four
Revolutionary Fenwick
The Fenwick family’s loyalties during the American Revolution show us how the conflict between Loyalists and Patriots became personal. In the years leading up to American Revolution, Edward Jr. managed the property and oversaw the production of rice. When the war came to Johns Island in 1780, the British army made Fenwick Hall their local headquarters during the Siege of Charleston.
Freedom and Tyranny
Timeline of the Revolutionary War
The thirteen colonies declared their independence on July 4, 1776. However, many people considered themselves British and remained loyal to the King.
By 1778, the war for independence had reached a stalemate in the North. British armies moved south. Like many other wealthy planter families, the Fenwicks were a house divided. Edward Sr. supported the American Patriots while his sons, Edward Jr. and Thomas, remained loyal to the British.
Headquarters at Fenwick, Evening Post;
March 20, 1780
British troops marched from Seabrook Island across Johns Island to lay siege to Charleston in early 1780. Because of the support of Edward Jr. and Thomas, the British made Fenwick Hall one of their local headquarters.
Edward Jr. had a military commission in the British army during the Revolutionary War and congratulated Lord Cornwallis for his success against the Patriots at the Battle of Camden in 1780. However, some records suggest that he secretly passed intelligence to the Patriot forces. Others suggest this was a convenient lie that would allow him to return to society if the British were defeated. Edward Jr. may have tried to play both sides.
After the Battle of Yorktown, VA, Lord Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781. The British finally evacuated Charleston in December 1782.
After the war, supporters of the British, including the Fenwicks, had their property confiscated. Because of his service and recommendations from Patriots such as Henry Laurens, Edward Jr. was eventually pardoned. Thomas fled to the Caribbean, taking many of his enslaved people with him.
The Revolution in
Bondage
During the Revolutionary War, many planters rented their enslaved people to the city to build defenses around Charleston. This receipt shows the names of Johns Island plantation owners who were paid by the Patriot military. Edward Jr.’s name does not appear on the document—likely because he supported the British. In 1774, Edward Sr. returned to the family’s ancestral home of England because he was dying. Soon after, he freed Samuel Edwards. Samuel’s manumission, also known as freedom papers, reads in part:
‘I bear to Samuel Edwards my Black servant for his honesty fidelity and attention he has always paid to meand my family and also in consideration of his going over with me to South Carolina as a servant on board ship …I do release and forever discharge him … from the State of Slavery and himself free forever from the day of his arrival at the province aforesaid and that neither my heirs or any other person shall have any claim to the said Samuel Edwards but he shall from the time aforesaid be free during his natural life as witnessed myhand and seal this 6th day of October 1774.’
Receipt of planters paid by the Patriot military.
Click to enlarge
Click to view more
Enslaved people resisted their bondage in different ways.
Some people took a long time to complete their tasks or did them poorly. Others tried to harm the people who held them captive. Some liberated themselves, often facing the threat of torture or death if they were caught. Edward Fenwick, Jr. and other enslavers took out advertisements looking for these “runaways.”
