Sergeant William Jasper (c. 1750 – Oct. 9, 1779) of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment fought at the Battle of Fort Sullivan, South Carolina, on June 28th, 1776. His daring and courageous action that day was recorded by those present, later subjected to the romantic pen of 19th century historians. Like many who fought in militias, Sergeant…
[Letter of the commissioners to the President] Washington, 28th December, 1860. Sir: We have the honor to transmit to you a copy of the full powers from the Convention of the People of the South Carolina, under which we are “authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery…
State of South Carolina Executive Office, State Department Charleston, 12 January 1861 Sir, The Governor has considered it proper in view of the grave questions which now affect the State of South Carolina and the United States, to make a demand upon the President of the United States for the delivery to the State…
In his 1775 treatise, Taxation No Tyranny, British author Dr. Samuel Johnson rhetorically asked, “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?” The paradox that Dr. Johnson called out in 1775, is a question Americans continue to grapple with to this day—the institution slavery. The institution of slavery had been a part of American society for more than 150 years when the Revolutionary War began in 1775. Slavery existed, and was protected by law, in all 13 American colonies when they declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776.
The following is taken from General Robert E. Lee After Appomattox, edited by Franklin L. Riley (New York, 1922), pp. 182–95. Following, this contribution appeared in the “Lee Memorial Number” of the Wake Forest Student, published in January, 1907.—Editor; REV. J. WILLIAM JONES
Unknown to the family who built their homestead at the time, the Mount Joseph Plantation would serve as a pivotal intersection for supply routes during the American Revolution. Situated on the western banks of the Congaree River, the site became valuable for its access to the waterways connected Charleston to the Carolina interior. It would be here, at the site of the plantation house owned by the Motte family, the British would capture, occupy, and hold as a supply depot during the hotly contested fighting in South Carolina.
Forts played important roles in American history from the moment the Spanish, French, and English settlers landed in North America. One of the first things that these settlers did was to build a palisade fort. Forts existed in the American colonies throughout the 17th and 18th centuries to defend seaports from foreign navies and to defend the frontier from Native American attacks. They often played critical roles in the frontier warfare of the French and Indian War between 1754 and 1763. When fighting broke out in 1775 between the British empire and the American colonists, many of these forts immediately became important military targets.
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence was fought between Great Britain and the thirteen British colonies between the years 1775 and 1783. The mutinous colonists declared themselves no longer allied with the crown and kicked off an eight year struggle against the political and economic policies of the British Empire. The Declaration of Independence was signed during the revolution in 1776 and declared the thirteen colonies, now to be separately chartered and governed, the United States of America.
The origins of Freemasonry are obscure. The creation of the Craft (as it is also called) occurred over time between the first recorded gentleman joining an Edinburgh stonemasons’ lodge in 1599 and the 1721 publication in London of The Constitutions of the Free-Masons by Scots Presbyterian minister James Anderson.1
The Boston Port Act was the first of the Coercive Acts. Parliament passed the bill on March 31, 1774, and King George III gave it royal assent on May 20th. The act authorized the Royal Navy to blockade Boston Harbor because “the commerce of his Majesty’s subjects cannot be safely carried on there."
