mas. But, in explanation of this
absurdity, it is claimed that the Revolutionary War did not make
itself manifest in Georgia and South Carolina until about the year
1779, and the Negroes of Georgia and South Carolina, in speaking of
it, would refer to that year as the beginning of the war. But as a
matter of fact, the Revolutionary struggle in South Carolina and
Georgia was manifest from the very first. Thus the biographer of
Abraham Marshall, of Kiokee, Georgia, having informed his reader that
the subject of his sketch was ordained to the work of the Gospel
ministry on May 20, 1775, adds, "Just as he had chosen his life work,
the Revolutionary War broke out, and Georgia became a scene of
violence and bloodshed. During almost the entire struggle, the people
were subject to the combined outrages of Britons, Tories and
Indians."[16]

Thus, too, the biographer of Gov. John Houston's trusted slave, Andrew
C. Marshall, writes, "The embargo having taken effect in Savannah at
the opening of the Revolution, fifteen merchants of that city agreed
to give him a purse of $225.00 if he would carry word to several
American vessels that lay in a bay on the lower seaboard, in which
achievement he was successful."[17] The expression, "the opening of
the Revolution," in this passage, refers to the year 1775, and not to
1778-1779, for the British attacked the city of Savannah as early as
March 3, 1776, and would have captured it if they had not been
repulsed by the Americans.

The English agents, their American allies (the Tories), and the
Cherokee Indians, who resided in the neighborhood of Silver Bluff and
made it the commercial mart it was in colonial times, took up the
cause of the British against the revolutionists from the very
beginning of the war. Accordingly, William H. Drayton, of South
Carolina, on August 30, 1775, urged the sending of foot-soldiers and
mounted men to the vicinity of Augusta, Georgia, to protect the
interests of the patriots, and chasten their foes.[18]

Eight days later, September 7, 1775, William Tennett, of South
Carolina, wrote in his journal as follows: "Went ten miles to
New-Savannah, where I had appointed a meeting of inhabitants, in hopes
to draw an audience out of Augusta, from Mr. Galphin's Settlement, and
Beach Island, but most of the men having marched with Mr. Drayton,
and Mr. Galphin being from home, I had but few."[19] To this same
neighborhood Col. Andrew Williamson led a large force of Sout