and made Charleston capitulate in May 12th 1780 ... there was a wave of brown-nosers that gave Clinton and the Brit Admiral a congratulatory address thanking them in restoring SC politically to Great Britain. So confident was Clinton by June 4, 1780 that SC people are "either prisoners or in-arms with us" .. so Clinton made plans to return to NYC while giving Cornwallis cleanup duty .. BUT before he left he announced that prior paroles were null and void and those previously on parole woul dhave their rights restored AND were expected to actively assist the British government ... so anyone not signing an oath of allegiance to Britian by June 20th would be considered enemies of the king. Neutrality was no longer an option .. you are either with us or against us. With British raiders already burning houses, pillaging property, etc ... the countryside was awakened .. a hornet's nest of rebel sentiment was born. Blowback caused a very uncivil war in SC .. Whigs and Tories, Carolina backcountry grudge scars were reopened, religious affiliations split communities (Presbyterian and Baptist vs Anglican (which was tax-supported) .. but again, these were not fixed affiliations .. a Whig steals your horse and you become a Tory, etc. There was a cycle of retribution and revenge that would take its toll for the whole war .. 1775 to 1782.

2) Brits did not use the blacks or the indians to a large degree like they could have to leverage suppression of the colonies

3) Francis Marion's character became legend .. while a freedom fighter, he could easily have advocated barbarism .. instead his friend Peter Horry (pronounced OR-ree) said "Of all men who ever drew the sword, Marion was the most humane". "The question becomes, how did he get this way .. (BTW, the myth about Marion being involved with Indian slaughter is not true ... it may have been Sumter or Pickens) .. As with any cipher, one must begin by searching clues from his past. It reveals a man of moderation, equally covetous of liberty and order, in between the extremes of violence and passivity, neither a Charleston aristocrat nor a backcountry bumpkin, and ruthless in battle but averse to the shedding of needless blood, whether that of friend or foe. It begins with his ancestors who whethered persecution in the old world and sought freedom in a new one." (i.e. French Huguenots )

4) Francis (the only of his siblings without a Biblical name) was a pre-term baby "not larger than a New England lobster" according to Parson Weems (author of a 1808 book about Marion that mixed fact with myth .. same author that claimed GW cut down a cheery tree).  Francis' father passed land on down to the oldest three sons Gabriel, Issac and Benjamin .. but money ran out by the time Job and Francis were of age (therefore Francis trying the West Indies naval experience). Gabriel had a bankruptcy (but recovered enough to eventually help Francis get land later in 1759) and Francis lost his dad when he was in his teens.

5) Francis Marion served with the British when putting down Indian (Cherokee) uprisings in 1759 (when he was 27) and again in 1761 ... Francis picked up both the arrogance of British officers and the fickle nature of colonial militias. It was the 1761 effort that involved 5000 Indian women and children being driven up to the mountains to starve .. no evidence that Francis was part of this. What Francis learned was this cycle of vengeance that needed to be broken some how, some way.

6) Eventually Francis was able to build a plantation of his own and in 1773 made out a will (even though he had no kids and was not married and over 40 years old) The will included: #2 Negroes not sold until his godson (Gabriel'son) turned 21 #3 bequeath to my niece Charlotte (daughter of Gabriel) one negro wench named Venus and her child Rachel and their increase to her and her heirs forever.  Freedom for my faithful negro man June and old nurse Willoughby. I will also free my mustee (in this case 1/2 indian and 1/2 negro) girl Peggy and give June twenty pounds sterling annually .. etc. Interesting that he frees June (negro) but not his wife, nor their son ...

More later in snippet #3 ... this should do for now .. we are at only chapter 4 .. page 33 so far in this 248 page book LOL

dad

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