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Tag: William Henry Drayton

  • South Carolina’s Small Declaration–April 23, 1776

    Cover art for April 23, 1776: Portrait of William Henry Drayton. Image is cropped from a larger picture. Engraving by Benoît-Louis Prévost from a drawing by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere.

    William Henry Drayton was born in 1742 on his family’s plantation just outside of Charleston. The plantation was dedicated to growing rice.

    In 1764 he married Dorothy Golightly. In the early 1770s he was a Loyalist and enjoyed some of the perks that came with it. Then in 1774 he wrote a pamphlet supporting a Continental Congress and lost all his government jobs. That, go figure, radicalized him to the Patriot cause and he dedicated the rest of his life to it.

    William Henry Drayton died in Berkeley County, SC at the age of 37. His home, Drayton Hall, is now within Charleston city limits and operates as a museum.

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  • April 21, 1775: We Can Confiscate Arms, Too

    Cover art for April 21, 1775: portrait of William Henry Drayton, 1779. Detail from a larger engraving by Benoît-Louis Prévost and Pierre Eugene du Simitiere.

    Word spread rather quickly about the events at Lexington and Concord, and everybody mobilized to be ready for when (rather than if) hostilities broke out.

    Most people were arming themselves and avoiding confiscation of supplies by the British, but in South Carolina they turned the tables and did a little confiscating of their own.

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