A group of slaves in South Carolina staged a major rebellion. Marching south from the Stono River, the rebels killed whites they encountered and recruited other slaves to join them. White colonists pursued the slaves, and by the end of the rebellion about twenty-five whites and thirty slaves were dead. Most of the slaves who initially escaped were eventually captured and executed or re-enslaved.

John Adams estimated that roughly a third of the American population supported the Revolution, a third remained loyal to the Crown, and a third was uncommitted. Recent research suggests that perhaps 20 percent of the population consisted of loyalists. Loyalists were especially strong in New Jersey and South Carolina. After the war, about 80,000 loyalists—including substantial numbers of former slaves—emigrated from the United States to other parts of the British Empire. Loyalists were disproportionately from the ranks of the influential,...

Christopher Gadsden (1723–1805) was a wealthy merchant and one of the most prominent leaders of the Revolution in the southern colonies. Gadsden was among the founders of the Sons of Liberty in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1765 he served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress. Gadsden was later a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses and served as an officer in the Continental Army from 1776 to 1783. In August 1780 Gadsden was captured by the British and held as a prisoner for forty-two weeks before being released in 1781...

English-born General Horatio Gates (1728–1806) served in North America and the West Indies during the French and Indian War before settling in Virginia. He was appointed a general in the Continental Army. After the fall of Fort Ticonderoga, Gates was placed in command of the Northern Department. Subsequently, he won a great victory at Saratoga, New York. In the wake of his victory, Gates found himself at the center of the Conway Cabal, a short-lived attempt to supplant George Washington as commander in chief. In July 1780, Congress...